Urban Adolescents Career Development 1
Running Head: URBAN ADOLESCENTS CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Vocational Hope and Vocational Identity: Urban Adolescents’ Career Development
Matthew A. Diemer
Michigan State University
David L. Blustein
Boston College
Citation: Diemer, M.A. & Blustein, D.L. (2007). Vocational hope and vocational identity: Urban
adolescents’ career development. Journal of Career Assessment, 15(1), 98-118.
Author note: This article is based on data obtained in the doctoral dissertation conducted by
Matthew A. Diemer under the direction of David L. Blustein. This research was supported in part
by a Grant-in-Aid from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and a
Dissertation Fellowship from Boston College. Correspondence regarding this paper should be
directed to Matthew A. Diemer: Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special
Education, 441 Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1034; (517)
432-1524; email: diemerm@msu.edu.
Urban Adolescents Career Development 2
Vocational Hope and Vocational Identity: Urban Adolescents’ Career Development
Keywords: Urban Adolescents, Vocational Identity, Future Orientation
Abstract
Emancipatory communitarian perspectives advocate for theory, research, and action that address
the needs of oppressed groups, such as urban adolescents. Considering the dearth of instruments
sensitive to the career development needs of urban adolescents, the present study examined the
component structure of three indices of career development with 220 urban high school students.
Analyses revealed a unique four-component (Connection to work, vocational identity,
commitment to chosen career, salience of chosen career) solution best fit the model. In addition
to the traditional emphasis upon vocational identity and future orientation in theories of career
development, the obtained component solution suggests that (in a social context with pressure to
disconnect) remaining connected to one’s vocational future in the face of external barriers,
“vocational hope,” may be a particularly important consideration in urban adolescents’ career
development.
Urban Adolescents Career Development 3
Vocational Hope and Vocational Identity: Urban Adolescents’ Career Development
Career development theories have emphasized that adolescents need to clarify their
vocational identity and develop a future orientation (Super, 1974; 1980). The psychology of
work (Blustein, 2001, in press; Richardson, 1993) and emancipatory communitarian perspectives
(Blustein, McWhirter & Perry, 2005) to career development emphasize the structural context of
career development, suggesting external barriers to the clarification of vocational identity and
development of future orientation among urban adolescents. In an urban context with pressures
to disidentify from one’s vocational future (Ogbu, 1989) and a host of external barriers to career
development (Constantine, Erickson, Banks, and Timberlake, 1998), we argue that there is a
need to revisit the ‘traditional’ developmental tasks of clarifying one’s vocational identity and
developing a future orientation within an urban context. That is, does an urban context affect the
nature of these career development tasks for urban adolescents? In addition, there is a dearth of
career assessment instruments sensitive to the needs of urban adolescents (Eby & Russell, 1998)
available in the research literature. Accordingly, the present study is a factor analytic
investigation of measures of vocational identity, career commitment, and work role salience
among urban adolescents.
Career Development of Urban Adolescents
The development of vocational identity and a future orientation to career planning and
development (Nurmi, 1991; Super, 1974; 1980) have been considered to be central tasks in
theories of adolescent career development. Indeed, clarity regarding vocational identity
facilitates adolescents’ connection to the process of career exploration and to their vocational
future (Holland, Power & Daigler, 1980). Further, Marko and Savickas (1998) argued that this
Urban Adolescents Career Development 4
future orientation plays a central role in the development of career adaptability among
adolescents, and that the “primary stimuli for developing a future orientation seems to be
contextual demands to form life goals and educational plans” (p. 108). However, the structural
context of urban adolescents does not generally produce this stimulus (Wilson, 1996), and in fact
may produce a stimulus to disconnect from future educational and vocational plans (Obgu,
1989). Accordingly, this structural context of urban adolescents’ career development and
connection to their vocational future is reviewed next.
Considering the salience and impact of structural barriers (per Betz & Fitzgerald, 1995,
structural barriers are societal or organizational factors that limit access to educational and/or
occupational opportunity) upon the career development of urban adolescents, this literature has
focused upon structural factors such as classism, racism, and inequities in the funding of urban
schools. The Sirin, Diemer, Jackson, Gonsalves, and Howell (2004) “person-in-context model”
mapped the impact of internal and external resources and barriers upon the future aspirations of
urban adolescents, and provides a framework from which to understand the impact of the urban
context upon the development of a future orientation. Participants in the Sirin et al. (2004)
qualitative study voiced multiple influences of the urban context upon their connection to their
vocational future. For example, racial discrimination and the perception of limited opportunities
constrained participants’ connection to their vocational future and led some participants to take a
very short-term perspective to their work lives. Additionally, this study suggests that the threat of
random lethal violence (within an urban community with comparatively higher rates of violence)
leads urban adolescents to disconnect from their vocational future. We assume that suburban
adolescents do not typically encounter this structural barrier.
