Brown S.D., Lent R. (Editors). Career development and counseling: putting theory and research to work

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environmental context. In this manner, career assessment is an important inter-

vention, particularly from a strengths-based approach that helps motivate the in-

dividual toward an employment orientation.

Another career intervention that has received some attention in the literature

(described earlier) is improving career self-efficacy. It is particularly important

that individuals with disabilities tend to have lower efficacy beliefs and lower

outcome expectations when compared to their nondisabled peers. This finding is

not surprising because they may have less exposure to the types of experiences

and activities that contribute to efficacy-building, such as volunteer and work ex-

periences, exposure to role models, and reinforcing feedback (Benz & Halpern,

1993). In addressing these barriers, it is important that the few studies that have

used interventions to improve career self-efficacy beliefs have shown positive re-

sults in terms of mitigating negative feedback or environmental inadequacies that

have limited vocational development (Conyers & Szymanski, 1998). This suggests

that career counselors might need to assess—either formally or informally—the

efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations of their clients with disabilities, being

aware of how these beliefs may have compromised their interests, goals, and fu-

ture expectations. Direct interventions designed to bolster self-efficacy can be in-

corporated into career counseling programs using strategies that help clients to

anticipate and shape a vocational future (Fabian, 2000). Counselors can ensure

that clients are exposed to a diverse array of vocational options, as well as peers

who have achieved success in different jobs and settings. Social cognitive career

counseling would also suggest an explicit focus on (1) anticipating, analyzing,

and preparing to deal with contextual barriers and (2) building support systems

(e.g., see S. D. Brown & Lent, 1996). Providing more intensive coaching or sup-

port—both individually and in groups—may assist clients with disabilities to

persist in achieving their goals. These types of interventions would apply to indi-

viduals at all stages of career development.

Because young adults with disabilities have been found to exhibit lower levels

of career maturity when compared to their peers, counselors may need to incor-

porate developmentally oriented strategies as much as possible into career educa-

tion programs. For example, one of the strongest predictors of successful

postsecondary adjustment for youth with disabilities is having a paid employ-

ment experience before leaving high school (Luecking & Fabian, 2000). Unlike

their nondisabled counterparts, these youth may not have had the types of volun-

teer and entry-level job experiences (such as babysitting or delivering newspa-

pers) that assist in developing work attitudes and interests. Helping high school

students to acquire paid work experiences, similar to their nondisabled peers,

promotes the development of a vocational self-concept because these experiences

provide opportunities for exploration, as well as personal feedback about voca-

tional preferences and aptitudes. At the same time, paid work experiences set the

stage for identifying longer term career goals.

The purpose of career counseling activities is to help the individual to identify

and pursue career goals. The shift in disability policy from a deficit model to an

empowerment one has also affected rehabilitation planning and goal setting by en-

couraging individuals to consider a wider array of vocational choices (Kosciulek,

1998). At the same time, the ADA affected goal setting by reducing environmental

barriers that may have circumscribed career goals. Reasonable accommodations

that are mandated under the ADA enable individuals with dis

abilities to perform

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Promoting the Career Potential of Youth with Disabilities 567

a much wider variety of jobs than were possible before its enactment, for exam-

ple, allowing hearing-impaired young adults to have interpreters on the job or

bility-impaired individuals to request adaptive equipment. There is less discus-

sion of how to discourage people with disabilities from pursuing “unrealistic”

goals and more examples of how to use any type of stated occupational preference

as a potential motivator (Hagner & DiLeo, 1993). Performance motivation and out-

come expectations are particularly important for individuals with disabilities,

where a paucity of previous experience, lack of access to role models, and negative

social attitudes may have severely impeded career goal setting. This suggests that

to encourage choice processes in identifying vocational goals, counselors may have

to assist individuals with disabilities to acquire a vision of a vocational future, a

necessary first step to career aspirations (Savickas, 1990). Intervention strategies

designed to bolster vocational self-efficacy, such as participating in paid work ex-

periences or exposure to potential peer role models, may be basic prerequisites to-

ward developing a capacity to develop future goals or aspirations.

Another important consideration is that the issue of the meaning that work has

in an individual’s life plays a pivotal role in career development. Counselors may

need to alter their assumptions about work as a primary life activity to viewing

work as an option that clients may or may not incorporate into their life planning.

In other words, during certain life stages, clients may need to focus their energies

on managing their disabilities, allowing vocational or prevocational activities to

play a secondary role (Baron, 2000). Career counselors may need to regard long-

term attachment to the labor market as a necessary and sufficient goal for many,

but not all, individuals, encouraging people to map a vocational future that allows

for individual differences in the amount of energy expended toward work. This is a

particularly important stance for young adults with remitting/relapsing disabili-

ties (e.g., depression, diabetes, AIDS, multiple sclerosis). For example, a young

woman who experiences severe depressive episodes and wants a career in health

care administration may need to look at occupational alternatives that more easily

accommodate rapid reentry to the job market if she requires time off. Even persons

with more stable disabilities may need to reflect on the meaning and value of work

in their lives, as well as prepare to cope with the types of barriers described earlier.

