Career Barriers and Coping Efficacy Among Native American Students

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between career barriers (low perceived social status [PSS], experiences with personal and systemic classism, and general ethnic discrimination) and college outcome expectations (COEs) among a sample of 121 Native American postsecondary students. Self-efficacy for coping with career barriers was tested as a mediator of these relationships. Results indicated that lower PSS and more experiences with both personal and systemic classism related to lower COEs, and that coping efficacy for career barriers fully mediated these relationships. Contrary to expectations, experiences with ethnic discrimination was unrelated to COEs. Implications for future research and career counseling with Native American students are discussed.

Keywords

coping efficacy career barriers Native American

Limited research exists regarding the career development of Native/first American¹ college students (Brown & Lavish, 2006; Turner et al., 2006). This is despite the fact that Native Americans have the highest unemployment rates and the second lowest (Hispanics have the lowest) postsecondary completion rate among all racial/ethnic groups in the United States (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2008). Although scholars had previously assumed that the work role was less salient for Native Americans given the high value for family and community life roles (see Brown & Lavish, 2006, for a review), results from both qualitative (e.g., Juntunen et al., 2001) and quantitative (e.g., Brown & Lavish, 2006) studies have highlighted work as a valued life role. Further research, therefore, is needed to understand the career development of Native American college students.

Environmental Experiences and Career Development

The examination of barriers and supports to career development has garnered increased attention in the vocational literature over the past two decades (e.g., Byars, 2001; Diemer & Ali, 2009; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2000; Sirin, Diemer, Jackson, Gonsalves, & Howell, 2004). In particular, scholars (e.g., Fouad & Brown, 2000; Lent et al., 2000; Thompson & Subich, 2011) have highlighted the need to understand the processes by which environmental experiences shape an individual’s opportunity structure and thereby influence career development. In their 2000 examination of the role of supports and barriers from a social cognitive perspective, Lent, Brown, and Hackett (2000) called for a deeper understanding of the process by which individuals make sense of their exposure to objective (e.g., type of school attended, household income) and subjective/perceived (e.g., appraisal of contextual affordances) environmental experiences. They highlighted the role of both distal (e.g., cultural role socialization, financial support for certain activities) and proximal (e.g., structural barriers such as discriminatory practices) contextual affordances in shaping one’s academic and career-related development. According to social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), contextual affordances interact with person variables (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender) to predict career-related self-efficacy and outcome expectations, which subsequently contribute to the development of interests and goals.

Although some social cognitive constructs have been examined within Native American student samples (e.g., self-efficacy, parental support, career aspirations, and career interests; Brown & Lavish, 2006; Gade, Fuqua, & Hurlburt, 1984; Lauver & Jones, 1991; Turner & Lapan, 2003a, 2003b), no research exists examining the role of academic outcome expectations within a Native American student sample. This is an important omission given that prior research has documented the relation of college outcome expectations (COEs) to a variety of career-related outcomes, including: academic satisfaction (Ojeda, Flores, & Navarro, 2011), interests and intentions to enroll in math courses (Gainor & Lent, 1998), and math/science interests and goal intentions (Navarro, Flores, & Worthington, 2007). The development of COEs, or the “anticipated outcomes for receiving a college education” (Flores, Navarro, & DeWitz, 2008, p. 493), seems particularly relevant to Native American students given the low degree completion rates and the wide discrepancy in earnings among those who have completed college and those who have not (i.e., Native Americans with a bachelor’s degree as their highest level of education earn 26% more than Native Americans whose highest level of education was high school; NCES, 2008).