Urban Adolescents Career Development 5
Similarly, Constantine et al. (1998) and Ladany, Melincoff, Constantine, and Love (1997)
argued that structural barriers (e.g. labor market discrimination, racism, reduced teacher
expectations in urban schools) constrain urban adolescents’ development of vocational identity
and connection to their vocational future. Blustein, Juntunen and Worthington (2000) noted the
central role social class plays in determining access to the ‘building blocks’ (such as quality
vocational guidance) of vocational identity and connection to the world of work among poor and
working-class youth. Other scholars also have highlighted the increasingly prevalent role that
external barriers play in inhibiting urban adolescents’ connection to the process of developing a
vocational identity and identifying with their vocational futures. For example, Wilson (1996)
observed that the ‘disappearance’ of work from urban communities and Chaves et al. (2004)
pointed to negative family experiences in the world of work may inhibit urban adolescents’
connection to the process of developing a vocational identity and identifying with their
vocational futures.
Considering the structural barriers to urban adolescents’ career development, maintaining
a connection to one’s vocational future may be a more formidable developmental task in an
urban context. As such, we propose that the future orientation suggested by traditional theories of
adolescent development may take a different form for urban adolescents.
Study Rationale
McWhirter, Hackett and Bandalos (1998) argued that understanding the career
development processes of persons of color necessitates the reconfiguration of traditional career
theories to best meet their unique needs. Accordingly, traditional career development theories
suggest the importance of adolescents’ developing their vocational identity and development of a
future orientation (Super, 1974; 1980), while the emancipatory communitarian perspective
Urban Adolescents Career Development 6
(Blustein et al., 2005) and literature related to urban adolescents (Constantine et al., 1998; Sirin
et al., 2004) point to the role of structural factors in constraining their connection to their
vocational futures and clarification of vocational identity.
The context of urban adolescents may not provide resources that facilitate their
development of a connection to their vocational future. Ogbu (1989) and Wilson (1996) have
suggested that the context of urban adolescents does not provide the requisite antecedent
conditions to the development of a future orientation (cf. Marko & Savickas, 1998). By contrast,
the urban context poses multiple external barriers (such as racism, poorly funded schools, the
threat of random violence) to the future orientation of urban adolescents, if viewed from the lens
of the Sirin et al. (2004) “person-in-context model.”
In a sense, urban adolescents’ connection to their vocational future must be resilient in
the face of these external barriers. Career commitment (Carson & Bedeian, 1994) is the
commitment to the notion of a career and working in the future despite external barriers. Work
role salience (Greenhaus, 1971) is the degree to which work is important to an individual and
concern with the career development process. We argue that these constructs reflect the
connection to one’s vocational future in an urban context, despite the pressure to disidentify from
the world of work and one’s vocational future noted by Ogbu (1989) and others. These two
constructs, along with vocational identity, capture both the traditional need to develop one’s
vocational identity and a connection to one’s vocational future while incorporating the external
barriers (e.g. Sirin et al., 2004) of an urban context among urban adolescents.
As such, the Vocational Identity subscale of the My Vocational Situation measure (VI;
Holland, Gottfredson & Power, 1980) was used to measure vocational identity. The Career
Commitment Measure (CCM; Carson & Bedeian, 1994) and the Work Role Salience Scale
Urban Adolescents Career Development 7
(WRSS; Greenhaus, 1971) were selected to measure connection to one’s vocational future
among urban adolescents. These measures were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor
analyses to determine the structure of these constructs among a sample of urban adolescents and
to examine adolescents’ vocational identity and connection to their vocational future in an urban
context.
Method
The data from this project were drawn from the larger (Diemer, 2003) study of the
relationships between critical consciousness and career development among urban adolescents.
Participants
Two hundred and twenty students at two urban high schools in the Northeastern United
States served as the sample for this study and were recruited from classrooms at these high
schools. Participants who obtained parental consent and assented to the research process were
eligible to participate. Participants who obtained a parental signature (whether or not consent was
granted to participate) were rewarded with a small prize, such as a candy bar, and participants
who completed a data collection packet were entered into a raffle to win a small (approximately
$15) gift certificate. All participants who obtained parental consent and assented to the research
completed a data collection packet. These participants attended high schools that are composed
almost entirely of Students of Color from poor and working class neighborhoods; the final
sample consisted of 115 females and 105 males. The mean age for all participants was 15.57 (SD
= .93). Most of the participants were 10th graders (136, or 61.8%), and the rest of the participants
were in the 9th grade (84, or 38.2%). The ethnic and racial self-identifications were as follows:
24.1% (53) self-identified as Black/African American/African/Cape Verdean, 24.1% (53) as
Black/Caribbean, 26.8% (59) as Latino/a, 8.6% (19) as White, European, or European-American,
Urban Adolescents Career Development 8
4.1% (9) as Asian, .5% (1) as Native American /American Indian, 1.8% (4) as Middle
Eastern/Arabic, and 10.0% (22) as multi-ethnic/racial.
Instruments
Vocational identity. Holland et al. (1980) developed My Vocational Situation to assess
individual differences in the clarity and stability of identity-related beliefs and attitudes in the
vocational realm among adolescents and young adults. The Vocational Identity (VI) subscale is
the most psychometrically stable and frequently used portion of the MVS and was used in the
present study to operationalize vocational identity. Factor analytic studies confirmed the single
factor model of the VI subscale for White and African-American college students (Toporek &
Pope-Davis, 2001). The VI contains 18 true/false items; false responses connote vocational
identity, with a maximum score of 18 possible. Holland et al. (1980) obtained Kuder-Richardson
20 scores ranging from .86 to .89 from samples of high school students and employed adults for
the VI. We obtained an estimate of internal consistency (α = .76) for participants with the VI
subscale in the present study.
