Mobile Edition
Print
Get the Mag
Weekly UpdatesBecause of the significant relationship between ethnicity and career task concerns, we conducted t-test analyses examining the differences between Caucasian and minority students. Although this was not the original purpose of the study, the statistically significant difference found in the regression equations warranted further exploration. It should be noted, however, that there was a considerable difference in sample sizes between Caucasian students (n = 127) and minority students (n = 24), thus these analyses are solely for exploratory purposes. It was found that minority students in the current sample reported significantly higher levels of overall career task concerns and concerns with career exploration than did Caucasian students (t = -3.89, p < .0001; t = -2.28, p < .05, respectively), with a mean difference of 19.02 for overall career task concerns and 7.45 for career exploration concerns. However, no significant difference was found for career establishment concerns (t = -1.27, p > .01).
Discussion
The present study examined the career concerns of community and school counseling graduate students at seven state universities in Ohio. On the basis of anecdotal evidence from students and a previous pilot study, we were not surprised that respondents expressed significant overall concern as measured by the CTCQ. Specifically, master's-level students expressed significant importance for meeting professional development, adjustment, and academia tasks. These results appear to be consistent with a study by Rimmer, Lammert, and McClain (1982), who found that, overall, graduate students perceived their greatest concern to be in the areas of professional development, career planning, and orientation opportunities. It was surprising, however, that students in the current study reported minimal job-search concerns.
The finding that almost the entire sample expressed little/some importance regarding concerns about the job-search suggests that, for participants in this sample, exploring how to attain a position in the counseling profession was not an issue. This appears contrary to the aforementioned study by Rimmer et al. (1982), who also found that graduate students perceived career planning as a primary concern. Perhaps within the programs in which the sample participants are enrolled, job-search tasks may receive adequate attention through faculty mentoring, curricular, and cocurricular experiences. In addition, because many of the participants were nontraditional students, who often bring skills developed in previous career decision-making experiences, they may have perceived that they had adequate preparedness to manage these particular tasks. Alternatively, this finding may be a result of the state of job prospects for counseling in Ohio. For example, the Ohio short-term occupational employment forecast for 2004-2006 shows an increase of 1% for substance abuse counselors, 0.8% for school counselors, 2.0% for marriage and family therapists, and a 2.4% increase for mental health counselors (Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Bureau of Labor Market Information, n.d.). It may follow that participants in the current sample may be apathetic about job opportunities in Ohio and therefore express minimal concern for the job search. We did not expect, however, that students would believe they were less prepared to cope with exploring their career futures.
Overall, participants reported a high degree of interests for meeting Exploration stage tasks. Specifically, 78% of students reported considerable concern to great concern with the efforts required to acquire more information about themselves and about occupations. Because this study did not collect information on participants' current career status, interpretation of these results may vary. On the basis of Niles, Anderson, and Goodnough's (1998) general interpretation of high Exploration stage concerns, some students in the current study may be thinking about exploratory tasks as they recycle into the profession of counseling, reenter the workforce after a period of unemployment, or express concern triggered by current work and working conditions. Depending on the particular career status of a student, counselor educators can foster an attitude that career exploration is an opportunity to reexamine self in relation to a position in the profession of counseling.
Faculty can assist students who present with Exploration stage concerns. For students who recycle or those new to the profession, faculty can assist by helping them first explore their interests, abilities, and values as they relate to the counseling field before they deal with professional development, job search, or tasks related to becoming counselor education faculty. For students concerned with current work and working conditions, faculty can help them adjust to graduate training or refer them to external support services. Perhaps for more traditional students, high Exploration stage concerns may be related to some anxiety about fitting into or committing to the counseling profession as they adjust to graduate school. As their self-concepts are called into question, some students may be discovering that "the inner world that prompted them to be therapists does not always match the outer world exactly" (Fouad, 2003, p. 82). This echoes McCaffrey et al.'s (1984) claim that graduate-level education appears to be for some "an opportunity to crystallize a career decision rather than a chance to gain advanced training to achieve a previously determined career goal" (p. 130). For students indifferent, pessimistic, or apathetic about their career, Savickas (2005) suggested that this can be generally addressed by fostering optimism, making the future feel real, reinforcing positive attitudes toward planning, linking present activities to future outcomes, and practicing planning skills. Students in the current sample also appeared to be concerned about establishing themselves in a profession.
Overall, participants reported a high degree of interest for meeting Establishment stage tasks. Specifically, the results indicate that 79% of students reported considerable concern to great concern for the efforts required to express their self-concept in an occupational role. This finding suggests that the ACCI might have tapped into students' anticipation of the career tasks they will encounter, as well as concerns about adapting to changes in current work and working conditions. Depending on the students' career status, students who attempt to innovate and move ahead in their current work position, have prior experience working in the human services profession, or who have entered a graduate counseling program from a similar undergraduate major may already possess a clearer self-concept about themselves in relation to the counseling profession. In this instance, counselor educators may help students clarify and prioritize their concerns. To help examine the relations between career concerns and career stages, we used a hierarchical regression analysis.
Results of the hierarchical regression analysis suggest that students with a high level of Establishment stage concerns reported significantly higher levels of overall career task concerns ([beta] = .40, p < .001). This suggests that students who expressed concern with establishing themselves in an occupation perceived that it was of great importance to accomplish a common set of career tasks for successfully entering the counseling profession. Students concerned with career establishment either anticipate tasks related to stabilizing, consolidating, and advancing in the counseling profession or presently cope with these tasks in their current position. This may also suggest that there may be more items on the CTCQ that measure counselor trainee career establishment tasks than there are items that measure career exploration tasks.
Moreover, the hierarchical regression analysis showed that Caucasian students expressed lower levels of career task concerns than did minority students. These results appear similar to a survey of 1,003 adults conducted by the Gallup Organization (2000) for the National Career Development Association, which found that non-Caucasians expressed more need for selecting, changing, or securing a job than did Caucasian participants.
Limitations and Future Directions
Although this study included participants from seven counselor education programs, generalizability of the results is limited by the small number of participants as well as the lack of heterogeneity of the group. Replication of the current study with larger groups of master's-level students is needed. Also, recruitment of more men, minorities, and doctoral-level students is needed to further examine between-group differences. Further studies investigating career stages should include a measure of current career status of participants to aid in determining if they are recycling to Exploration stage tasks. To determine if career task concerns and career stage concerns change as students matriculate through a program, longitudinal studies are required.
Conclusion
The results of this study indicate that graduate counselor trainees at several CACREP-accredited counselor education programs expressed significant concern for a specific and general set of career tasks anticipated during graduate training. This study provides an important foundation for identifying career concerns and career stages that students cope with as they regulate their career behavior relative to various career expectations and transitions encountered during counselor training. Although academic accomplishments or skill acquisition remains dominant during counselor training, many students appear to feel challenged as they prepare for, engage in, and reflect on a productive work life in professional counseling. With further research, knowledge about graduate student career development may have implications for counselor training education curricula and cocurricular programs. In the meantime, counselor educators must strive to be more aware of and active in the career development of graduate counselor trainees.
FEED