Career-Related Barriers

Career barriers are defined as “events or conditions, either within the person or in his or her environment, that make career progress difficult” (Swanson & Woitke, 1997, p. 434). A growing body of research has highlighted the presence of several perceived barriers during the transitions to college and to work among Native American students and recent graduates, including: lack of information about careers (Hoover & Jacobs, 1992), feelings of isolation at college (Lin, Lacounte, & Eder, 1988), family pressures, economic depression, and perceived hostility from others (Jackson & Smith, 2001). Hoffmann, Jackson, and Smith (2005) expanded this knowledge with their in-depth, qualitative examination of the career barriers faced by 29 Native American secondary school participants. Although some students reported no perceived barriers, common themes that emerged from the interviews included: limited range of available career possibilities, difficulties related to academic underpreparedness, inadequate funds to finance one’s education, family and peer pressure to stay at home on the reservation, and pressure to conform to perceived social norms. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between career-related barriers (i.e., experiences with ethnic discrimination, experiences with personal and systemic classism, and low perceived social status [PSS]) and COEs among Native American postsecondary students.

Race/ethnicity and experiences with ethnic discrimination as career barriers

Racism is defined as the experience of discrimination resulting from one’s race/ethnicity and has been conceptualized as a barrier to vocational development (e.g., Betz & Gwilliam, 2002; Byars, 2001; Sirin et al., 2004). Although data are limited, experiences with racism have been demonstrated to be salient among Native American college students and recent graduates. Specifically, experiences with discrimination emerged as a theme within Juntunen and colleagues’ (2001) qualitative investigation of the meaning of career and vocational development among 18 Northern Plains American Indians. Their results indicated that of the 11 participants who had attended or completed college, 9 identified discrimination resulting from racism as an obstacle to their career development. Data from another qualitative investigation with 15 successful Native American college graduates also highlighted dealing with racism as a common experience during college (Jackson, Smith, & Hill, 2003). In combination, results point to the need to further examine experiences with racial/ethnic discrimination as a potential barrier to career development among Native American college students.

PSS and experiences with classism as career barriers

The inclusion of social class-related constructs (e.g., income level, social class category, PSS, experiences with classism) as relevant contextual factors to career development has received renewed attention in recent years (e.g., Ali, McWhirter, & Chronister, 2005; Blustein, 2006; Diemer & Ali, 2009; Fouad & Brown, 2000; Metz, Fouad, & Ihle-Helledy, 2009; Navarro et al., 2007). For example, being from lower social class backgrounds may limit individuals’ access to resources and learning experiences, thereby impacting career development (e.g., Diemer & Ali, 2009; Fouad & Brown, 2000). A growing body of literature has supported Fouad and Brown’s (2000) proposition that an individual’s PSS (i.e., her or his perceived access to economic resources, social prestige, and social power) shapes an individual’s opportunity structure and impacts career development (e.g., Metz et al., 2009; Thompson & Subich, 2006, 2011). PSS has been demonstrated to account for variance above and beyond more objective indices of social class in the prediction of vocational outcomes (Thompson & Subich, 2006), to relate to the discrepancy between career aspirations and expectations (Metz et al., 2009), to predict access to career-related learning experiences (Thompson & Dahling, 2012), and to partially mediate the relationship between race- and class-based socialization experiences and career decision self-efficacy and career choice anxiety (Thompson & Subich, 2011).

Classism is proposed to operate similarly to racism, however, little empirical literature on the role of classism or its relation to vocational development exists (Diemer & Ali, 2009; Liu, 2002; Liu et al., 2004; Ostrove & Cole, 2003; Thompson & Subich, 2012). Experiences with classism are posited to be particularly salient among students within a university context given that time spent at college generally represents (a) interactions with diverse individuals, (b) a phase of life transition, and (c) a period in which one’s identity is internalized (e.g., Langhout, Rosselli, & Feinstein, 2007; Ostrove & Long, 2007). Previous research with college student samples has demonstrated that experiences with classism occur on an everyday basis (Langhout et al., 2007); are similar to, yet unique from, experiences with racism (Ritz & Hyers, 2005); and relate to individuals’ adjustment to college (Ostrove & Long, 2007). More recent research documented the relation of experiences with personal classism and systemic classism to the mental health outcomes of depression, anxiety, and stress among a sample of college students (Thompson & Subich, 2012).