Generally, career counseling tends to taper off when counselor and client have

identified career goals and specific steps to achieve them. However, career coun-

selors may need to be more actively engaged in the job search and adjustment

process when working with individuals with disabilities, based on the issues

raised earlier in the chapter, such as employer stereotypes, negative social atti-

tudes, and fear of loss of insurance benefits. In the rehabilitation field, job search

and subsequent job placement have received a great deal of attention—more so

than in the general career development or career counseling field (see Jome &

Phillips, Chapter 19, this volume; Saks, Chapter 7, this volume). As a result, there

are a

number of different approaches described in the literature toward helping

individual secure a job, including job-seeking skills groups (Azrin, Flores, &

plan, 1975), supported employment (Wehman et al., 1999), and marketing ap-

plicants to employers through a variety of different job development approaches

(Gilbride, Stensrud, & Johnson, 1994). Although the details are well beyond the

scope of this chapter, the fundamental practices across all of these approaches are

similar. They include careful preparation of individuals with disabilities for job

interviews (including legal rights and disclosure of disability), developing and

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using job connections and networks as the most likely source of job leads and re-

ferrals, assisting employers after the placement as to workplace accommodations,

and encouraging work retention support groups (either virtual or face to face;

Hagner, 2003). Work retention or job support groups help employees to manage

possible negative attitudes, deal with issues concerning loss of social security

benefits, and provide connections for future employment. Some of these services,

such as job placement, postemployment support, or benefits counseling, may be

provided through various federal and state groups, including the state’s voca-

tional rehabilitation agency, One Stop Career Centers, and SSA field offices. Ca-

reer counselors may want to maintain linkages with all of these resources in their

local communities.

A final implication concerning career counseling practices for individuals

with disabilities is to argue that taking into account disability is frequently no

different from taking into account other client variables, such as race, sex, or age

in dev

ising effective strategies. Mainstream career development theorists and re-

searchers have tended to ignore the application of concepts and services to people

with disabilities, even while the research in applying these same constructs to

other diverse groups continued to grow. This was further compounded by tradi-

tional practices in vocational rehabilitation that focused on individual impair-

ments and deficits, rather than on the individual’s career-related attributes or the

environment. As the shift from deficit model to empowerment continues to grow,

we expect t hat more attention will be directed toward understanding the career

behavior of, and career practices for, individuals with disabilities. Additional re-

search studies that would assist in extending career theories and practices to in-

dividuals with disabilities are clearly needed.

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CHAPTER 24

Broadening Our Understanding of

Work-Bound Youth: A Challenge for

Career Counseling

Cindy L. Juntunen and Kara Brita Wettersten

HE TRANSITION FROM

school to work (STW) has been a focus of American

society since its inception, with founding fathers such as Thomas Jeffer-

son and Benjamin Franklin writing on the importance of training citi-

zenry for employment (Herr, 1997). Career development and counseling, as

distinct professional foci, can also trace their roots to the school-to-work re-

former Frank Parsons (1909), who at the beginning of the twentieth century

sought to understand how young people could find the best match between

their aptitudes/interests and employment opportunities. Despite these influ-

ential markers in our history, numerous writers in the past two decades have

commented on the substantial lack of policy, programs, and research in the area

of school-to-work transitions (Blustein, Juntunen, & Worthington, 2000; Lent &

Worthington, 1999), particularly in comparison to the school-to-college transi-

tion. Blustein et al. wrote, “Although the United States has some of the finest

university training in the world, our educational preparation for those who

move into the workforce directly after high school is far less systematic, em-

powering, and equitable” (p. 435).

In response to a growing recognition of need, Congress passed the School-to-

Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) in 1994. The act had as its chief aim the provi-

sion of services to prepare students (from kindergarten through grade 12) for

employment after high school. As such, STWOA had three main elements:

1. School-based learning activities that directly relate to work preparation.

2. Work-based (i.e., on-the-job) learning activities that provide students with

relevant and specific work experiences.

3. Connecting activities that link school activities to work activities and work

activities to school activities.

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EEDS AND

PPLICATIONS

The passing of STWOA was intended to provide needed programs for thou-

sands of students who were not college bound. However, school-to-work pro-

grams were plagued with difficulties, including sparse implementation across

the country; lack of employer, parent, and teacher involvement; and lack of effec-

tive and multiculturally sensitive assessments to measure success or failure

(Blustein et al., 2000). Additionally, STWOA funding ended in 2001, leaving well-

intended programs to flounder at the starting gates.