Career commitment. The Career Commitment Measure (CCM) was used to
operationalize urban adolescents “vocational hope,” or commitment to working in the future and
connection to the career development process. The CCM contains 12 Likert-type items on a 5point scale, with a maximum score of 60. Factor analyses conducted by Carson and Bedeian
(1994) indicated a three-factor structure (career identity, career resilience, and career planning)
of the CCM and obtained coefficient alphas ranging from .79 to .85 with samples of high school
students and adults. Validity studies suggest that the measure converged with measures of career
commitment and diverged from a measure of career withdrawal (Carson & Bedeian, 1994).
Urban Adolescents Career Development 9
The CCM was developed to be used with adults, and has not been used with an urban
adolescent population to date. As such, minor wording changes were made to reflect the
participants’ developmental level. (For example, the original phrase “My line of work/career
field” was replaced with “My career in the future”). These modifications were piloted and found
to be understandable by a sample of inner-city high school students. We obtained an estimate of
internal consistency (α = .70) for participants with the modified CCM in the present study.
Work salience. Work salience has been defined as the degree of importance work has in
an individual’s life and their commitment to the work role (Greenhaus, 1971; Hackett &
Watkins, 1995). The Work Role Salience Scale (WRSS; Greenhaus, 1971) was also used to
operationalize urban adolescents’ commitment to working in the future and connection to the
career development process. The WRSS contains 27 items on a 5-point Likert-type scale, with a
maximum score of 135; principal-axes factor analyses (Greenhaus, 1973) indicated that the
WRSS contains three factors: (1) relative importance of work; (2) general attitudes toward work;
and (3) and career planning and thinking about career. Greenhaus (1971) obtained a coefficient
alpha of .81 for the WRSS with a sample of female and male college students. We obtained an
estimate of internal consistency (α = .73) for participants with the WRSS in the present study.
Results
Table 1 contains the obtained estimates of internal consistency, descriptive data, and
correlation matrix. The obtained mean for the VI (M = 9.80, SD = 3.83) was slightly lower than
a sample (Holland et al., 1980) of high school sophomores (M = 11.20, SD = 5.46). The obtained
mean for the CCM (M = 41.67, SD = 5.87) was slightly greater than that of adult clerical
workers (M = 40.44, SD not reported) by Carson and Bedeian (1994). The obtained mean for the
WRSS (M = 90.32, SD = 10.78) approximated the scores of male (M = 90.78, SD= 12.69) but
Urban Adolescents Career Development 10
was larger than the scores of female college students (M = 87.89, SD = 11.85) reported by
Greenhaus (1973).
The correlation matrix reveals an expected and significant association between the WRSS
and CCM (r =.44), which assess one’s connection to their vocational future. A significant
association between the CCM and VI (r = .31) was also obtained, although there was not a
significant relationship (r = .14) between the VI and WRSS. These patterns of association are
discussed in concert with the factor analyses next.
Exploratory Factor Analysis
The data were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis to illuminate the factor structure
of career development among urban adolescents. Although the 220 cases in the final data set did
not exceed the recommendations of at least five cases per item (Kerlinger, 1986) and at least 300
cases for a factor analysis (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1989), the obtained Kaiser-Meyer-Okin (KMO)
measure of sampling adequacy was .71 and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant, (p <.
001). Taken in concert, these results indicate that the sample size was acceptable to evaluate
factor structure.
Principal components analyses with orthogonal and oblique rotations were performed.
The intercorrelations between the factors were low (all less than .32), suggesting an orthogonal
rotation was the most appropriate method of rotation for the data (per Kerlinger, 1986). Given
the robustness of varimax rotation (Fabrigar, Wegener, MacCallum & Strahan, 1999), this
method of rotation was employed.
Initially, 17 components exceeded the Kaiser retention criterion of eigenvalues greater
than 1.00 (Kaiser, 1958). The scree plot (Cattell, 1966) indicated significant drop-offs after four
and seven components. Given the inadequacies in relying solely upon the Kaiser criterion
Urban Adolescents Career Development 11
(Fabrigar et al., 1999) for factor retention, the scree plot was used to guide a reanalysis of data,
specifying the retention of four and seven component models. Analyses suggested that a fourcomponent model with varimax rotation appeared to be the best solution available from the data.
This factor structure was chosen because robust loading of items on the four factors, the lack of
cross-loading of items on other factors, the interpretability of the solution, and the scree plot
suggesting a significant “drop-off” after the fourth component (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1989).
This four component solution (Future Career Identification, Vocational Identity, Work
Role Resilience, Salience of Chosen Career) accounted for 29.65% of the total variance; all four
factors had at least three items loading on the factor above .37. The item loadings, a brief
description of each item, descriptions of the obtained components, and the estimates of internal
consistency for the obtained components are reported in Table 2.
