Vocational Hope and Vocational Identity: Urban Adolescents’ Career Development

Abstract

Emancipatory communitarian perspectives advocate for theory, research, and action that address the needs of oppressed groups, such as urban adolescents. Considering the dearth of instruments sensitive to the career development needs of urban adolescents, this study examined the component structure of three indices of career development with 220 urban high school students. Analyses revealed a unique four-component (connection to work, vocational identity, commitment to chosen career, salience of chosen career) solution best fit the model. In addition to the traditional emphasis on vocational identity and future orientation in theories of career development, the obtained component solution suggests that (in a social context with pressure to disconnect) remaining connected to one’s vocational future in the face of external barriers, “vocational hope,” may be a particularly important consideration in urban adolescents’ career development.