Although quantitative research with an emphasis on PSS or experiences with classism among Native American college students is nonexistent, results from prior investigations point to the relevance of social class-related constructs to Native American students’ career development. Specifically, findings from Hoffman and colleagues’ (2005) interviews with Native American secondary students revealed concerns about money as a central theme (i.e., participants’ perceived lack of finances as an obstacle to attending their institution of choice and to achieving their goals). In their investigation with 137 Native American tribal college students, Brown and Lavish (2006) revealed several class-related themes as commonly cited reasons for attending college (i.e., a desire to assist one’s family and community escape unemployment on their reservations and the “importance of a good life,” p. 116). These findings, combined with data regarding the high levels of poverty and unemployment among Native Americans in the United States (NCES, 2008), highlight the importance of examining PSS and experiences with classism as potential barriers to career development.

In summary, PSS, experiences with personal and systemic classism and experiences with racism were hypothesized to act as career barriers. As such, these variables were expected to relate to COEs. The following hypotheses were proposed:

Hypothesis 1: PSS relates positively to COEs.

Hypothesis 2: More experiences with ethnic discrimination and more experiences with personal and systemic classism relate to lower COEs.

Coping Efficacy

The assumption that individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds will have more experiences with barriers and subsequently struggle in their career development is commonly critiqued within the vocational development literature (e.g., Flores & Ali, 2004; Liu & Ali, 2008). To the contrary, several empirical investigations have indicated that some individuals internalize their cultural background and/or experiences with discrimination as cultural strengths (e.g., Masten et al., 1999; Pearson & Bieschke, 2001). An intrapersonal construct that may influence how individuals respond to their identity and experiences with barriers is coping efficacy. Coping efficacy or individuals’ confidence in their ability to cope with barriers (Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001), has been conceptualized as a protective mechanism that allows individuals to cope with the suggested deleterious effects of career barriers (Bandura, 1977; Hackett & Byars, 1996; Lent et al., 2000).

Despite widespread attention to the role of barriers in relation to vocational development, to date, much of the research does not take into account efficacy for coping with those barriers nor does it examine in a sophisticated manner how coping efficacy operates in concert with barriers (Lent et al., 2003). A notable exception is Perrone, Civilette, Webb, and Fitch’s (2004) test of coping efficacy as a mediator of the relation between perceived barriers and career outcome expectations. Results from their path analysis with 113 college graduates indicated that the perception of career barriers related negatively to career outcome expectations and that coping efficacy mediated the relation between career barriers and career outcome expectations.

To date, the applicability of coping efficacy to Native American students is unclear. Previous research, however, offers some support for its inclusion (e.g., Dodd, Garcia, Meccage, & Nelson, 1995; Jackson et al., 2003). For example, results have indicated that confidence in one’s ability to succeed is related to increased academic achievement, resilience, and persistence within Native American student samples (e.g., Dodd et al., 1995; Jackson et al., 2003; Montgomery, Miville, Winterowd, Jeffries, & Baysden, 2000). Although Perrone et al.’s (2004) sample was comprised primarily of European American individuals, it seems likely that coping efficacy will similarly mediate the relationships between career barriers and COEs among Native Americans. As such, the following hypothesis was proposed:

Hypothesis 3: Coping efficacy will mediate the relationships between each of the barriers (i.e., experiences with ethnic discrimination, personal and systemic classism, and PSS) and COEs.

Method

Participants

Participants were 121 students (94 women, 26 men, 1 transgender) whose mean age was 29.21 years (SD = 9.12). Students attending 38 different institutions across the continental United States and Alaska and representing 70 different tribes² comprised the sample. Among the participants, 81.9% identified as heterosexual. Fourteen percent were first-year students, 16.5% sophomores, 15.7% juniors, 13.2% seniors, 9.9% fifth years, and 28.1% were 6 years and beyond (2.5% did not report their year). Participants represented 75 different academic majors including: education, sociology, pharmacy, journalism, and social work.

