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Select and read one of the following articles, located in the Topic 4 materials: Write a 500-750-word analysis of your selected article. Include the following in your analysis: Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the directions in the Student Success Center. ; This study was based on the doctoral dissertation of Lisa Y. Flores, which was conducted under the direction of Michael J. Patton. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 108th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, August 2000. We thank Nancy Betz, Mary Heppner, and Fred Leong for helpful feedback on earlier versions of this article; Kristopher Preacher and Robert MacCallum for statistical consultation; Jamilla Griffin and Jason Quarantillo for assistance with coding data; and the students, teachers, counselors, and administrators of the participating schools. Mexican American women constitute a significant portion of the American population ( ), are underrepresented at all levels of education ( ; ; ; ), and are overrepresented in low-paying occupations traditionally occupied by women ( ; ; ). Relatively little empirical research has been conducted to identify the variables that contribute to the educational and occupational underachievement of Mexican American women. Indeed, researchers have noted that the career development of spanics has received only slight consideration in the counseling and vocational literature ( ; ; ; ), and they have questioned the generalizability of career development theories to spanics ( , ; ; ). The purpose of this study was to investigate the applicability of a current model of career choice to the experiences of Mexican American adolescent women and to extend the current model to incorporate variables that are hypothesized to be salient to this population. It is well documented that spanics are the least educated when compared with other major racial/ethnic groups in the United States and that, among spanics, Mexican Americans have the lowest high school and college completion rates (47% and 6.5%, respectively; ). Mexican American women are less likely to graduate from college than their male counterparts ( ; ), and their representation in higher education decreases significantly at each successive level ( ). Moreover, those Mexican American women who pursue higher education confront many stressors and may experience psychological distress as they seek to reconcile their career aspirations with their familial and cultural values ( ). Education is related to occupational status, and thus, the restricted employment status among Mexican American women is not surprising given their low educational attainment. reported that, occupationally, spanic women were concentrated in low and mid-level technical, service-oriented, and clerical type jobs. According to , Mexican American women were less likely to be professionals or private business owners and earned less money when compared with women from other racial/ethnic groups and Mexican American men. Moreover, Mexican American women who were in professional occupations were more likely to choose traditional and low-status occupations ( ). A review of the literature on Mexican American women revealed inconsistencies between their educational and vocational achievements and aspirations. For example, reported that the majority of Mexican American college women in their study aspired to investigative and enterprising type jobs. It is interesting that the percentage of women who expected to enter these fields was smaller than the percentage of women who aspired to these careers, whereas the opposite was true of those who aspired and expected to enter fields that have typically represented traditional career options for women. Other studies revealed that Mexican American girls aspired to careers that required a college degree and to obtaining a postsecondary education ( ; ). study indicated that 87% of the girls in a sample of predominantly Mexican American 10th-grade students aspired to nontraditional or male-dominated careers. Clearly, a difference exists between Mexican American women’s educational and vocational aspirations and their actual achievements, suggesting that these women may not be realizing their educational and career potential. Prior studies on the career development of spanics have focused primarily on their educational and career aspirations ( ; ; ) and the factors postulated to be related to their educational success ( ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ). Other studies have examined the barriers that spanic students anticipate in their educational and career endeavors ( ; ). The research to date provides insight into the career development of spanic individuals but contains limitations that restrict its use. First, several studies are descriptive in nature, and while helpful in understanding patterns of behavior with this group, they do not further knowledge regarding the salient predictors of career behaviors. Second, several studies included racially/ethnically diverse samples (in which the number of spanics were disproportionately small) or failed to report the ethnic background of spanic participants. Because of the educational and occupational differences between racial/ethnic groups and among spanics, investigating ethnically diverse subgroups individually seems