The first component, “Future Career Identification,” contained items dealing with the
importance of having a future career (in general) and working. The second component,
“Vocational Identity,” was composed nearly entirely of items from the VI and dealt with clarity
of one’s vocational identity. The third component, “Work Role Resilience,” contained items
dealing with connection to work role in the future, despite barriers and anticipated personal
hardship. The pattern of CCM and WRSS items loading on this third component converges with
the significant correlation (r = .44) between these two measures. The fourth component,
“Salience of Chosen Career,” contained items dealing with personal connection to a chosen
career and interest in this chosen career. The obtained components did not “hang together”
according to the factor structures previously reported for these measures. For example, items
from the “career planning” factors of the WRSS and CCM loaded on different components in the
obtained solution and no “career planning” component was obtained. Additionally, items from
Urban Adolescents Career Development 12
the “career identity” subscale of the CCM did not load on the same components as items from
the VI. By contrast, the obtained components formed a unique pattern of loadings centered upon
connection to one’s vocational future in the face of barriers (what we have labeled ‘vocational
hope’ and detail in the discussion section) and vocational identity.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
The exploratory principal components analysis was then cross-validated with a
confirmatory factor analysis (e.g. Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). The four principal components
identified were used to specify relationships between these variables and latent constructs in a
confirmatory factor analysis, using the same participants’ data. The loadings of variables onto
components in the exploratory analysis (as seen in Table 2) were used to suggest loadings of
indicators onto latent constructs to be investigated in the confirmatory factor analysis.
Accordingly, fifteen items were constrained as indicators of the Future Career Identification
factor, thirteen items as indicators of the Vocational Identity factor, ten items as indicators of the
Work Role Resilience factor, and eight items as indicators of the Salience of Chosen Career
factor.
These data were well-suited for confirmatory factor analyses, given the multivariate
normality of the data and the presence of more than three indicators per latent construct, which
facilitates model identification (Bollen, 1989). Following convention in structural equation
modeling, the first indicator of each latent variable was fixed to one to facilitate model
identification. Maximum likelihood estimation was used to assess the correspondence between
the specified and actual covariance matrices in the confirmatory analysis, using the MPlus
software package (Muthén & Muthén, 2004).
Urban Adolescents Career Development 13
The standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) and root mean square error of
approximation (RMSEA) were used to evaluate model fit in the present study, according to the
Hu and Bentler (1999) “two index presentation strategy.” Hu and Bentler (1999) recommend the
use of the SRMR in evaluating model fit, along with a supplementary fit index, such as the CFI,
RMSEA, or TLI. Based on the recommendations of other scholars (e.g. Martens, 2005; Quintana
& Maxwell, 1999), we used RMSEA as the second index of model fit.
The initial confirmatory model examined the relationships of these variables to the four
factors suggested by the principal components analysis. This initial model approached a good fit,
as the SRMR value was .09 (where values less than .08 suggest good fit; Quintana & Maxwell,
1999) and the RMSEA value was .05 (where values less than .06 suggest good fit; Hu & Bentler,
1999). Model modification indices were then utilized to improve model fit and the model respecified. Modification indices suggested that model fit would be improved by correlating the
error terms of some indicators and moving one indicator (WRSS3) from the fourth factor,
Salience of Chosen Career, to the third factor, Work Role Resilience. Given the dangers in
haphazardly using empirical modification indices to improve model fit, only modification indices
supported by relevant theory were used. For example, in the principal components analysis,
WRSS#3 had negatively loaded on the fourth component and the item’s wording suggests that
WRSS#3 may be a better fit for the third than fourth factor. Relatedly, error terms between
indicators were specified as correlated only if the indicators loaded on the same factor (e.g.
CCM8 with WRSS27) or if the indicators came from the same original measure (e.g. CCM11
with CCM10).
This respecified model was then analyzed and is depicted, including correlated error
terms between indicators, in Figure 1.
Urban Adolescents Career Development 14
---Insert Figure 1 about here--The respecified model was a better fitting model than the original model, as the SRMR value
improved to .08, the RMSEA value was .05, and the pattern of loadings improved as well. These
fit indices suggest a good fit between the hypothesized and observed covariance matrices,
although there are no reported fit indices in the literature to compare to. Therefore, the
respecified model depicted in Figure 1 was considered to be the “final model” in these analyses.
Given the need to report all parameter estimates in structural equation modeling
(Martens, 2005), Table 3 provides the values for parameter estimates, standard error of estimates,
and the value of the estimate divided by the standard error for the four factor model. In the fourth
column, Estimate/S.E. values ±1.96 may be interpreted as statistically significant (Bollen, 1989).
Using this criterion, all of the variables (save WRSS #3) significantly loaded on the factor first
suggested by the principal components analysis, further supporting the confirmatory model.
Discussion
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggest that the development of a
vocational identity and connection to one’s vocational future, or what we have labeled
“vocational hope,” may be potentially important career development tasks for urban adolescents.
The second factor, ‘Vocational Identity,’ was composed nearly entirely of items from the VI and
dealt with the need to develop a vocational identity. The first ‘Future Career Identification,’ third
‘Work Role Resilience,’ and fourth ‘Salience of Chosen Career’ factors reflected the need to (1)
maintain a future connection to the more general role of a worker and to the world of work and
(2) a more specific connection to one’s anticipated career field. That is, in addition to
maintaining a connection to working in the future in a more general sense, the analyses suggest
Urban Adolescents Career Development 15
that maintaining a connection to one’s chosen career field in the future is also an aspect of
vocational hope for urban adolescents.