With regard to social class, 14 participants reported being lower class, 60 reported lower middle class, 37 reported middle class, 9 reported upper middle class, and 1 did not report social class. In terms of family income, 30 reported less than $10,000, 23 reported $10,000–19,999, 14 reported $20,000–29,000, 14 reported $30,000–39,999, 6 reported $40,000–49,999, 4 reported $50,000–59,000, 2 reported $60,000–69,000, 7 reported $70,000 and above, and 21 did not specify. Participants described a variety of methods for paying for their education; the most commonly represented sources were scholarships (55.4% of participants), loans (23.1% of participants), and personal payment (5% of participants).

Measures

COEs Questionnaire (Flores et al., 2008)

The COE examines individuals’ perceptions of the potential outcomes of obtaining a college education. The questionnaire was based on existing outcome expectations scales (e.g., Fouad & Smith, 1996) and on definitions of outcome expectations proposed by Bandura (1977). The questionnaire is comprised of 19 items that are assessed using a 10-point Likert-type scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (10) strongly agree. A sample item is: “A college education will allow me to obtain a well-paying job.” Higher scores indicate favorable expectations regarding the possibilities that obtaining a college education will allow one to achieve in the future.

Psychometric properties of the COE have been demonstrated to be strong across several samples of Mexican American students (i.e., .90 to .94; Flores et al., 2008; Ojeda et al., 2011; Robitschek & Flores, 2007). Scores were unrelated to age, generation level, or social class across this sample, suggesting evidence of divergent validity (Robitschek & Flores, 2007). Convergent validity was supported through positive correlations between college self-efficacy and college interests (Robitschek & Flores, 2007). Coefficient α was .94 for this sample.

General Ethnic Discrimination scale (GED; Landrine, Klonoff, Corral, Fernandez, & Roesch, 2006)

The GED is an 18-item self-report scale designed to assess the frequency of experiences with perceived ethnic discrimination. Responses are made on a 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from the event never happened to the event happened almost all of the time (more than 70% of the time). The GED was adapted from the Schedule of Racist Events (SRE; Klonoff & Landrine, 1996) to capture experiences with ethnic discrimination for all racial/ethnic groups (see Landrine et al., 2006, for an overview). A sample item is, “How many times have you been treated unfairly by teachers and professors because of your race/ethnicity?”

For each item, participants rate the frequency of the event within their lifetime (GED-lifetime), the frequency of the racist event within the past year (GED-recent), and the perceived stressfulness of the event (GED-appraisal). This study relied on Klonoff and Landrine’s (1996) conceptualization that recent discriminatory events are those most proximal and salient for individuals and used only the 18-item GED-recent score. This was intended to minimize potential for multicollinearity and is consistent with prior research (Moradi & Subich, 2003; Thompson & Subich, 2011). Scores are summed and range from 18 to 108 for the GED-recent, with higher scores indicating greater frequency of discrimination. Cronbach’s α was .93 for the GED-recent subscale with a diverse sample of college students and the “subscales model the latent construct of perceived ethnic discrimination equally well for Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Whites” (Landrine et al., 2006, p. 79). Alpha for this sample was .92.

Differential Status Identity scale (DSIS; Brown et al., 2002)

Participants’ perceptions of their level of PSS relative to “the average U.S. citizen” were measured using the 60-item DSIS. The DSIS was developed to assess the three facets of social status (economic resources, social power, and social prestige). The DSIS was demonstrated to have a 4-factor solution within a sample of 454 college students and is comprised of four subscales: Economic Resources–Basic Needs, Economic Resources–Amenities, Social Power, and Social Prestige (Thompson & Subich, 2007).

Participants respond to items measuring their perceived access to basic needs, material possessions, and leisure activities for the Basic Needs and Amenities subscales. Items assessing their perceived ability to influence public policy and to have access to a fair trial are including in the Social Power subscale. For the Social Prestige subscale, participants identify to what extent they feel valued as compared to the “average U.S. citizen” in terms of their ethnic group, physical abilities, and neighborhood in which they live. Item responses are obtained using a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from −2 (very much below average for the Economic Resources and Social Power subscales or much less for the Social Prestige subscale) to +2 (very much above average or much more). Scores are transformed to a 1–5 scale and items are summed for each of the three scales. Higher scores reflect higher PSS.