warranted ( ). Another limitation of the existing studies is that many included both women and men. Given differences in Mexican American women’s and men’s educational attainment, occupational status, and socialization within the culture, women and men should be investigated separately to understand the effects of cultural and gender role socialization on career decisions. Finally, few studies have assessed the influence of cultural variables, such as acculturation, on spanics’ career-related behaviors ( ). One notable exception to the research described above was a study investigating the educational plans and career expectations of Mexican American high school girls ( ). McWhirter and her colleagues studied the utility of model of career commitment and aspirations in explaining the educational planning and career expectations of Mexican American adolescent women. They extended Farmer’s model by including acculturation and perceived barriers in their theoretical models. The results of this study indicated that their models described the educational and career plans of a sample of Mexican American girls; however, only a modest amount of variance was accounted for by the models. Thus, McWhirter et al. encouraged researchers to include additional variables when developing future models of the career development of Mexican American adolescent women. Moreover, McWhirter et al. suggested that social cognitive career theory had promise for advancing knowledge regarding the career development of Mexican American women. Lent and his colleagues ( ) extended social cognitive theory and career self-efficacy theory to develop a social cognitive career theory (SCCT) that hypothesized the influence of personal, contextual, and social cognitive factors on interest formation, career goals, and performance. Of interest in this study are the propositions of SCCT that background contextual variables exert an influence on career self-efficacy, which in turn directly influences career interests. In addition, Lent et al. posited that career interests directly influence career goals and that career self-efficacy both directly and indirectly (through career interests) influences career goals. Finally, proximal contextual variables were hypothesized to exert direct effects on career goals (see ). Lent and his colleagues suggested that SCCT may be used to guide inquiry on the career development of women and racial/ethnic minorities, and they recently advocated for more research to test the hypotheses related to the contextual variables in their model ( ). Recent studies provided partial support for the model with racially diverse middle school students ( ) as well as Asian American ( ) and Black college students ( ); however, no studies to date have investigated the validity of SCCT with Mexican American adolescent women. To test this theory, when operationalizing the constructs advanced by , we selected variables that were hypothesized to be salient for racial/ethnic minorities or women. Specifically, in our model, we operationalized background contextual variables to include acculturation level, feminist attitudes, and mothers’ modeling through educational attainment and occupation. Multicultural researchers have identified the importance of examining within-group differences of racial and ethnic subgroups, and discussed acculturation as one variable that differentiates spanic subgroups or individuals within a subgroup. Moreover, noted that acculturation was the only variable that they added to model that accounted for significant variance in the educational aspirations of Mexican American girls. Other researchers also documented that acculturation was positively related to educational aspirations ( ), in addition to interest in nontraditional careers ( ), college attendance ( ), and achievement styles ( ) among spanic students. Other variables, specifically feminist and gender role attitudes, have been shown to relate to the career choices of young women ( ; ), such that women with traditional gender role attitudes exhibited lower levels of career orientation and aspiration than women holding liberal gender role attitudes. Among Mexican American girls, nontraditional gender role attitudes were positively related to higher levels of educational and career expectations ( ) and academic achievement ( ; ). For Mexican American women, cultural expectations about gender roles may result in traditional gender role attitudes or nonfeminist attitudes ( ; ), which in turn may contribute to lower levels of career achievement. In addition, parental factors, such as occupation and educational level, were found to relate to academic achievement and parental involvement in Mexican American students’ educational and career planning ( ). With regard to the influence of mothers, having a mother who attended college was predictive of college attendance and persistence among Latinas ( ). However, other studies that assessed the role of parents’ educational or occupational attainment in children’s educational and career aspirations reported no relation ( ; ; ; ; ), possibly because of the highly skewed number of parents with lower educational and occupational levels in these samples. The influence of mothers’ educational level and occupational traditionality were included in the present study to determine their influence on daughters’ career development. According to