The present study sought to extend the literature examining potential antecedents and outcomes of perceived social status identity. Fouad and Brown's (2000) conceptualization of Differential Status Identity was used as a conceptual lens for examining the relation of supports and barriers to an individual's internalization of social status and subsequent career indecisiveness, career choice anxiety, and career decision self-efficacy. This framework offered an opportunity to consider simultaneously the relations of individuals' experiences with external barriers (i.e., experiences with racism and classism) and external and intrapersonal supports (i.e., family/peer support and coping efficacy, respectively) to an individual's internalization of status identity. In line with DSI's conceptualization, status identity was assessed by examining one's perceived access to economic resources, level of social prestige, and level of social power. Data from 299 undergraduate students (67.9% female, 55.9% European American) attending a large Midwestern University included responses to measures of status identity, career decision-making, and experiences with supports and barriers. Results supported a number of the proposed relations and provided initial evidence of the usefulness of a new measure of experiences with classism created for the present study. In particular, results indicated that frequency of experiences with systemic classism was negatively related to perceived status, frequency of experiences with personal classism were positively related to perceived status, primary caregiver support was positively related to perceived status, and having a higher self-reported SES and being European American were positively related to perceived status identity. Contrary to expectations, experiences with racism and support from siblings and peers were not related to perceived status identity. Coping efficacy moderated the relation between systemic experiences with classism and perceived social status. Higher levels of internalized status were positively related to career decision self-efficacy and negatively related to career indecisiveness and career choice anxiety.
Finally, results from an exploratory path model provided support for a number of relations among the primary variables of interest in the present study. Specifically, experiences with personal and systemic classism and support from primary caregivers related significantly to perceived social status after controlling for race and self-reported social class category; support from caregivers related significantly to career decision self-efficacy; coping efficacy moderated the relation between perceived social status and career decision self-efficacy; perceived social status related to career indecisiveness directly as well as indirectly, through career decision self-efficacy; and perceived social status related to career choice anxiety indirectly, through career decision self-efficacy. Implications for practice and education, along with limitations and directions for future research are discussed.