Getting through to them: reaching students who need career counseling.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a persuasive message, designed using the theory of planned behavior (TOPB; I. Ajzen, 1985) and written in the form of a student newspaper column, on undecided students' intent to seek career counseling from an informed source, such as a career counseling workshop. An experiment was conducted to test TOPB's applicability, and it was found that a message using positive reinforcement of salient beliefs and creating positive links between outcomes and workshop attendance caused a change in behavioral intention toward a greater reported likelihood of workshop attendance.

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Higher education in the United States has become a more than $165 billion industry. In 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton pledged "to make the thirteenth and fourteenth years of education--at least two years of college--just as universal in America by the twenty-first century as a high school education is today" (Haworth, 1997, p. A2). In 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which has as one of its goals to make students more prepared for a college education and to help them strive for that achievement. Increasingly, scholars are noting that college is being seen as an American birthright, and students are responding to the call (Karabell, 1998; Matthews, 1997; Sacks, 1996). College is seen more as an assumption than a choice, and because of this, today's students are arguably different than students of past generations (Matthews, 1997; Ringer, 1999; Sacks, 1996). What remains the same, however, is their need to figure out a plan--an academic plan for their college years and a career plan for their futures.

Researchers estimate that between 20% and 50% of students enter their freshman year undecided about their major and future career and that between 50% and 70% of all undergraduates will change their major and future career plans at least once during college (Gordon & Steele, 2003). In addition, over the past 25 years, Gordon and Steele (2003) found that 1st-year students have grown slightly more anxious about choosing a major.

For many students, even knowing where to begin in the process of choosing a major or career can be difficult. Students' initial choices can be unrealistic because they are often based on little knowledge about academic requirements or major and job relationships (Gordon & Steele, 2003). American College Testing (ACT) President Richard L. Fergeson commented that students' career aspirations were out of sync with the jobs that will be available for many of them. He continued that students would benefit from educators helping them to start their career explorations early, perhaps as early as eighth grade, and that career counselors and teachers need to provide them with up-to-date college and career planning information so that the students can make better career decisions (ACT, 1998). Other factors that contribute to difficulty choosing or staying in a major or career path include poor high school preparation, poor academic performance in a subject required for a major or career (such as math or science), inaccurate information sources (such as entertainment television or peers), and uninformed parents (Gordon & Steele, 2003; Ringer & Dodd, 1999).

What impact does being undecided have on a student? Chase and Keene (1981) found that, compared with students who declare their majors and career plans early, students who postpone declaring a major have significantly lower grade point averages (GPAs), take fewer hours of course work, and are less academically motivated.

Gordon (1984) stated that other factors could complicate these effects by confounding the decision-making process. Students who feel pressured to make changes in a hurry, such as by the administration or parents, may not want to spend enough time examining alternatives. Other students may drift along, not acknowledging or facing their indecision, and become depressed or discouraged because of a lack of direction. These issues become magnified the further a student is into his or her college education, because even more pressure is put upon upper class students to make a concrete decision.

Academic and career advisers also play an important role in undecided students' decision-making processes (Gordon & Steele, 2003; Marra & Schweitzer, 1992). Advising has been found to be a leading factor in student retention, morale, and GPA (Andrews, Andrews, Long, & Henton, 1987; Crockett & Crawford, 1989). Thomas and McDaniel (2004) found that students who completed a career planning course had increased knowledge of career options and confidence in their ability to make career decisions.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of a persuasive message, written in the form of a college student newspaper column, on undecided students' intent to seek career counseling. Despite the volume of research on career development, few studies have attempted to gauge the impact mass media may have on college students' career choice. Of these studies, most have been content analyses that suggest the effect of career stereotypes and misleading job activities (e.g., Signorelli, 1997).

It is proposed that the theory of planned behavior (TOPB; Ajzen, 1985), an expectancy-value model, provides an effective framework for studying the impact of a persuasive message on the intent to seek information about careers from an informed source, such as a career counselor or career counseling workshop. The TOPB model's main propositions suggest that people will behave as they intend to behave, as long as the behavior will allow them to obtain favorable outcomes and the behavior meets the expectations of others who are important to them. Because it is generally thought that the process of selecting a career is one that ends with a favorable outcome and that both parents and peers weigh heavily in the way young adults make decisions, TOPB appears applicable to this study. The TOPB model has been tested with positive predictive results in several studies looking at behaviors similar to those in the current study, including enrollment in physics courses (Crawley & Black, 1990), enrollment in a business ethics course (Randall, 1994), and job search activities (Caska, 1998).

Although it is realized and acknowledged that mass media and other forms of persuasive communication may be only a small piece of the career decision-making process, it is a significant part. Students are daily users of many forms of media, and the impact of media on various attitudes and beliefs has been heavily documented (e.g., Chaffee, Ward, & Tipton, 1970; Chan, 1998; Newhagen, 1994). Although researchers do not always agree on the exact impact of a particular medium on society, there is no question that media do indeed have an effect, either by changing attitudes and beliefs in some way or by reinforcing existing attitudes and behaviors.

Studying the influence of a mass media message, which specifically addresses several of the variables known to influence career decision (e.g., parental influence and opinion, knowledge about careers, peer opinion, and personal attitudes and beliefs about a specific career and/or the importance of career selection), should be of value to college educators and career counselors. Knowing more about how a student selects a career can lead to more effective programs to educate undecided students as well as to better counseling techniques for use with all students.

Creation of a Persuasive Message

The literature shows that exposing participants to a persuasive message can have an impact on changing attitudes and behaviors. However, researchers agree that in order for the message to be most persuasive, it must be effectively targeted and constructed and delivered using an appropriate medium. TOPB posits that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are influenced by corresponding salient beliefs. The persuasive message used in this study was targeted primarily at college students' beliefs about attending a career counseling workshop; specifically, the message was targeted at behavioral beliefs, outcome evaluations, attitudes, normative beliefs, general subjective norms, and behavioral intentions.

Before a message can be persuasive, it is necessary to determine what the target audience already thinks or believes about the target behavior (Flay & Burton, 1990). The message content for the current study was derived from a pretest questionnaire and addressed both prior beliefs and awareness levels about career counseling. Stutman and Newell (1984) proposed four strategies to be used when targeting beliefs with the goal of changing behavior: (a) reinforcement of previous beliefs that are supportive of the desired behavior; (b) introduction of new beliefs promoting the desired behavior; (c) attacks on nonsupportive beliefs about the desired behavior; and (d) attempts to change the evaluation of negative, non-supportive beliefs.

Empirical studies using similar message construction techniques have found that these messages are successful in being persuasive and that positive messages are often the most effective (e.g., Fishbein, Ajzen, & McArdle, 1980).

Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were investigated:

Hypothesis 1: Students who are exposed to the positive message will report higher intentions to enroll in a career counseling workshop than will those students who are exposed to all other combinations of messages and sources.