This study followed practices in previous research (e.g., Thompson & Subich, 2011, 2007) and used only the DSIS total score for subsequent analysis. The internal consistency reliability of the DSIS total score has been demonstrated to be .97 across several studies (Metz et al., 2009; Thompson & Dahling, 2010; Thompson & Subich, 2007). Convergent validity has been demonstrated by the DSIS’ relationship with more traditional, sociological measures of social class such as self-reported social class category and annual income level during childhood (.32 to .56; Thompson & Subich, 2007). Discriminant validity has been demonstrated by the DSIS’ lack of significant relation to Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem scale (−.07 to −.08) and Campbell’s Psychological Entitlement scale (.01 to .07; Thompson & Subich, 2007). Coefficient α for this sample was .98.

Experiences With Classism scale (EWCS; Thompson, 2009)

The EWCS is a 25-item self-report scale designed to assess the frequency of everyday experiences of classist events. The EWCS was constructed to parallel the GED but also includes items designed to assess the two types of everyday experiences of classism that were demonstrated to be different from everyday experiences with racism (i.e., experiences with others who were flaunting their higher levels of social class and bureaucratic hassles) in Ritz and Hyers’s (2005) qualitative investigation. Item responses for the EWCS were made on a 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from the event never happened to the event happened almost all of the time (more than 70% of the time), and subscale scores were summed with higher scores indicating more experiences with classism (for a more extensive overview of the EWCS, see Thompson & Subich, 2012).

Factor analysis demonstrated support for a 2-factor solution that paralleled the construction of the questionnaire with the first factor (18 items) representing experiences with classism at a personal level (EWCS-personal) and the second (7 items) representing experiences with classism at a systemic level (EWCS-systemic). A sample item from the EWCS-personal subscale is “How often do you feel like you have been treated differently in the past year on the basis of your physical appearance (clothing, type of bag/purse you carried, shoes)?” Sample items from the EWCS-systemic subscale include, “How often have you felt frustrated with all of the steps that you had to take with the financial aid office or banks in order to have access to money for school?” and “How often in the past year did you feel that friends, roommates, and/or classmates ‘showed off’ their ability to buy nice things, go on vacations, and drive nice cars?”

The EWCS has been demonstrated to have high internal consistency reliability for the personal and systemic subscales across two samples (.97 and .83 to .84, respectively) and to correlate as expected with other indicators of social class including self-identified social class category and self-reported income levels and mental health (Thompson & Subich, 2011; Thompson & Subich, 2012). Both subscales correlated as expected with the institutionalized classism and interpersonal classism via discounting subscales of Langhout, Rosselli, and Feinstein’s (2007) Classism Experiences Questionnaire–Academe (Thompson & Subich, 2012). α for this sample was .93 for the Personal subscale and .81 for the Systemic subscale.

Coping With Career Barriers (CWB; Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001)

The CWB is a 28-item scale designed to measure college students’ efficacy for coping with barriers to their career and educational goals. It contains two subscales: Career-Related Barriers (7 items) and Education-Related Barriers (21 items). Only the Career-Related Barriers subscale was used for this study. Respondents are asked to rate their degree of confidence for overcoming a list of career barriers (e.g., Negative comments about my racial/ethnic background [insults, jokes]) using a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (highly confident) to 5 (not at all confident). Total scores range from 7 to 35, with higher scores indicating less perceived ability to overcome career-related barriers (i.e., less coping efficacy).

Cronbach’s α was reported as .88 for the Career-Related Barriers subscale for the initial validation sample of 286 first-year undergraduate students (59% female; 89% European American) and test–retest reliabilities over a 2-month period for a subsample of 55 randomly selected participants from that sample were moderate (Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001). Lopez and Ann-Yi (2006) demonstrated that the Career-Related Barriers subscale has high internal consistency reliabilities across samples of European American, African American, and Latina women (.89, .90, and .88, respectively). Coefficient α for this sample was .87.

