Based on social cognitive career theory, this preliminary study aims to examine the relationships between civic engagement (CE), STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) interest, STEM self-efficacy, and STEM outcome expectations among community college students. Data from 171 students enrolled across three community colleges located in the state of Iowa, United States, were analyzed with Bootstrapping and power analysis on SPSS. Results indicated that CE is indirectly associated with STEM interest via STEM outcome expectations, with a small effect size. Implications based on the findings are discussed in the context of postsecondary education, including teaching, academic advising, and career counseling.

During adolescence, individuals develop societal views and foster aspirations for future careers. This study investigated a sample of Latinx and White youth (N = 151) in rural Midwestern meatpacking communities in the USA to identify how their work hope is associated with system justification beliefs (beliefs in a just America, class inequality, and educational meritocracy). The study also explored how race moderates the relationship between work hope and system justification beliefs. Results revealed that work hope is associated with their societal views in both Latinx and White youth; however, the direction and the degree of the relationships differ between Latinx and White youth. Implications for youth career development and future research are discussed.

First-generation college students (FGCS), nearly 50% of which identify as Hispanic, are an underserved population. The psychosociocultural theoretical framework posits that individual, environmental, and cultural factors contribute to the academic success of Hispanic students. This study examined the relationship between these factors (i.e., demographics, academic self-efficacy, meeting with professors, and attending cultural programming) to 6-year bachelor’s degree attainment and time to bachelor’s degree attainment among Hispanic students at a Hispanic Serving Institution ( n = 358). Being better prepared academically, being female, and having greater academic self-efficacy were positively related to bachelor’s degree attainment; FGCS status was negatively related. Among students who graduated ( n = 208), entering college being better prepared academically, and having greater academic self-efficacy were related to quicker bachelor’s degree attainment; FGCS status was not significantly related. Practitioners may pay more attention to Hispanic students’ academic self-efficacy and the success of Hispanic male students.

The dominant narrative in much of the world is that public safety is provided by policing, evidenced by supportive rhetoric from institutional forces including politicians, media, and large budget allocations in all levels of government. Alongside a long history of police violence, especially against Black, Brown, poor, and other marginalized people, many social movements reject the idea that policing provides safety and seek other methods for community wellness. The present study utilizes critical narrative analysis (CNA) to describe how marginalized residents of a small city in Iowa construct their understanding of personal and community safety. Their stories and the dialectic exchange during interviews illustrated several counternarratives and moments of conscientization for participants and researchers where safety was deconstructed and understood outside the power of recycled institutional narratives. Participants rejected popular notions of safety such as police, and instead embraced safety through robust relationships, community resources, and forms of self-knowledge such as mental health. We analyzed their interviews as efforts to be humanly recognized within violent white supremacist structures, and their stories help to radicalize popular messages about safety. We highlight their world-making abilities as they craft their own networks of community and safety outside of the state and police.

With the broadening scope of research inquiries into work, employment, industrial and organizational processes, and vocational development addressing issues with systemic oppression, there is a pressing need for discussion on using research methodologies as tools for catalyzing liberatory change. This article is underpinned by liberation theories and perspectives, which critically examine the Euro-American systems of thoughts that justify and perpetuate decisions, conditions, and culture that may exclude marginalized knowers, knowledge, and ways of knowing. Building on the work of other liberation scholars, we propose a new framework of community-engaged vocational research methodologies, which expands the existing methodologies: a) from distance to proximity, b) from academic capitalism to community vocational outcomes, c) from researcher authority to community partnership, and d) from theoretical knowledge to actionable knowledge. We discuss guiding Global Majority values to address tensions that may arise from expanding and complicating the traditional boundaries of methodologies. The framework also shows expansion through intersectional, interdisciplinary, anti-oppressive, and action-oriented approaches. With the introduction of this framework, we invite readers to broaden the scope of research methodologies and transform them into processes and tools for people who generate, need, and use the community-based knowledge of work and working.

Students underrepresented in traditional school-based gifted and talented programs require innovative programs that help them to identify their domain-specific talent and psychosocial strengths. The current study integrated the Talent Development Megamodel with Social Cognitive Career Theory to better identify clusters of psychosocial strengths and aptitudes of a group of middle school students. Sixth and seventh grade students (n = 240) attending schools in a predominantly midwestern state in the United States participated in the grant-funded Talent Identification and Career Exploration (TICE) program. Students completed assessments of their aptitude, academic-specific self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, and goals as part of the program. Results indicated a five-class Latent Profile Analyses (LPA) solution was considered the best fitting model, identifying student profiles labeled uninspired, confident but directionless, humanities, STEM, and confident and highly capable. There were no differences in class assignment based on prior identification as gifted and talented or presence of twice-exceptionality, and groups did not differ significantly in aptitude. Findings suggest the importance of tailoring interventions considering students' psychosocial strengths and aptitudes and linking these profiles to career exploration activities.