The structural barriers to career development (Constantine et al., 1998), potential pressure
to disidentify from the world of work (Ogbu, 1989), and the lack of contextual support to form
future educational and vocational plans in the lives of urban adolescents (e.g. Chaves et al.,
2004; Wilson, 1996) may be informative in explaining the factor structure obtained in the present
study. Traditional perspectives regarding the development of a future orientation (Super, 1974;
1980) assume that the social context produces pressure for adolescents to form a future time
perspective and future educational/vocational goals. However, in a social context lacking the
external pressures critical in developing a future orientation (Marko & Savickas, 1998) and
threats such as community violence limiting the development of a future time perspective among
urban adolescents (Sirin et al., 2004), the development of what we have labeled “vocational
hope” is a contextually sensitive conceptualization of what may be an important developmental
task in the lives of urban adolescents.
Along with the pattern of loadings reported in Table 3, items that load onto the vocational
hope factors further describe this conceptualization of vocational hope. For example, the item
stem for WRSS7 reads “I enjoy thinking about and making plans for my future career, ”
WRSS12 reads ”I’m ready to make sacrifices to get ahead in my job,” CCM10 (reverse coded)
reads “Given the problems I will encounter in having a career, I sometimes wonder if I will get
enough out of it” and CCM11 (reverse coded) reads “Given the problems in having a career, I
sometimes wonder if the personal burden will be worth it.” Combined with the factor structure
depicted in Table 3, these items suggest a resilient connection to one’s vocational future in the
Urban Adolescents Career Development 16
face of barriers, although these items do not explicitly reference external barriers such as
structural racism or the threat of violence.
Vocational hope incorporates features of urban adolescents’ social and structural context
and suggests that future orientation in this population entails a resilient connection to one’s
future in the face of external barriers. Vocational hope attends to the lack of external pressure to
develop a future orientation (cf. Marko & Savickas, 1998), the external pressure to disidentify
from one’s vocational future (Obgu, 1989), and the structural barriers to the career development
(Constantine et al., 1998) of urban adolescents. Because traditional perspectives to the
development of future orientation in adolescence do not fully attend to these aspects of urban
adolescents’ social context, vocational hope may more accurately reflect the notion of future
orientation in an urban context. As the development of a future orientation is theorized to be
critical in the development of career adaptability and the development of future
educational/vocational goals among adolescents in theories of career development (Savickas,
1991), vocational hope may correspondingly play a role in the development of career
adaptability and educational/vocational goals among urban adolescents. This suggests that
vocational hope has the potential to be an important consideration in the work lives of urban
adolescents, although this needs to be examined by future research.
Related scholarship examines the role of vocational hope in the lives of urban
adolescents. Newman (1999), in her qualitative examination of adolescent fast-food workers in
Harlem, noted the positive role part-time work may play in fostering a connection to one’s
future, vocational identity formation, and the salience of work in urban adolescents’ lives.
Steward et al. (1998) argued that hope and maintaining a connection to one’s future play a
crucial role in urban adolescents’ successfully negotiating structural barriers, while Constantine
Urban Adolescents Career Development 17
et al. (1998) also noted the positive role connection to one’s vocational future plays in the career
development of urban adolescents. When considered collectively, this scholarship underscores
the salience of vocational hope in the lives of urban adolescents.
Examining the results in more detail, the factor structures underlying these measures that
have been reported in the literature, as well as expected associations between semantically
similar factors across measures, were not obtained in the present study. That is, the factor
structure identified for the WRSS (relative importance of work, general attitudes toward work,
and career planning/thinking about career) and the CCM (career identity, career resilience, career
planning) identified in the literature (Carson & Bedeian, 1994; Greenhaus, 1973) were not
reproduced in the present study. Further, semantically similar factors, such as the ‘career
planning’ factors of the WRSS and CCM, were not associated within the obtained factor
solution. Only one of the eight ‘career planning’ items from the WRSS was associated with
‘career planning’ items from the CCM, on the third ‘Work Role Resilience’ factor dealing with
the salience of the work role in one’s future, rather than career planning.
Despite the significant Pearson correlation between the VI and CCM (r = .31) and the
semantic similarity between the VI and ‘career identity’ factor of the CCM, items from these
measures did not load on common factors. This suggests some conceptual distinctiveness
between measures that may appear similar. As the items comprising the ‘career identity’ subscale
of the CCM assess the salience of a chosen career field in one’s identity (rather than the clarity of
one’s vocational identity), they loaded on the factor dealing with future career identification
(factor one), rather than vocational identity (factor two). Upon closer inspection, the modest
Pearson correlation and lack of shared loadings of these two measures likely reflect the different
constructs assessed by these two measures, despite their semantic similarity. In sum, when these
Urban Adolescents Career Development 18
measures were considered in concert with a sample of urban adolescents, a unique pattern of
associations among these variables emerged, focusing upon vocational identity and vocational
hope. These unique associations were supported by the confirmatory factor analyses.
