Initial Scale Development of the Contextual Support for Post-Secondary Planning Scales

Abstract

Vocational psychologists and career theorists have articulated the importance of social support in the development of career plans for high school youth. More recently, Lent, Brown, and Hackett carefully articulated the location of contextual supports in the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) framework. However, there is a paucity of research examining contextual supports in relation to career outcomes due to a lack of adequate measures. The current article describes the initial development of the Contextual Support for Post-Secondary Planning Scales. These six scales were designed to assess support for postsecondary career planning for high school students from six sources (i.e., mother, father, sibling, peers, school personnel, and community). A study was conducted to determine the underlying factor structure of measure (n = 316 high school students), and exploratory factor analyses revealed a one-factor solution of general support across the six scales. The implications for the use of these measures in research and practice are discussed.