Language is a carrier of culture, identity, and skills that impacts vocational behaviors. However, the role of English language in Asian international students’ experiential sources of self-efficacy has not been assessed. The present study aims to explore the relations between sociolinguistic experiences, including English proficiency (EP) and perceived language discrimination (PLD), and experiential sources of self-efficacy (prior success, verbal persuasion, vicarious learning, and physiological and emotional states) in a sample of 124 Asian international students in the USA. Results from a polynomial regression model with response surface mapping indicated that the agreement between EP and PLD was associated with prior success and verbal persuasion only for students at extremes. The discrepancy between EP and PLD was associated with prior success and verbal persuasion linearly. Suggestions for future research and implications for vocational guidance are discussed in terms of supporting Asian international students.

The ability to take time off from work is considered a staple for most "white collar" jobs. Paid time off or vacation time is a negotiable benefit for salaried workers. However, it is not necessarily extended to those working for minimum wages. Research has demonstrated that paid time off (PTO) is both helpful and necessary to sustain a healthy workforce. In this essay, we will explore the societal pressures at play that keep wage earners from accessing PTO and the covert oppression perpetuated by not offering wage workers ample leisure time. In the United States, where employers are not mandated to provide PTO, any time off offered by employers becomes generous. In 1910, then President Taft proposed that U.S. workers should have two to three months of vacation time per year. He viewed this extended vacation as essential to the worker's well-being and necessary for future productivity. One hundred plus years later, PTO is still considered a luxury, not a right. We will explore the importance of PTO for the dignity of workers and advocate for PTO as a human right.

In the present paper, we join the current dialogue in the field of vocational psychology regarding how neoliberal economic trends across the world have influenced the development of theory and approaches to vocational psychology. We propose an alternative perspective, that viewing career development from an economic justice lens, can provide an alternative to the existing neoliberal influence. An economic justice lens may aid us in moving from solely focusing on individual interventions and outcomes to those that help to create community-level change which in turn help create a more just economy for all. This is more than simply providing interventions to individuals in a community but requires shifting the locus of change to the community level. We detail four proposed career outcomes that center community-level change: Networking, Conscientization, Participation, and Liberation. Opportunities to utilize participatory action research, social network analysis, and other practice methods are encouraged. Finally, we offer examples of how vocational psychologists can take active roles in an economic justice approach to vocational psychology.

The dominant narrative in much of the world, but especially the West, is that public safety and security are provided by policing. Psychotherapy invests in this dominant narrative via its reliance on emergency services provided by the state, such as 911 and police, to pursue the safety of clients and the larger society. However, the long-documented history of oppressive systems of policing suggest that these dominant narratives operate to protect powerful groups while surveilling and policing marginalized people, but particularly Black and Brown communities. As such, critical and abolitionist movements have rejected the idea that policing provides safety and have sought out alternative methods for ensuring community wellness and safety. Although the field of psychology has broadly expressed interest in growing its critical lens and interrupting systems of power, very little has directly addressed how carceral logics influence psychotherapy practice, and how this influences the client's sense of safety in therapy. This manuscript argues for an abolitionist approach to informed consent and safety planning in psychotherapy to address the disparate ways that clients, and especially marginalized clients such as Black and Brown people, experience psychotherapy's traditional use of systems of policing and state authority. Clinical illustrations are provided and future directions are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine the indirect effects of social cognitive career variables (healthcare career [HC] self-efficacy and outcome expectations) in the relationship between youth sociopolitical development (SPD) and HC interests. Bootstrapping analysis was conducted using samples of eighth grade students ( N = 139) attending schools in rural areas in communities that consist predominantly of Immigrants of Color. Preliminary findings for the total sample suggested an indirect path between SPD and HC interests through HC self-efficacy, whereas the indirect path through HC outcome expectations was not significant. The model for immigrant Youth of Color participants suggested a direct relationship between SPD and HC interest, whereas an indirect relationship between SPD and HC interests was found for White participants. Based on the results of this preliminary analysis, implications for career programming and research pertaining to rural immigrant communities are discussed.

The present study discusses a pilot intervention for youth in a predominantly Latinx rural community in the U.S. The intervention incorporated multimodal creative activities into the social cognitive career theory-based healthcare career program. Participants (N = 75) were assessed for healthcare career self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interests (pre-/post-intervention). Their healthcare career task self-efficacy and interests scores significantly increased overall. By race/ethnicity groups, however, only White students reported an increase in healthcare interests, and only students of color an increase in healthcare career task self-efficacy. This provides preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of the proposed intervention. Implications for services and research are discussed.