Implications for Practice
In addition to the role future orientation plays in effective career counseling and
vocational guidance for adolescents (Savickas, Silling, & Schwartz, 1984), the present study
suggests avenues for psychosocial and career development interventions. Interventions could aim
to facilitate vocational hope and vocational identity, along with addressing social support
(Kenny, Blustein, Chaves, Grossman & Gallagher, 2003), critical consciousness (Diemer &
Blustein, 2005), and the capacity to manage racial/ethnic discrimination (Constantine et al.,
1998), to address the internal and external challenges to urban adolescents’ career development.
Given the importance of future orientation in career adaptability (Super, 1974) and the
relationships between future orientation, career adaptability, and career decision-making
(Savickas, 1991), urban adolescents may benefit from interventions that facilitate their
vocational hope and connection to their vocational future. For example, the five session “Time
Perspective Modification Intervention” outlined by Marko and Savickas (1998) improved the
future orientation of young adult participants through linking current behavior to future goals,
providing information about the world of work, and increasing participants’ confidence in
achieving future career goals. In reference to the present study, interventions should consider the
structural barriers that urban adolescents face and emphasize resources to overcome these
barriers to facilitate a resilient connection to one’s vocational future among urban adolescents.
Finally, considering the obtained reliability estimates and component structure in the
present study, comprehensive guidance programs (ASCA, 2003) or psychosocial interventions
Urban Adolescents Career Development 19
(Solberg, Howard, Blustein & Close, 2002) for urban adolescents could utilize the CCM, VI,
and/or WRSS for evaluation purposes. Considering the lack of career assessments sensitive to
the career development and social context of urban adolescents (Eby & Russell, 1998), these
measures could be used to examine the impact of career development and vocational guidance
interventions upon the vocational identity and vocational hope of intervention participants.
Limitations and Future Directions
The self-report nature of our data also introduces potential limitations of social
desirability and other limitations germane to the use of self-report. Additionally, we obtained
lower reliabilities with these measures than had been reported in literature. These differences
could reflect cross-cultural factors (such as some potential limitations in their validity with urban
and predominantly adolescents of color), the use of measures developed for adults (CCM and
WRSS) with urban adolescents, or (for the CCM) may reflect the wording changes made to that
measure in the present study. The obtained estimates of internal consistency suggest that
replication studies and other investigations of career development among urban adolescents
would be warranted. The estimate of internal consistency associated with the fourth component
in the exploratory factor analysis (α = .54), ‘salience of chosen career,’ suggests that this factor
should be interpreted more cautiously, although its factor structure was supported by the
confirmatory factor analysis.
The fact that the measures employed were not developed specifically to operationalize
the construct of vocational hope and were developed from a different theoretical framework than
the emancipatory communitarian perspective (e.g. Blustein et al., 2005) suggests that these
results could be interpreted with a degree of caution. Similarly, the relatively small amount of
variance accounted for by the principal components analysis (29.65%) could be explained by
Urban Adolescents Career Development 20
these inventories being intended to measure career commitment and/or work salience in a more
traditional sense, rather than vocational hope.
This suggests that one potentially important contribution could be the development of a
measure of vocational hope. Based on related theory and research, items could be written to
operationalize this construct, and a measure of vocational hope developed and validated. Given
the need to more clearly understand career development among urban adolescents and the
construct of vocational hope, other implications for future research are discussed below.
The present study could serve as a springboard for future research examining the role
vocational hope may play in assisting urban adolescents’ negotiation of the various barriers to
their career development and remaining connected to the process of career development. For
example, subsequent inquiry could build upon the present study by examining the relationship of
vocational hope to the formation of vocational expectations and/or occupational attainment of
urban adolescents. Considering the estimates of internal consistency and the obtained factor
structure, the CCM, WRSS, and VI may be well-suited to illuminating these relationships in
future studies with urban adolescents.
Summary
These results contribute to the psychology of working and emancipatory communitarian
perspectives and suggest avenues for further study and intervention with urban adolescents and
other marginalized groups. The obtained confirmatory model suggests that development of the
vocational identity and vocational hope are important aspects of urban youths’ career
development process. Vocational hope, in particular, may more accurately reflect the context of
the development of a future orientation among urban adolescents. Future research could (but is
not limited to) examinations of the relationships between vocational hope, vocational
Urban Adolescents Career Development 21
expectations, career maturity and occupational attainment among urban adolescents. Future
research should also continue to clarify the career development needs of urban adolescents,
identify culturally and developmentally sensitive forms of assessment, and identify internal and
external resources that meet their career development needs. As occupational attainment may be
one means by which urban adolescents (and other marginalized groups) may empower
themselves (Diemer & Blustein, 2005), future research should continue to identify constructs that
facilitate their progress in career development and subsequent occupational attainment.
Urban Adolescents Career Development 22
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Urban Adolescents Career Development 27
Table 1: Reliability, Descriptive Information, and Correlation Matrix
Coefficient
M
SD
WRSS
VI
CCM
Alpha
WRSS
.73
90.32
10.78
--
VI
.76
9.80
3.83
.14
--
CCM
.70
41.67
5.87
.44**
.31**
--
Note. WRSS = Work Role Salience Scale; MVSID = Vocational Identity Subscale of My
Vocational Situation; CCM = Career Commitment Measure. Higher mean scores indicate greater
levels of progress in career development.
