Perception of career barriers: The importance of gender and ethnic variables

Abstract

Differences of gender and ethnicity were examined in terms of the perception of barriers to career development. The Perception of Career Barriers Inventory (IPBC) was administered to a sample of 457 ninth grade students in Portuguese state schools. Gender differences were found, with girls generally scoring higher and in particular on some specific scales. African ethnic participants score higher than Portuguese participants across all the IPBC scales. These findings are more obvious with African participants born in Africa than with those born in Portugal. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.Résumé. Perception des barrières de carrière: l'importance des variables de genre et des variables ethniques. Les différences de genre et d'appartenance ethnique sont examinées en termes de perception de barrières au développement de la carrière. Le Perception of Career Barriers Inventory (IPBC) a été administré à un échantillon de 457 élèves de neuvième année dans des écoles publiques portugaises. On a trouvé des différences de genre, les filles obtenant généralement des scores plus élevés, en particulier sur certaines échelles spécifiques. Les participants d'origine ethnique africaine obtiennent des scores plus élevés que les participants portugais sur toutes les échelles. Ces résultats sont plus nets pour les participants africains nés en Afrique que pour ceux nés au Portugal. On discute les implications de ces résultats pour la recherche et la pratique futures.

Self-efficacy beliefs and the relation between career planning and perception of barriers

“…Further research is likely to show other significant differences, for example related to ethnicity. Indeed, the importance of this demographic variable (Cardoso & Ferreira Marques, 2008) suggests the need to include it in further research. In further investigations, it would also be important to consider a measure of vocational identity in order to test the explanation suggesting the role of goal definition as an important determinant of planning in general (Carver & Scheier, 1998) and career planning in particular (Greef et al, 1985), thereby ascertaining whether goal definition acts as a determinant of the conditions under which the hypothesis is verified.…”

“…Perception of career barriers is measured using a revised version of the the Perception of Career Barriers Inventory (IPBC; Cardoso & Ferreira Marques, 2008). The IPBC, developed for use with Portuguese adolescents and young adults, is based on the social-cognitive conceptualisation of the perception of career barriers (Lent et al, 2000;Swanson, Daniels, & Tokar, 1996;Swanson & Woitke, 1997) and on the processes used in the construction of the Career Barriers Inventory-Revised (Swanson et al, 1996).…”

“…The present study is part of a larger project to develop new measures on career roles self-efficacy and the perception of career barriers adapted for use with Portuguese adolescents (Cardoso & Ferreira Marques, 2008). Within this project, specific attention is given to the clarification of the relationship hypothesised by Luzzo and Hutchinson (1996) and the adolescents' self-regulatory processes in facing the challenges of career development.…”

A life‐cycle analysis of minority underrepresentation in natural resource fields

“…Mexican-American high school students reported that a lack of confidence in their scholastic abilities were primary academic barriers; they also were more likely to anticipate ethnic discrimination in their future jobs (McWhirter 1997). Researchers have consistently found that minorities tend to believe that ethnic discrimination will prevent them from achieving their desired outcomes (McWhirter 1997, Armstrong et al 2007, Cardoso and Marques 2008.…”

El papel del profesorado en la toma de decisiones académico y profesionales del alumnado = Teacher role on student’s academic and vocational decisions making

“…Es esperable que transmitan representaciones y creencias personales sobre el tema de las vocaciones (Ferreira, Nascimento y Fontaine, 2009). Estas representaciones, valores y expectativas del profesorado influyen por ejemplo en las aspiraciones de carrera, en la orientación hacia carreras más o menos tradicionales y en las opciones vocacionales en general del alumnado (Cardoso y Marques, 2008;Constantine, Kindaichi y Miville, 2007;Sax y Bryant, 2006). Se percibe la influencia del profesorado en el desarrollo de la carrera de los estudiantes y, por consiguiente, la necesidad de que estos profesionales la tengan en cuenta en la organización de sus prácticas.…”