In this unprecedented (Corona Virus Disease) COVID-19 pandemic, psychologists from every country are faced with the challenge of dealing with the myriad grief and losses that are affecting the mental health of many people. Among the many who are suffering are "essential workers" in the United States meatpacking industry, who are forced to make a choice between working in an unsafe environment or becoming unemployed with no benefits. Many of these workers are people of color (POC) who encounter unrecognized challenges related to their contextual factors and intersectional identities. This article will discuss contextual and intersectional grief and losses experienced by these "essential workers" and how the confluence of their intersectional identities intensifies their pandemic grief and loss. Clinical implications include expansion of the definition of grief and loss beyond death to include experiences that are shaped by extensive contextual factors, work, and intersectional identities that have psychological and mental health implications. Special attention will be given to naming losses to identify the grief, followed by meaning-making and meaning-finding to adapt to changes in mourning. Finally, the addition of grief and loss training requirement to APA programs is advocated to further the values of social justice and incorporation of multiculturalism in the field. Public Significance Statement This article spotlights the grief and loss experienced by workers in the meatpacking industry, who were deemed as "essential workers" during the pandemic. For more effective treatment, it suggests that in tandem with pandemic grief and loss, therapists also explore the different types of grief and losses these workers experience based on their specific contexts and multiple identities that may include some dimensions such as race, culture, gender, social class, sexuality, age, and immigration status.

This study introduces a new construct to the literature that may impact students' entrance into postgraduate programs: postgraduate school application self-efficacy. Although previous scholars have explored the admissions processes for a variety of disciplines and have developed a measure for graduate education self-efficacy, no measure has been developed to assess postgraduate school application self-efficacy (PSASE). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and validate a measure of 423 undergraduate students' PSASE. Parallel analyses, exploratory factor analyses, and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine the underlying factor structure of the PSASE scale. Reliability and correlational analyses were also conducted to assess convergent and discriminant validity. Results revealed a conceptually interpretable, 16-item, four-factor solution that accounted for 80.88% of the total variance. Correlational analyses with graduate education self-efficacy and self-esteem provided evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the PSASE subscales. Implications and future directions were explored.

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in drastic changes to employment around the globe. In the present article, we identify four emerging impacts of the pandemic and how career development professionals might respond through policy and practice. Specifically, we focus on four distinct but related domains: unemployment, worker mental health, the work–family interface, and employment disparities. For each domain, we offer recommendations for policy and practice with the hope that career development professionals might reframe the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity for a renewed commitment to supporting worker well-being.

Vocational psychologists have predicted the utilization of telepsychology in career interventions, yet vocational research have not capitalized on this modality. The purpose of this article is to describe how telepsychology could be used effectively in vocational psychology research to expand the reach and application of the field’s scholarship to real-world practice. We discuss challenges and ethical issues of this modality and the limitations of vocational psychology scholarship. We argue that telepsychology can overcome current challenges in the field by allowing vocational psychology research to extend to underserved populations, to produce scholarship that might better fill the research to practice gap, and to have practical application to better meet the challenges of the rapidly transforming world of work. In this article, each of these research areas is explored and potential research questions are highlighted.

The various types of feminisms around the world have implications for the way oppression is defined and what can be done to resist it. This article explores common dilemmas within transnational feminism regarding the policing of women's bodies, particularly as it affects Muslim women from the global South. This can be an especially important issue in therapy for global Southern women who reside in global Northern countries. This article addresses power dynamics between therapists and clients, given the inherent power differentials in their relationship, as well as the broader sociocultural and historical power differences amongst Southern and Northern women.

Hispanic individuals comprise the largest immigrant group in the United States, consisting of 55.3 million individuals (Lewis, 2017). Of this group, 23.5% reside in poverty and 24.3% lack health insurance (Lewis, 2017). Latinx populations have the highest uninsured rate compared to other ethnic/racial groups in the United States (DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Lee, 2006). Unfortunately, systemic and structural factors contribute to disparate health outcomes for this population. Rural Latinx immigrant populations face even greater barriers to access adequate behavioral and medical health care. Informed by the Psychosocial Stress Model of Health Disparities, this article argues for the utility of integrated behavioral health care to reduce health disparities among racial-ethnic minority groups, most especially rural Latinx immigrants. Moreover, we recommend the integration of telepsychology services to further enhance access to care for this population. Academic training programs are positioned well to establish these services and positively impact health disparities. We outline a psychosocial and contextually driven solution to establish integrated telepsychology behavioral health care training clinics. Specific details regarding the establishment of integrated behavioral health care specialty training, and recommendations for the utility of telepsychology, are provided.