** p < .01.
Urban Adolescents Career Development 28
Table 2: Component Loadings and Item Stems for CCM, VI and WRSS
Component Name & Item Stems
Component Loadings
Component One : Future Career Identification, 15 items, α = .84
CCM#4, I strongly identify with having a career in the future
WRSS#22, Planning & succeeding in career is my primary concern
CCM#2, A future career has a great deal of personal meaning
WRSS#13, Career is a means of expressing myself
CCM#1, Having a future career is an important part of who I am
WRSS#7, I enjoy thinking about and making plans for my future career
WRSS#18, I started thinking about jobs & careers when I was young*
WRSS#14, I am extremely "career minded”
CCM#6, I’ve created a plan for myself in my future career
WRSS#12, I'm ready to make many sacrifices to get ahead in my job
WRSS#10 Deciding on a career is just about the most important decision a
WRSS#15, I’d never be truly happy unless I achieved career success
WRSS#11,
I don't
think about my job in ten years*
young person
makes
WRSS#25, Planning for career is not worth the effort*
WRSS#26, I would move to another part of the country if I thought it would
help advance my career
Component Two: Vocational Identity, 13 items, α = .77
1
.65
.63
.63
.59
.57
.55
.54
.54
.51
.50
.48
.47
.44
.44
2
4
.39
.42
.43
VI#9, I am confused about the whole problem of deciding on a career*
VI#8, Making up my mind about a career has been long and difficult*
VI#2, I’m concerned that my present interests may change *
VI#18, I can’t understand how some people can be so set about what they
want to do*
VI#6, If I had to make an occupational choice right now, I'm afraid I would
make a bad choice *
VI#13, I am uncertain about what occupation I would enjoy*
VI#3, I am uncertain about the occupations I could perform well*
VI#7,, I need to find out what kind of career I should follow*
VI#16, I am not sure of myself in many areas of life*
VI#1, I need reassurance that I’ve made the right choice of occupation*
WRSS#23, I often find myself thinking about whether I will enjoy my
chosen field.
VI#11, I don’t know enough about what workers do in various occupations*
.67
.62
.56
VI#10, I am not sure that my present occupational choice/job is right for me*
Component Three: Work Role Resilience, 10 items, α = .71
.39
CCM#10, Given the problems I will encounter in having a career, I
sometimes wonder if I will get enough out of it*
3
.54
.53
.52
.51
.50
.43
.42
.42
.39
.59
Urban Adolescents Career Development 29
CCM#12, The discomforts associated with having a career in the future
sometimes seem too great*
CCM#5, I don’t have a strategy for achieving my future career goals*
CCM#7, I do not identify specific goals for my future career*
WRSS#24, It’s more important to be liked by other, devote your energies for
the betterment of humanity, and be at least some help to someone than to
have a job in your chosen field of interest, be devoted to it, and be a success*
CCM#11, Given the problems in having a career, I sometimes wonder if the
personal burden will be worth it*
CCM#8, I don’t think about personal development in my future career*
WRSS#21, Idea of working is distasteful to me*
WRSS#27, I never thought about these types of questions very much*
WRSS#2, It is more important to have some leisure time after work than to
have a job in your chosen field, be devoted to it, and be a success*
Component Four: Salience of Chosen Career, 8 items, α = .54
WRSS#1, I intend to pursue the job of my choice even if it cuts deeply into
the time I have for my family
WRSS#5, I intend to pursue the job of my choice, even if it limits my
personal freedom to enjoy life
WRSS#16, I intend to pursue the job of my choice, even if it allows only
very little opportunity to enjoy my friends
WRSS#20, It’s more important to have a job in your chosen field of interest,
be devoted to it, and be a success at it than to have a family that is closely
knit and thatI shares
experiences
WRSS#19,
intend many
to pursue
the job of my choice, even if it leaves me little
time for my religious activities
WRSS#8, It’s difficult to find satisfaction in life unless you enjoy your job
WRSS#3, If you work very hard on your job, you can't enjoy the better
things in life*
WRSS#4, Work is one of the few areas in life where you can gain real
satisfaction
Note. CCM = Career Commitment Measure; VI = Vocational Identity Subscale of My
Vocational Situation; WRSS = Work Role Salience Scale.
* connotes a reverse-scored item
.59
.53
.50
.49
.48
.47
.47
.43
.37
.64
.62
.57
.55
.53
.38
.38
.37
Urban Adolescents Career Development 30
Table 3: Factor Loadings for Latent Variables
Latent Variable and Indicator Stem
Loading/
Estimate/
S.E.
Estimate
S.E.