Despite the end of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, the movement to

recognize and meet the needs of work-bound (or non-college-bound) youth con-

tinues to grow (e.g., Fouad, 1997; Phillips, Blustein, Jobin-Davis, & White, 2002;

Worthington & Juntunen, 1997). For example, in 1999, the American Psychologi-

cal Association (APA) formed a multidisciplinary task force that reported on the

characteristics and needs of youth who are making school-to-work transitions

and on the policies and programs that assist in that transition (APA School-to-

Work Task Force, 1999). Researchers specific to the fields of career counseling and

vocational psychology have also made gains in examining, implementing, and

evaluating specific factors related to the needs of work-bound youth (Fouad,

1997; Phillips et al., 2002).

While the concerns of youth making the school-to-work transition have

gained scholarly and clinical momentum (Blustein, Phillips, Jobin-Davis, Finkel-

berg, & Roarke, 1997; Worthington & Juntunen, 1997), the plight of work-bound

but out-of-school youth has not (Herr, 1995). This lack of attention is disappoint-

ing, especially in light of strong indications that this population is underserved

and underresourced. For example, a recent General Accounting Office (GAO)

document indicates that even though 30% of the funding meant to facilitate

youth employment is required to go to out-of-school youth, providers of those

services have a difficult time utilizing that funding because they cannot reach

the individuals who make up this component of the work-bound youth popula-

tion (GAO, 2002).

Further evidence of the need to assist out-of-school youth is provided by a

quick survey of dropout rates and unemployment statistics. Like the general pop-

ulation of work-bound youth, out-of-school work-bound youth make up a diverse

group of people. However, for the sake of description, this population may be di-

vided into two groups: those with high school degrees and those without. As to

those without, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that in the year

tween fall 2000 and fall 2001, roughly half a million youth dropped out of sec-

ondary school, and the unemployment rate for these youth was approximately

36% (BLS, 2002).

Given the changing political and economic landscapes—and increasing knowl-

edge base—related to work-bound youth, this chapter has three primary goals:

1. To provide an overview of work-bound youth, including definitions, charac-

teristics, and statistics.

2. To examine the current multidisciplinary knowledge concerning the school-

to-work transition.

3. To explore the issues and concerns of out-of-school work-bound youth, in-

cluding youth who are participants in the juvenile justice system, are wel-

fare recipients, or are victims of domestic violence.

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Broadening Our Understanding of Work-Bound Youth: A Challenge 575

Throughout this chapter is an implicit message about the need for counselors and

psychologists to take on the challenge first posed by Parsons (1909): to better as-

sist our nation’s youth in their process of finding meaningful employment and

satisfying lives.

OVERVIEW OF THE WORK-BOUND YOUTH POPULATION

Work-bound youth have typically been described as those individuals who in-

tend to enter the labor market after they leave high school (Herr, 1997; Worthing-

ton & Juntunen, 1997). Herr (1995) noted that individuals who make up the

work-bound population are heterogeneous in terms of race, ethnicity, gender,

and intellectual ability. We concur that diversity is an essential aspect of work-

bound youth and that diversity awareness must be kept in the forefront of inter-

ventions targeting this population. We also seek to expand that definition to

include those individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 who seek to enter the

labor force and, whether in some type of school or not, neither have nor currently

intend to seek their bachelor’s degree. In contrast to the first definition, this sec-

ond definition includes both those who are making the school-to-work transition

and those youth who may have been out of school or work but are now seeking

employment (i.e., the out-of-school-to-work transition).

TUDENTS AND

ECENT

IGH

CHOOL

RADUATES

It is eye opening to consider the number of individuals who do not seek a college

education after leaving high school. In a BLS publication titled College Enrollment

and Work Activity of Year 2001 High School Graduates (2002), approximately 900,000

individuals—39% of the total graduating population—were non-college bound.

Approximately 80% of those high school graduates who were not enrolled in col-

lege entered the labor force. Of those individuals, 21% were unemployed. In our

expanded definition of work-bound youth, it is also worthwhile to consider those

individuals who start college and do not finish. According to the Education Trust

(2000), roughly 25% of those who start college at a four-year school do not make it

to their sophomore year, and this figure is roughly 50% for students in two-year

colleges.

Census data collected in 2001 suggest that gender and race/ethnicity differ-

ences in unemployment exist for high school graduates (with no college) between

18 and 24 years of age. For example, 15% of males in this population are unem-

ployed, and 12% of females are unemployed. The unemployment rate for 18- to

24-year-old African Americans with high school diplomas (and no college course-

work) is approximately 23%. For Hispanics, this same statistic is 11%; for Asians

and Pacific Islanders, 13%; and for Whites, 12%. Employment opportunities for

this cohort appear to be largely in the areas of service, administrative support,

and sales (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002).

-S

CHOOL

OUTH

As to 16- to 24-year-olds who are not engaged in formal educational activities,

more men (89%) than women (76%) are in the labor force (BLS, 2002). Differences

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