Multicultural Career Development: A Methodological Critique of 8 Years of Research in Three Leading Career Journals

Abstract

A methodological critique was conducted of all full-length articles highlighting American racial and ethnic minority groups or international populationsappearing in the Journal of Employment Counseling, 7he Career Development Quarterly, and the Journal of Vocational Behavior from 1985 through 1992. The 68 quantitative, empirically based studies identified were examined for their theoretical bases, topical emphases, multicultural populations investigated, sample descriptions, sample sizes, geographic location of the samples, instrumentation, and statistical procedures used. The results are discussed in light of the criticisms of the general multicultural counseling research delineated in recent counseling literature.Henry M. Koegel is a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology, and Joseph G.

Racial/Ethnic Minority Vocational Research: A Content and Trend Analysis Across 36 Years

“…Our results showed that almost 7%, or 281, of the 4,181 articles published during the study period focused on career-related issues with REMs. This percentage is significantly lower than the 14% rate that Koegel et al (1995) found in their examination of three career journals across 8 years.The differences between these two studies are likely related to the wider scope of the present study in both years and number of journals reviewed. In addition, Koegel et al included articles attending to international career issues, whereas we did not.…”

“…More recently, Perez et al (2000) reported that 12% of articles published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP) from 1988 to 1997 focused on racial and ethnic issues, and of those, 16% attended to career issues of diverse racial and ethnic groups. The findings reported by Koegel et al (1995), Perez et al, and Arbona suggest that a number of studies in the multicultural vocational area are being published in the selected professional journals. However, whether these statistics indicate a significant growth in the development of multicultural vocational psychology research has yet to be determined because of the inconsistencies in the journals investigated and the lag time between periods that were investigated.…”

“…A related study by Byars and McCubbin (2001) examined REM career research from 1994 to 1999 across a number of journals from associated disciplines as well as conference papers. Like Koegel et al (1995), Byars and McCubbin found that the majority of articles were empirical studies (83%), with an increase in the number of qualitative studies. Again, JVB published a higher percentage of REM career articles in relation to other journals.…”

“…In an analysis of CDQ, JVB, and the Journal of Employment Counseling (JEC) across 8 years (1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992), Koegel et al (1995) found that 14% of the articles published during this time focused on U.S. REM and international issues. JVB published the highest percentage of multicultural articles during this period, followed by CDQ and JEC.…”

“…An analysis of articles provides a meaningful way to examine the state of affairs of a journal or field (Buboltz, Miller, & Williams, 1999;Hill, Nutt, & Jackson, 1994) and is useful for understanding the development of a research area. In the past, content analysis studies have examined trends of career development research in The Career Development Quarterly (CDQ) and the Journal of Vocational Behavior (JVB; Buboltz, Ebberwein, Watkins, & Savickas, 1995), REM research in counseling (Carter, AkinsulureSmith, Smailes, & Clauss, 1998;Perez, Constantine, & Gerard, 2000;Ponterotto, 1988), and career development research with REMs (Byars & McCubbin, 2001;Hoyt, 1989;Koegel, Donin, Ponterotto, & Spitz, 1995). Each of these studies analyzed published articles in professional journals, and the findings provided opportunities for the profession to reflect on the current or past "states of the field" and to consider areas of potential development.…”