Career Calculus: Assessing the Psychological Cost of Pursuing an Engineering Career

Autor/inn/en	Henderson, Trevion S.; Shoemaker, Katie A.; Lattuca, Lisa R.
Titel	Career Calculus: Assessing the Psychological Cost of Pursuing an Engineering Career
Quelle	In: Journal of Engineering Education, 111 (2022) 4, S.770-791 (22 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Henderson, Trevion S.) ORCID (Shoemaker, Katie A.) ORCID (Lattuca, Lisa R.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1069-4730
DOI	10.1002/jee.20474
Schlagwörter	Undergraduate Students; Engineering; Career Choice; Emotional Response; Psychological Patterns; Occupational Aspiration; Social Cognition; Self Efficacy; Beliefs; Self Concept; Expectation; Academic Aspiration; Career Pathways + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Maschinenbau; Emotionales Verhalten; Berufsneigung; Berufsziel; Soziale Kognition; Self-efficacy; Selbstwirksamkeit; Belief; Glaube; Selbstkonzept; Expectancy; Erwartung
Abstract	Background: Personal characteristics (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, and precollege experiences) are known to shape students' pathways to engineering, as well as persistence decisions in college. However, the role of psychological cost in postgraduation intentions has received less scholarly attention. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine sociocognitive factors that shape students' postgraduation intentions in the early college years. Guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory and the concept of psychological cost, we examine the role of self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and psychological cost, as well as key background characteristics, in students' postgraduation intentions. Method: We analyzed survey responses from four cohorts of undergraduate engineering students at a large public university. Participants responded to items measuring self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and psychological cost after their first and second years of college. We used structural equation modeling to examine the relationships between the sociocognitive variables and students' graduate school and career intentions. Results: The sociocognitive variables predicting postgraduation intentions after Year 1 differed from those predicting intentions after Year 2. After Year 1, we found no statistically significant sociocognitive variables predicting graduate school intentions or engineering career plans. After Year 2, both self-efficacy and outcome expectations were significant predictors of postgraduation intentions. The psychological cost was significantly related to both self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Finally, we found significant differences in racial/ethnic identity, sex, and first-generation status. Conclusion: Examining psychological cost provides additional insights into the factors informing students' postgraduation intentions over the course of their collegiate careers and suggests new directions for research on students' thinking about engineering careers. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01