Development and Validation of the Negative Outcome Expectations Scale in Engineering (NOES-E)

Abstract

The Negative Outcome Expectations Scale in Engineering (NOES-E) is a 21-item measure that was developed to assess anticipated negative outcomes related to pursuing engineering. Using two samples of engineering students, exploratory (n ¼ 256) and confirmatory (n ¼ 1,187) factor analyses supported a four-factor model of the NOES-E. The four factors included cultural-related stressors, personal life and work balance, job characteristics, and social costs. The results suggested that the 21-item NOES-E demonstrated strong internal consistency (Cronbach's a ¼ .94) and construct validity by a positive correlation with a measure of engineering environmental barriers and negative correlations with measures of engineering academic satisfaction, self-efficacy, environmental supports, intended persistence, and positive outcome expectations. There was nonsignificant relation between NOES-E scores and future family consideration. Also, we found that women and transgender students reported higher negative outcome expectations in engineering than men. However, there were no significant group differences across race/ethnicity. Implications for practice, theory, and future vocational research in engineering are discussed. Keywords negative outcome expectations, engineering, social cognitive, scale development, social cognitive career theory Recently, the need for high-quality engineers has increased, given their critical role in supporting the United States' competitiveness in the global economy, particularly over the next 10 years (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). Unfortunately, the overall number of U.S. engineering students has flattened or decreased over the last several years and does not currently meet industry demands

Project HOPE: Sociopolitical Development and SCCT Beliefs of Latinx and White Rural Middle School Students

“…Further, this study only assesses positive outcome expectations and ignores changes in negative outcome expectations. Investigation of negative outcome expectations for these adolescents should be included, as has been tested by other researchers (Lee, Flores, Navarro, & Suh, 2016). Further inclusion of programmatic elements that address these different socio-cognitive factors will be important for future interventions.…”

Microaggressions and Ethnic Identity in the Career Development of Latina College Students

“…Although this exploration used a measure of perceived barriers as a proxy for negative outcome expectations in understanding students’ beliefs about their capacity to engage in tasks related to career exploration and decision-making tasks, an explicit measure of negative outcome expectations is needed. Particularly, additional measures are needed to assess how gender and sociocultural factors influence negative outcome expectations in various career exploration and decision-making domains (Lee et al, 2016).…”

“…With the notable exception of Lee et al (2016), few studies thus far have sought to investigate negative outcome expectations. Although positive outcome expectations have been operationalized as general distal anticipated outcomes (e.g.…”

“…Specifically, self-efficacy beliefs (i.e., people’s judgment of their capability to attain a goal) influence outcome expectations (i.e., people’s beliefs about what will happen if they attempt to achieve a goal) and together, self-efficacy and outcome expectations influence career interests and goals (Lent & Brown, 2013; Lent et al, 2000). Recently, researchers (Lee, Flores, Navarro, & Shu, 2016) have called attention to Bandura’s (1986) description of outcome expectations as the anticipation of both positive and negative consequences of engaging in a particular course of action. Hence, SCCT proposes that individual differences (e.g., person inputs such as gender and ethnic identity), and differing contextual affordances (e.g., socioeconomic status [SES], experiences of overt racism and microaggressions) lead to varied learning experiences that in turn influence self-efficacy beliefs, both positive and negative outcome expectations, and ultimately, career interests.…”

The applicability of social cognitive career theory in predicting life satisfaction of university students: A meta-analytic path analysis

“…The included research were from eleven countries, where the majority of them were conducted in the United States (US) (k = 8). The sample sizes ranged from 111 [73] and 1,187 [71].…”