SCCT, these background variables were hypothesized to influence nontraditional career self-efficacy or confidence in pursuing nontraditional career-related tasks for women ( ). In turn, nontraditional career self-efficacy should exert a direct effect on both nontraditional career interests and career goals (i.e., career choice prestige, career choice traditionality, and career aspirations). Indeed, these relations have been supported in prior studies, which reported that career self-efficacy was related to career interests and careers considered among spanic students ( ; ; ). In addition, research has shown that career interests were related to careers considered among spanic students ( ; ). These findings were consistent with SCCT, which posited a direct link between career interests and career goals. We also hypothesized, in accordance with SCCT ( ), that the proximal contextual variables of perceived support from parents and perceptions of barriers will influence career choice prestige, traditionality, and career aspirations. Among Latinas, encouragement and emotional support from families have been found to be predictive of educational achievement ( ; ; ) and college attendance ( ; ). With regard to perceived barriers, spanic students reported experiencing more barriers to education than students from other racial/ethnic groups ( ; ), and Mexican American women who experienced negative family attitudes related to their college attendance were more likely to attend college close to home ( ). found no relation among perceived barriers and Mexican American girls’ educational or career plans. However, they suggested that the influence of perceived barriers on academic and vocational goals be further tested with additional samples. It is possible that Mexican American adolescent women’s increased levels of perceived barriers to their educational or career goals may alter their decision making, such that they plan to pursue careers that present the least resistance. In summary, this study was designed to test several tenets of SCCT ( ) with a sample of Mexican American adolescent women. Specifically, we explored the influence of background contextual variables, namely, acculturation level, feminist attitudes, mother’s educational level, and mother’s occupational traditionality on nontraditional career self-efficacy. Additionally, we investigated the contributions of nontraditional career self-efficacy, nontraditional career interests, parental support, and perceived barriers to career choice prestige, career choice traditionality, and career aspirations. These dependent variables were selected because of their importance to women’s career development ( ; ). A secondary purpose of this study was to obtain descriptive information regarding participants’ demographic characteristics, career choices, plans following high school graduation, choice of colleges/universities, and reasons for choosing these schools, given the lack of data regarding this population and their career plans. Participants were Mexican American adolescent women enrolled in their senior year of high school. At the same time, Mexican American adolescent men were surveyed for a later study. Participants were drawn from two large public high schools in a mid-sized town (a population of approximately 30,000) in south Texas. The community is close to the United States–Mexican border and is heavily influenced by the Mexican culture. A high percentage of U.S. citizens who are of Mexican descent live in this area, and this is reflected in the student population at the high schools, in which almost 95% of the students are Mexican American. A total of 931 surveys were distributed to students; 831 were returned (450 female, 381 male), resulting in an 89% overall return rate. Women who were in their senior year of high school and who identified as Mexican American were included in this study ( = 377). Of these women, 13 were dropped from the study because of incomplete data, resulting in a total sample of 364. Participants ranged in age from 16 to 21 years with a mean age of 17.47 ( = 0.70). The average number of people living at home was 4.83 ( = 1.71; range = 2 to 13). Eighteen percent of the students ( = 65) reported that they were first-generation Mexican American, with 37.9% ( = 138) second generation, 11.3% ( = 41) third generation, 19.2% ( = 70) fourth generation, and 10.7% ( = 39) fifth generation. With regard to acculturation level, 17% ( = 61) were categorized as “very Mexican oriented,” 38% ( = 138) “Mexican oriented to approximately balanced bicultural,” 34% ( = 123) “slightly Anglo oriented bicultural,” 10% ( = 37) “strongly Anglo oriented,” and 1% ( = 5) “very assimilated, Anglicized.” The educational level of the female and male head of household, respectively, was as follows: completed elementary school, 24% and 21%; attended high school, 25% and 23%; high school graduate, 19% and 21%; attended college/university, 14% and 12%; college/university graduate, 10% and 12%; and graduate or professional degree, 2% and 1%. Eighty-seven percent ( = 317) of the students planned to attend a 2- or 4-year college/university following their high school graduation, with the remaining students indicating plans to attend technical school (5.5%),

