The relationship of female identity development and academic performance to career self-efficacy expectations
Abstract
During late adolescence, the exploration of identity issues results in an inner sense of stability or consistency referred to as an “ego identity.” Marcia (1966) suggested that the individual resolves his/her identity crisis in one of four statuses: identity achievement, foreclosure, moratorium, or diffusion. These four statuses have been found to affect college students' career development. Self-efficacy, as defined by Bandura (1977), refers to a person's beliefs concerning his/her ability to successfully perform a given task or behavior. The concept was broadened by Hackett and Betz (1981) to include the domain of occupational behaviors. This study examined the relationship of ego identity status and academic performance to career self-efficacy in 203 female undergraduates, ages 16–21 at a suburban university campus in the Northeast. They represented the four ego identity statuses as measured by the Ego Identity Process Questionnaire and two academic performance levels, as measured by GPA. The Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale was used to measure career self-efficacy. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed no main effect for ego identity status; however, the MANOVA revealed a main effect for GPA. As was hypothesized, female college students with higher GPAs reported significantly greater career self-efficacy regarding educational requirements than female students with lower GPAs. The MANOVA also revealed an interaction effect for GPA and ego identity status on the career self-efficacy scores. Although no interaction effect was hypothesized, participants in the moratorium and foreclosure groups who reported GPAs of 1.0–2.9 had significantly higher career self-efficacy interest scores than participants in the moratorium and foreclosure groups who had reported GPAs of 3.0–4.0. Participants in the identity achievement and diffusion groups who had reported GPAs of 3.0–4.0 had higher interest scores than the 1.0–2.9 identity achievement and foreclosure groups. The study indicated that female college students with high GPAs had greater career self-efficacy than those with lower GPAs but career self-efficacy was not related to ego identity status.
Subject Area
School counseling|Womens studies|Higher education
Recommended Citation
Rodier, Ann Marie, "The relationship of female identity development and academic performance to career self-efficacy expectations" (1998). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9923444.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9923444