Results

An examination of the pattern of intercorrelations among all variables indicated that the variables related as expected (see Table 1 for descriptive statistics). More experiences with ethnic discrimination, personal classism, and systemic classism were related to less coping efficacy (r = .35, p < .01; r = .39, p < .01; r = .19, p < .05, respectively) and higher PSS was related to more coping efficacy (r = −.35, p < .01). Less coping efficacy was also related to lower COEs (r = −.44, p < .01).

Table 1.

Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations Among Primary Variables.

Variable	M	SD	2	3	4	5	6
1. COE	2.69	1.27	−.438**	.223*	−.131	−.258**	−.301**
2. CWB	2.17	.79		−.345**	.189*	.347**	.359**
3. PSS	2.32	.84			−.298**	−.265**	−.200**
4. GED	1.73	.68				.855**	.597**
5. EWCS-P	1.81	.72					.612**
6. EWCS-S	2.10	.92

Note. COE = college outcome expectations; CWB = Coping With Career-Related Barriers; EWCS-Personal = Experiences With Classism-Personal; EWCS-Systemic = Experiences With Classism-Systemic; GED = General Ethnic Discrimination; PSS = perceived social status.

*p ≤ .05, two-tailed. **p ≤ .01, two-tailed.

Hypothesis 1 was fully supported. PSS related positively to COEs (r = .22, p < .05). Partial support was demonstrated for Hypothesis 2. As expected, more experiences with classism (Personal and Systemic) related to lower COEs (r = −.26, p < .01; r = −.30, p < .01, respectively). Unexpectedly, experiences with ethnic discrimination was not significantly related to COEs (r = −.13, p > .05); a pattern of mediation, therefore, could not be inferred.

Hypothesis 3 was tested using bootstrapping (Shrout & Bolger, 2002) with a Statistical Package for the Social Sciences macro developed by Preacher and Hayes (2008). The paths in Table 2 are labeled according to Baron and Kenny’s (1986) terms. The bottom of the table includes the bias-corrected and bias-accelerated 95% confidence intervals around the mean value of the indirect effect (N = 1,000 bootstrapped samples); where this confidence interval does not include 0, the indirect effect of the independent variable via CWBs is statistically significant (p < .05). As expected, coping with barriers fully mediated the relationship between three of the independent variables (PSS, experiences with classism-personal and experiences with classism-systemic) and COEs. Evidence for mediation is shown by the nonsignificant direct effect of these independent variables on COEs (i.e., the drop in significance when comparing the c path to the c′ path).

Table 2.

Tests of Mediation Hypotheses.

	Independent variable
	Perceived social status				EWCS-Personal				EWCS-Systemic
	b	SE		Total R²	b	SE		Total R²	b	SE		Total R²
Direct effect of IV on CWB (a path)	−.39**	.10		.20**	.37**	.09		.20**	.29**	.07		.22**
Direct effect of CWB on COE (b path)	−.69**	.15			−.65**	.15			−.62**	.15
Total effect of IV on COE (c path)	.39*	.17			−.42*	.15			−.41**	.13
Direct effect of IV on COE (c′ path)	.14	.16			−.18	.15			−.23	.12
	Perceived social status				EWCS-Personal				EWCS-Systemic
	M	SE	LL 95%	UL 95%	M	SE	LL 95%	UL 95%	M	SE	LL 95%	UL 95%
Bootstrap results for indirect effects (ab path)	.26	.10	−11	.53	−.23	.09	−.47	−.09	−.18	.08	−.39	−.06

Note. COE = college outcome expectations; CWB = Coping With Career-Related Barriers; EWCS-Personal = Experiences With Classism-Personal; EWCS-Systemic = Experiences With Classism-Systemic; LL = lower limit of confidence interval; UL = upper limit of confidence interval.