work (3.2%), enlist in the military (2.1%), and marry or stay at home (0.5%). Among students with intentions to continue their education at a 2- or 4-year college/university, almost half (43.2%, = 137) reported that they would work either full time (1.9%, = 6) or part time (41.3%, = 131). Over a third (39.1%, = 124) planned to attend the local 4-year university, and 19.2% ( = 61) planned to attend the local 2-year community college. The most often cited reasons for choosing to attend the college or university of their choice were because it was close to home and family (36.5%, = 116), had a good program of study (10.7%, = 34), was a good college/university (6.9%, = 22), and was affordable or inexpensive to attend (4.1%, = 13). Sixty-eight percent ( = 214) indicated that they would rely on financial aid (e.g., loans, grants, and work study) to finance their education, whereas 31.5% ( = 100) hoped to earn scholarships, 26.5% ( = 84) planned to receive financial support from their parents or other family members, and 25% ( = 78) planned to work. Data collection occurred during the fall semester of the school year. Student participation was solicited through English IV classes because every senior was required to enroll in this class. Data collection occurred across 4 days, and Lisa Y. Flores met with every English IV section ( = 46) at both schools. English teachers escorted their students to a central room at the beginning of the class period and stayed to monitor students’ behaviors. Packets containing an informed-assent form, an entry form for cash prizes, and the research instruments were distributed to students as they entered the room. The questionnaires were counterbalanced to avoid order effects from fatigue. Participants were told that the investigator was interested in studying the career development of Mexican American adolescents. Students were told that it would take them most, if not all, of the class period to complete the questionnaires and were encouraged to work quickly. The investigator told the students that two of the surveys looked very similar (each listed the same occupations and educational programs), but these surveys asked students to rate either interests or skills. Students were informed of a possible follow-up study and were invited to participate in future studies. As an incentive to participate in the study, students who completed and returned the surveys were eligible for a random drawing for cash prizes (10 prizes for $20 and 1 prize for $50). The Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans (ARSMA–II; ) was a 30-item scale that assessed association with and identity with the Mexican and Anglo cultures on two independent subscales. Participants responded to the items using a 5-point scale ranging from (1) to (5). An acculturation score was calculated by subtracting the mean score for items on the Anglo Orientation Subscale (AOS) from the mean score for items on the Mexican Orientation Subscale (MOS). On the basis of their acculturation score, participants were categorized into one of the five acculturation levels described by . Levels range from (1) to (5). Middle categories represented bicultural individuals. Thus, high scores were indicative of a strong orientation toward the Anglo culture. The ARSMA–II, as well as prior to its revision, the ARSMA, is one of the most widely used measures to assess acculturation among Mexican Americans, and evidence suggests that it is a reliable and valid instrument. Adequate internal consistency coefficients have been reported for the two subscales with multiple samples (range from .79 to .83 for the AOS and .87 to .91 for the MOS; ; ; ). Reliability coefficients of .77 for the AOS and .91 for the MOS were obtained in the present study. Cuellar and his colleagues also reported a test–retest reliability estimate for the AOS and MOS over a 2-week interval of .94 and .96, respectively. Concurrent validity was assessed by comparing scores on the ARSMA–II with scores on the ARSMA and yielded a correlation coefficient of .89. Concurrent validity for the ARSMA–II was further supported when its two subscales correlated in the expected direction with the dominant group and ethnic group subscales of the Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale ( ). provided additional support for concurrent validity when she reported that acculturation scores on the ARSMA–II correlated positively with other acculturation measures. Construct validity was supported when acculturation scores on the ARSMA–II were compared across generations, and differences were found between generation levels in the expected directions ( ; ). The Attitudes Toward Feminism and the Women’s Movement Scale (FWM; ) was used to measure feminist attitudes. The FWM is a 10-item scale that assessed attitudes about the feminist movement. Participants rated their agreement with the items along a 5-point scale ranging from (1) to (5). Scale scores were obtained by averaging the items; high scores reflect profeminist attitudes. reported that the FWM had high internal consistency (α = .89), and reported an internal reliability coefficient of .82 for the FWM with a sample of adolescent women. Cronbach’s alpha for this sample was .68. reported a 2-week test–retest reliability coefficient of .81 with female college students. Convergent validity for the FWM was supported when the FWM was positively correlated with measures assessing attitudes toward women, gender roles, and feminism ( ; ). In addition, the FWM correlated positively with