Ethnic Identity and Career Development Among First-Year College Students

Abstract

The current study explored the relation of ethnic identity achievement and career development progress among a sample of 2,432 first-year college students who completed the Career Decision Profile and Phinney's Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure. Among students of color, correlational analyses revealed a series of statistically significant, but small positive correlations between higher levels of ethnic identity achievement and career decidedness, choice comfort, indecisiveness, and choice importance. Additionally, racial group was found to moderate the relation between ethnic identity achievement and career decidedness. For Black and Asian American students, those with higher levels of ethnic identity achievement were found to have significantly higher levels of career decidedness, whereas ethnic identity achievement had no significant relation with the decidedness of White and Latina/o students. It is suggested that for first-year students of color, ethnic identity achievement may play a meaningful, but limited role in being decided in one's career decisions. Research and practice implications are discussed.