**p < .01. *p < .05.

Discussion

This research extended our understanding of the role of environmental barriers and self-efficacy for coping with those barriers in relation to COEs among Native American students. Specifically, four potential barriers (experiences with ethnic discrimination, experiences with personal and systemic classism, and PSS) were examined as predictors of COEs. Perceived efficacy for coping with barriers was then tested as a mediator of these relationships.

Results demonstrated support for Hypothesis 1 in that higher levels of PSS was related to higher levels of COEs. These results are consistent with Fouad and Brown’s (2000) suggestion that an individual’s perception of self relates to that person’s educational and career-related expectations and with Diemer and Ali’s (2009) proposition that individuals from underrepresented backgrounds will encounter greater environmental barriers. This finding also corroborates those from previous research, which have demonstrated that higher levels of PSS relate to a variety of vocational outcomes, including higher levels of career decision self-efficacy (Thompson & Subich, 2006), career aspirations (Thompson & Dahling, 2010), and lower levels of career choice anxiety (Thompson & Subich, 2011). It extended this research by examining the relevance of PSS to COEs and provides support for the potential usefulness of this construct (and the DSIS) with Native American college student samples.

Results indicated partial support for Hypothesis 2. As anticipated, more experiences with both personal and systemic classism were related to lower levels of COEs. This finding is consistent with previous research that has demonstrated that more experiences with classism is related to difficulties adjusting socially and academically to college (Ostrove & Long, 2007) and extends findings from prior qualitative investigations (Brown & Lavish, 2006; Hoffman, Jackson, & Smith, 2005) with Native American students indicating that economic factors influence educational and vocational decision making. These results also fit within Lent and colleagues’ (2000) proposition that experiences with environmental barriers (such as discrimination) may have deleterious effects on career-related constructs (including COEs).

Experiences with ethnic discrimination, however, did not significantly relate to COEs. Although unexpected, similar findings have been demonstrated in prior research. For example, Thompson and Subich (2011) detected nonsignificant relations between experiences with ethnic discrimination (as measured by the GED) and the vocational constructs of career decision self-efficacy and career choice anxiety among a diverse sample of college students. Relatedly, the SRE (upon which the GED is modeled) was not related to mental health outcomes in an African American student sample (Fischer & Shaw, 1999). These researchers have suggested that these unexpected findings highlight the need to consider individual differences that may impact underrepresented students’ experiences with ethnic discrimination.

Results from this study point to the need to examine the usefulness of the GED for Native American students, particularly given that this was the first investigation to use either the SRE or GED with a Native American college student sample. It seems possible that the items of the GED do not capture the culture-specific types of experience of racial/ethnic discrimination faced by Native American students. Jackson, Smith, and Hill’s (2003) findings based on their qualitative interviews with Native American students indicated that racism was most commonly experienced by individuals as being ignored, being singled out as the representative for their race/culture, or being enrolled in a course in which the instructor or other students provided inaccurate and degrading representations of Native Americans. The items on the GED, therefore, may not be written in such a way that captures these culturally specific experiences of discrimination. It also seems likely that within-group differences exist among Native American students. The lack of a significant relationship between ethnic discrimination and COEs may be due, in part, to an individual’s stage of ethnic identity development or to the extent to which the individual ascribes to membership with his or her tribal group (e.g., Jones & Galliher, 2007). In combination, the results from this study and those from previous research suggest that further research is needed in order to understand more specifically the nature of experiences with discrimination and to develop culturally appropriate measures of discrimination for Native American students.

Finally, Hypothesis 3 was partially supported. Results indicated that coping efficacy mediated the relationships between experiences with systemic classism, personal classism, and PSS to COEs. These results are consistent with those of Perrone et al. (2004) who demonstrated that coping efficacy mediated the relationship between the perception of career barriers and career outcome expectations for their sample of European American college students. They also fit within the body of literature (e.g., Hackett & Byars, 1996; Masten et al., 1999; Pearson & Bieschke, 2001; Perrone, Civilette, Webb, & Fitch, 2004) that has indicated that individuals from diverse backgrounds do not necessarily struggle with their career development. To the contrary, it appears that increased coping efficacy can act as a buffer between negative environmental experiences (such as experiences with classism and low PSS) and vocational and educational outcomes.