items assessing feminist identification and favorability toward the women’s movement ( ). Finally, reported that the FWM correlated in the expected directions with both interest and involvement in feminist activities. Divergent validity estimates revealed that the FWM was not measuring gender role characteristics, dogmatism, and social desirability ( ). A single item asked participants to indicate the highest level of education completed by their mother. Options ranged from elementary school to graduate/professional school. gh scores represented high levels of education. An item asked participants to indicate their mother’s occupation, which was later categorized according to traditionality. Traditionality of mother’s career was computed on the basis of the percentage of women employed in a given career and was obtained through the (1998), a publication of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The U.S. Census Bureau relies on information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and to report these data. Scores ranged from 6 to 99, with high scores representing careers with high concentrations of women. This indicator of career orientation has been used in previous studies of women’s career development ( ; ; ). Self-efficacy expectations with regard to nontraditional occupations were assessed using a short form of the occupational self-efficacy questionnaire used by . The self-efficacy questionnaire used in this study was comparable with career self-efficacy measures used by and . The original occupational questionnaire contained a total of 31 occupations for which participants rated their confidence in their ability to successfully learn to perform the job. The nontraditional career self-efficacy scale used for this study was modified to include seven male-dominated occupations (e.g., electronic equipment repairer, police officer, mechanical engineer). Occupations were categorized according to the percentage of women in the occupation according to U.S. census data ( ). A brief description of the occupation was provided for each job title. Participants were asked to rate their confidence in their ability and skills to successfully learn to do the jobs. Participants responded to the items using a scale ranging from (1) to (4). Although studies typically use 5-point scales to measure strength of self-efficacy, we followed the reasoning of , whose sample predominantly consisted of spanic students, that students may dependably and meaningfully discriminate these four bipolar levels. Occupational self-efficacy scores for male-dominated occupations were obtained by averaging the responses to the items. gh scores reflected strong levels of nontraditional career self-efficacy. reported an internal consistency reliability of .95 for the 31-item self-efficacy scale with a sample of predominantly spanic racial/ethnic minority high school students. Convergent validity was supported with a sample of Mexican American boys when nontraditional career self-efficacy was positively related to nontraditional career interests, consideration of nontraditional careers, and selection of careers dominated by men ( ). Divergent validity estimates indicated that nontraditional career self-efficacy was not related to acculturation or feminist attitudes ( ). Church et al. reported that the self-efficacy scale was not measuring aptitude. An alpha coefficient of .81 for the short version of the nontraditional self-efficacy scale was obtained in the present study. Students’ nontraditional occupational interests were assessed using the same male-dominated occupations on the nontraditional career self-efficacy scale. Participants were asked to indicate their interest in the jobs listed on a scale ranging from (1) to (3); this scale is similar to ones used in other career interest inventories. Scoring the nontraditional career interests scale consisted of summing the items and dividing by the number of items to obtain a mean score. gh scores reflected strong levels of interest for the nontraditional or male-dominated occupations. reported an internal consistency reliability of .86 for the 31-item interest scale with a sample comprising mainly spanic students. Construct validity was supported when the original scale correlated positively with another interest measure ( ). In addition, among a group of Mexican American boys, it correlated positively with nontraditional career self-efficacy, consideration of nontraditional careers, and choice of nontraditional careers, providing support for convergent validity ( ). It was not related to feminist attitudes ( ). Cronbach’s alpha was .74 for the present study. The Career Support Scale (CSS; ) was used to assess the amount of perceived support and encouragement that participants received in their career pursuits from their parents. The CSS was adapted by assessing support from both parents concurrently rather than individually and by reducing the number of items (10 items that were cross-listed on both Mother and Father subscales were retained). Sample items included “My parents agree with my career goals” and “My parents and I often discuss my career plans.” Participants responded to the 10 items using a 5-point scale ranging from (1) to (5). Scale scores were obtained by averaging the items. gh scores reflected strong levels of perceived support from parents. Reliability estimates were .87 for