Family Influence, Critical Consciousness, and Career Calling in Women of Color

Abstract

Research on calling has examined the presence of and search for career calling. This cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between family influence and career calling (presence and search) in a sample of 400 women of color (mean age = 31.2 years) in the United States. The authors also examined whether this relationship was partially or fully explained by critical consciousness. Participants were recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk, where they completed an online questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to test 2 models, with calling presence and calling search as disparate outcomes. Analyses revealed that most of the significant pathways in the model involved family influence, critical consciousness, and calling search. In addition, findings suggested that critical consciousness did not explain the relationship between family influence and career calling (presence or search); however, given the significant pathways, it may still be an important consideration for counselors when working with women of color on their career development.

A qualitative inquiry of doctoral students' herding in education and validation of ‘herding in educational decisions’ scale

“…The influence of parents' educational and professional background found at early stage educational decisions complies with the finding of Hou and Leung (2011). This finding also indicates that parents direct their children (Young et al., 1991) and influence their future educational choices (Marks et al., 2018; Rapoport & Thibout, 2018). The parental influence was also apparent from other factors like convenience (i.e., the theme ‘ easy pick and drop’), as highlighted by James et al.…”

“…Socio-cultural experiences such as family, society, environment, personal identity, and economic factors also explain individuals' career decisions (Bolat & Odacı, 2017;Jonbekova et al, 2021;Marks et al, 2018;Paloú & Drobot, 2010). Since family members (particularly the parents) deliberately influence their children's future educational decisions (Aguirre & Matta, 2021;Young et al, 1991), adolescents regard their parents as drivers of their career decisions (Fouad et al, 2016).…”

“…Parenting also involves numerous factors (including financial resources, family structure, social system (Lustig et al, 2017) and siblings (Aguirre & Matta, 2021)) which affect adolescents' career development (Bryant et al, 2006). Family culture, predominantly in Asian societies, forms family members' perceptions about enrolling in a particular profession (like engineering and medicine (Fouad et al, 2016;Marks et al, 2018)) or an institution (Aguirre & Matta, 2021). The family beliefs regarding gender-specific professions play a vital role in the occupational objectives and quests of male and female adolescents (Bandura et al, 2001;Kulik et al, 2016;Rapoport & Thibout, 2018).…”

Social support on calling: Mediating role of work engagement and professional identity

“…In longitudinal research, social status (Duffy et al., 2018), social support (Dalla Rosa et al., 2019), and social comfort (Dobrow, 2012) have been suggested as contributing to the development of career calling. Similarly, family influence (Marks et al., 2018) and organizational support (Esteves et al., 2018) have been positively related to the career calling. These findings suggest that when people feel a high degree of comfort with those involved in the same domain, or perceive social support from family, organization or friends, they are likely to experience a sense of calling.…”

Toward a culturally humble practice: Critical consciousness as an antecedent

“…Critical consciousness has also been used by health professions and environmental and civic organizations to enhance their members’ abilities to address oppressive actions (Clark‐Taylor, 2017). Moreover, scholars have developed critical consciousness models to support minoritized children and adults (Ezzani & Brooks, 2019), international students, immigrants (Nguyen & Quinn, 2018), and families (Marks et al., 2018). Previous researchers have examined critical consciousness from cross‐cultural dynamics and centered the concept of critical consciousness as a conduit to cultural competence and responsiveness (Dao et al., 2017).…”