Future Career Identification
CCM#4, I strongly identify with having a career in the future
WRSS#22, Planning & succeeding in career is my primary concern
CCM#2, A future career has a great deal of personal meaning
WRSS#13, Career is a means of expressing myself
CCM#1, Having a future career is an important part of who I am
WRSS#7, I enjoy thinking about and making plans for my future
WRSS#18, I started thinking about jobs & careers when young*
career
WRSS#14, I am extremely "career minded”
CCM#6, I’ve created a plan for myself in my future career
WRSS#12, I'm ready to make sacrifices to get ahead in my job
WRSS#10, Deciding on a career is important decision
WRSS#15, I’d never be happy unless I achieved career success
WRSS#11, I don't think about my job in ten years*
WRSS#25, Planning for career is not worth the effort*
WRSS#26, I would move to help advance my career
1
1.05
.76
.98
.81
.86
.86
1.02
.94
.54
.79
.72
.86
.45
.85
0
0.15
.10
.15
.13
.14
.15
.16
.15
.13
.16
.16
.19
.14
.17
0
7.11
7.45
6.48
6.22
6.18
5.74
6.52
6.30
4.25
5.05
4.60
4.67
3.31
5.00
Vocational Identity
VI#9, I am confused about the of deciding on a career*
VI#8, Making up mind about career has been long and difficult*
VI#2, I’m concerned that my present interests may change *
VI#18, Can’t understand how people can be set about want to do*
VI#6, If had to make career choice, afraid would make bad choice
VI#13 I am uncertain about what occupation I would enjoy*
*
VI#3
I am uncertain about the occupations I could perform well*
VI#7, I need to find out what kind of career I should follow*
VI#16, I am not sure of myself in many areas of life*
VI#1, Need reassurance that I’ve made right choice of occupation*
WRSS#23 I often think about whether I will enjoy my chosen field.
VI#11 Don’t know enough about what workers do in occupations*
VI#10 Unsure that present occupational choice/job is right for me*
1
.98
.68
.91
.81
.78
.83
.90
.81
.54
-1.39
.68
.49
0
.16
.14
.15
.14
.15
.15
.15
.15
.13
.30
.15
.14
0
6.25
4.83
6.00
5.78
5.14
5.44
5.91
5.43
4.06
-4.57
4.58
3.57
Work Role Resilience
CCM#10, Given problems in career, will get enough out of it*
CCM#12, Discomforts associated with career seem too great*
CCM#5, I don’t have a strategy for achieving future career goals*
CCM#7, I do not identify specific goals for my future career*
WRSS#24, More important help others than job in chosen field*
CCM#11, Given problems in career, burden will be worth it*
CCM#8, Don’t think about personal development in future career*
1
1.57
1.25
1.12
1.08
.56
1.22
0
.40
.36
.34
.33
.20
.37
0
3.92
3.50
3.35
3.29
2.78
3.32
Urban Adolescents Career Development 31
WRSS#21, Idea of working is distasteful to me*
WRSS#27, Never thought about these types of questions *
WRSS#2, More important leisure time than job in chosen field*
WRSS#25, Planning for career is not worth the effort*
WRSS#3, If work very hard on job, can't enjoy better things in
1.77
1.25
1.07
1.24
1.76
.43
.39
.35
.35
.48
4.07
3.22
3.08
3.56
3.66
life*
Salience of Chosen Career
WRSS#1, Intend pursue job of choice even if cuts into family time
WRSS#5, Intend pursue job of choice even limits personal freedom
WRSS#16, Intend pursue job of choice even if limits friends
to enjoy lifeMore important job in chosen field than close family
WRSS#20,
WRSS#19, Intend pursue job of choice, even if limits religious
WRSS#8, Difficult find satisfaction in life unless enjoy job
WRSS#4, Work one area in life where can gain real satisfaction
WRSS#12, I'm ready to make sacrifices to get ahead in my job
1
1.37
1.17
.85
.80
.54
.53
.56
0
.21
.19
.18
.19
.16
.18
.13
0
6.46
6.33
4.62
4.31
3.47
2.96
4.17
Note. CCM = Career Commitment Measure; VI = Vocational Identity Subscale of My
Vocational Situation; WRSS = Work Role Salience Scale.
* connotes a reverse-scored item
Urban Adolescents Career Development 32
Figure 1: Four Factor Confirmatory Model of Vocational Hope and Vocational Identity
e3
CCM2
e4
WRSS 13
e2
WRSS 22
VI 9
e16
VI 8
e17
e1
CCM 4
e5
CCM 1
VI 2
e18
e6
WRSS 7
VI 18
e19
e7
WRSS 18
VI 6
e20
e8
WRSS 14
VI 13
e21
e9
CCM 6
VI 3
e22
e10
WRSS 12
VI 7
e23
e11
WRSS 10
VI 16
e24
e12
WRSS 15
VI 1
e25
e13
WRSS 11
WRSS 23
e26
e14
WRSS 25
VI 11
e27
e15
WRSS 26
VI 10
e28
Future Career
Identification
Vocational
Identity
e29
CCM 10
e30
CCM 12
e31
CCM 5
WRSS 1
e41
e32
CCM 7
WRSS 5
e42
e33
WRSS 24
WRSS 16
e43
e34
CCM 11
WRSS 20
e44
e35
CCM 8
WRSS 19
e45
e36
WRSS 21
WRSS 8
e46
e37
WRSS 27
WRSS 4
e47
e38
WRSS 2
WRSS 12
e48
e39
WRSS 25
e40
WRSS 3
Work Role
Resilience
Salience of
Chose Career
1