This study investigated the effect of a career exploration course on the career decision self-efficacy of traditional-age undecided college students, utilizing a single group pretest posttest design. The independent variables in this study were research participants’ sex, cultural identification, and reported cumulative grade point average. The dependent variable in this study was career decision self-efficacy, which was measured by the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (Betz, Hammond, & Multon, 2005). The research participants were 141 college students enrolled in a 15-week career exploration course at a mid-sized, open enrollment, urban research institution in the Midwest.
A paired samples t-test revealed that traditional-age college students’ mean career decision self-efficacy total score increased significantly from the pretest, administered at the beginning of a career exploration course, to the posttest, administered at the end of the career exploration course. One-way analyses of variance found no statistically significant differences between the mean pretest career decision self-efficacy total score of study participants for the variables of sex, cultural identification, and reported cumulative grade point average. One-way analyses of variance of the mean total gain score on the posttest of the CDSE-SF found no significant differences in the total mean gain score of research participants for the variables of sex, cultural identification, and reported cumulative grade point average.
A Pearson chi-square analysis revealed that a greater number of research participants who dropped out of the study had reported cumulative grade point averages below 2.0 than those participants who completed the study. An independent samples t-test found the participants who dropped out of the study to have a lower mean pretest career decision self-efficacy total score as measured by the CDSE-SF than those who completed the study.
A major contribution of this study to the literature was the examination of grade point average on career decision self-efficacy. One implication of this study is that career exploration courses may be an effective intervention in increasing career decision self-efficacy of traditional-age undecided college students, and point to the need for interventions that promote career decision self-efficacy for college students with grade point averages below 2.0.