The study was to examine the effects of career awareness group counseling on career maturity level of elementary school children. The research questions for the purpose of the study were as follows;
First, will there be any differences in career-orie...
The study was to examine the effects of career awareness group counseling on career maturity level of elementary school children. The research questions for the purpose of the study were as follows;
First, will there be any differences in career-orientation, understanding of career, rationality of career selection, sex stereotype in career, self-understanding, autonomy, and self-esteem between experimental group receiving career awareness group counseling and control group?
Second, will there be any differences in career-orientation, understanding of career, rationality of career selection, sex stereotype in career, self-understanding, autonomy, and self-esteem between internal and external control groups from the experimental group?
The subjects of the study were 43 elementary school children(6th grade), and they were randomly assigned to two groups, experimental(22 children) and control(21 children) groups. Before giving the career awareness group counseling, Holland's career development scale was administered to two groups for measure the pretest scores. The career awareness group counseling was applied to the experimental group(two sessions for a week, total 15 sessions). Holland's career development scale was administered again to two groups 40 days after the group counseling, and Rotter's locaus of control scale was administered only to the experimental group.
The results were as follows;
First, the repeated measures ANOVA to examine change in career maturity level between the interal and the external groups and the pretest and posttest showed that there was significant main effects of the pre-post test and the internal-external group. career awareness group counseling.
Second, there were significant changes in understanding of career and sex stereotype in career factors among 7 factors of career maturity, and were significant changes of the pretest-posttest and the internal-external control group in career-orientation and autonomy factors.
Third, the internal control group from the experimental group showed higher score in career maturity level than the external control group from the experimental group. However, this result was reversal in the control group.
Fourth, the experimental group showed higher scores in understanding of career, rationality of career selection, and sex stereotype in career factors than the control group.
Based upon the results, the study suggests that the career awareness group counseling can be effective means for enhancing elementary school children's career maturity, particularly in career-orientation, understanding of career, and sex stereotype in career.