Limitations

These findings should be interpreted in light of several limitations. First, the sample is relatively heterogeneous across a number of domains (tribal affiliation, age, year in school, geographic region). While this heterogeneity can be considered a strength with regard to potential generalizability of the results to a range of Native American students enrolled in institutions of higher education, this study’s ability to detect unique differences (e.g., among students of different ages) are questionable. Future research is needed with larger samples to allow researchers to test for differences in these findings within particular subgroups of Native American students (e.g., within a certain tribe, living in a specific geographic region, representing a particular age group or gender).

The cross-sectional nature of the data is another factor that warrants further attention. Specifically, these results should not be interpreted as causal. Longitudinal data are needed in order to understand whether these pathways are linear. This research would also provide an opportunity to assess more specifically the point at which high levels of coping efficacy may have the most critical impact as a buffer.

Implications for Practice

Despite its limitations, this research highlights several potential points of intervention for career counseling and assessment with Native American students. First, results suggest that increased coping efficacy mitigates some of the deleterious effects of barriers on COEs. Counselors are therefore encouraged to assess students’ efficacy for coping with barriers and to utilize interventions designed to increase coping efficacy. For example, given the value for spirituality among Native American communities (e.g., Jackson et al., 2003; Willeto, 1999), counselors could incorporate this into their work with clients. Integrating an assessment of these beliefs, values, and practices into counseling may facilitate increased coping efficacy, empowerment, and resilience (Brown & Pinterits, 2001). Counselors also could assist clients in their identification of spaces on and off campus to align client’s traditional spiritual practices and client’s academic life in order to increase coping, academic, and career-related efficacy (Jackson et al., 2003).

Native American students attending career counseling may also benefit from an assessment of experiences with environmental barriers that occur on personal as well as systemic levels. For example, career counselors could use the ecological model (Cook, Heppner, & O’Brien, 2002), the culturally appropriate career counseling model (Fouad & Bingham, 1995), or a developmental multiple role perspective (Brown & Lavish, 2006) with Native American students in order to facilitate an environmental and familial/tribal framework from which clients can conceptualize their experiences with environmental barriers. Asking questions related to experiences with oppression that may otherwise be ignored in the context of treatment may communicate to clients that the counselor is open to exploring topics that may be perceived as off limits. Providing Native American students with the space to explore experiences with environmental barriers and to express themselves freely and authentically in session may contribute to the development of a relationship-giving approach in which clients feel supported (see Scholl, 2006, for more specific suggestions for counseling with Native American college students) and career practitioners are able to assess for the environmental experiences that impact their career development.

Career counselors also should be careful not to assume that experiences with environmental barriers automatically are internalized negatively or that career development is thwarted as a result of such experiences. As noted, it is possible that individuals may internalize some of these experiences as fostering cultural strengths that translate into positive outcomes. Practitioners, therefore, need to assess for and work with clients to identify personal strengths to draw upon in the midst of environmental experiences with oppression (Spanierman, 2002).

On a systemic level, these results may be extended to the development of new interventions designed to increase Native American students’ access to experiences demonstrated to facilitate the development of coping efficacy. For example, group programs that include Native American role models sharing their academic and career stories could be incorporated into Native American support programs on campus. Peer education programs may offer a space for students to learn vicariously from others and mentoring programs may assist in the development of supportive relationships with faculty or staff on campus. Such programs have been cited for their beneficial role in increasing perceptions of competence and connections with others (e.g., Jackson et al., 2003; Montgomery et al., 2000; Shotton, Oosahwe, & Cintrón, 2007), which may thereby augment perceiving efficacy for coping with barriers.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all of the participants who willingly participated in this research and shared their experiences. I would also like to acknowledge Michelle Johnson-Jennings for her assistance with data collection.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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