the 22-item Mother–CSS and .90 for the 18-item Father–CSS ( ). Internal consistency for the modified CCS used in the present study was .76. Discriminant validity estimates indicated that the Mother and Father subscales were not significantly correlated with social desirability ( ). The Perceptions of Barriers scale (POB; ) was a 24-item scale that assessed ethnic and gender-related occupational and educational barriers. Because the present study assessed career choice goals, only those items of the POB that measured participants’ job-related barriers were included. Eight items, which assessed anticipated future gender and ethnic discrimination in the workplace, were used for this study. Individuals responded to the items using a scale ranging from (1) to (5). Scale scores were derived by averaging the responses. gh scores reflected low anticipation of gender or ethnic discrimination in a career. reported an alpha coefficient of .89 for the job discrimination items, and a reliability estimate of .91 was obtained with the present sample. Construct validity was supported when found significant differences in anticipated job discrimination between Mexican American and European American students, boys and girls, and Mexican American girls and European American girls in the expected directions. Participants were asked to list their top three career choices. The traditionality rating of the top career choice was obtained with the same procedure for mothers’ occupational traditionality. Career choice prestige was determined on the basis of socioeconomic index of occupational status. Scores ranged from 13 to 89, with high scores indicating prestigious careers. This indicator of career choice has been used in previous studies of women’s and racial/ethnic minorities’ career development ( ; ; ; ). The Career Aspiration Scale (CAS; ) contained 10 items that assessed participants’ goals and plans within their career field. Example items included “I plan on developing as an expert in my career field” and “I do not plan on devoting energy in getting promoted in the organization or business I am working in.” Participants indicated whether the items applied to them by using a 5-point scale ranging from (0) to (4). Scale scores were derived by calculating the mean score for the items. gh scores indicated strong aspirations in one’s career pursuits. Internal consistency of the CAS has been reported as .76 ( ) with female high school students and .77 ( ) and .80 ( ) with female undergraduate students. In the present study, a reliability coefficient of .61 was obtained. Convergent validity for the CAS was supported by relations with multiple role self-efficacy, career decision-making self-efficacy, and career salience ( ). Discriminant validity was demonstrated through the absence of relations between the CAS and social desirability, as well as a negative relation between the CAS and a measure of the relative importance of career versus family ( ). A demographic information survey was included to obtain age, gender, race/ethnicity, grade level, number of people living at home, family income, plans following high school graduation, parents’ level of education, and parents’ occupations. If participants were planning to continue their education following high school, information regarding their major of study, choice of college/university to attend, sources of financial support for education, and reasons for choosing the college/university was obtained. The means, standard deviations, ranges, and reliability coefficients for each of the measured variables, along with a correlation matrix, are presented for the full sample in . The original sample of 364 Mexican American young women was randomly split into two samples. A sample consisting of 262 women was used to test the original models, and a validation sample consisting of 102 women was set aside for confirmation purposes in the case that any of the models were revised. A path analysis was conducted using the EQS (Version 5.7) statistical package ( ). The hypothesized model predicting career choice prestige tested the paths from acculturation level, feminist attitudes, mothers’ educational level, and mothers’ occupational traditionality to nontraditional career self-efficacy; nontraditional career self-efficacy to nontraditional career interests; and nontraditional career self-efficacy, nontraditional career interests, parental support, and perceived future barriers to career choice prestige. The exogenous variables, which included the background and proximal contextual variables, in the model were allowed to covary. Adequacy of model fit was determined by using a variety of goodness-of-fit measures, including the chi-square test, the comparative fit index (CFI), the goodness-of-fit index (GFI), the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA), and the standardized root-mean-squared residual (SRMR). The CFI and RMSEA goodness-of-fit measures are preferred indexes by which to assess model fit ( ). If a model provides adequate fit, a small chi-square value and a nonsignificant value are expected. Values for the CFI and GFI indexes range from 0 to 1; models with values above .90 have traditionally been considered models with good fit ( ); however, values of .95 and higher are suggested today as the baseline to assess model fit. Models with RMSEA and SRMR values around or below .05 (“close fit”)