Journal of Vocational Behavior 76 (2010) 244–251

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Journal of Vocational Behavior

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb

Predicting occupational interests and choice aspirations in Portuguese

high school students: A test of social cognitive career theory
Robert W. Lent a,*, Maria Paula Paixão b,*, José Tomás da Silva b, Lígia Mexia Leitão b
a
Department of Counseling and Personnel Services, University of Maryland, 3214 Benjamin Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA
b
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The predictive utility of social cognitive career theory’s (SCCT) interest and choice models
Received 29 September 2009 was examined in a sample of 600 Portuguese high school students. Participants completed
Available online 12 October 2009 measures of occupational self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, social supports and
barriers, and choice consideration across the six Holland (1997) RIASEC types. The inte-
Keywords: grated interest-choice model fit the data well across Holland types and generally supported
Social cognitive career theory the hypotheses that self-efficacy and outcome expectations jointly predict interests, and
Self-efficacy
that interests mediate the relations of self-efficacy and outcome expectations to choice
Outcome expectations
Interests
consideration. Contrary to SCCT, however, social supports and barriers related to choice
Choice goals consideration indirectly, through self-efficacy, rather than directly. The implications of
Supports these findings for further research on the cross-cultural validity of SCCT are considered.
Barriers Ó 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Since its formal introduction 15 years ago, social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2000) has
received a good deal of empirical attention (for recent reviews, se Betz, 2008; Lent, 2005). Based on Bandura’s (1986) general
social cognitive theory, SCCT originally consisted of three segmental models designed to explain the processes by which peo-
ple develop interests, make choices, and achieve performances of varying quality in educational and career-relevant con-
texts. A fourth model, aimed at understanding satisfaction and other aspects of educational and vocational adjustment,
was recently introduced (Lent & Brown, 2006a).
Each of the four SCCT models contains an overlapping set of person, behavioral, and environmental variables that are as-
sumed to jointly guide the academic and career development process. Among its person variables, the theory emphasizes the
role of self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and goals in enabling people to help steer their own career-related efforts.
Environmental variables, such as social supports and barriers, are seen as having the potential to either promote or restrict
particular choice options for individuals. They also provide the context for the development and revision of self-efficacy and
outcome expectations over time. Socio-demographic variables such as race/ethnicity, culture, and gender are assumed to
influence career outcomes largely through the learning experiences and opportunity structures that they engender.
SCCT’s interest and choice models have received the majority of attention from career researchers to this point. As illus-
trated in Fig. 1, SCCT posits that self-efficacy serves as an important source of outcome expectations because people typically
expect to receive favorable outcomes when pursuing activities at which they feel efficacious. The theory further maintains
that people develop interests (activity likes and dislikes) largely on the basis of their beliefs about their performance capa-
bilities (self-efficacy) and about the outcomes to which their efforts could lead (outcome expectations). People, thus, tend to

* Corresponding authors. Fax: +1 301 405 9995 (R.W. Lent).

E-mail addresses: boblent@umd.edu (R.W. Lent), mppaixao@fpce.uc.pt (M.P. Paixão).

0001-8791/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2009.10.001
 R.W. Lent et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 76 (2010) 244–251 245

Social Social
Supports Barriers

Self-Efficacy

Interests Occupational
Consideration

Outcome
Expectations

Fig. 1. Path model depicting SCCT’s predictors of occupational interests and choice consideration. The dotted paths from social supports and barriers to self-
efficacy are unique to Bandura’s model.

develop sustained interests at activities which they believe they can perform well and that will lead to positive outcomes,
such as self-satisfaction and social prestige. Conversely, people develop lesser interests in (or even dislikes toward) activities
for which they harbor low self-efficacy and negative outcome expectations. Interests, in turn – together with self-efficacy
and outcome expectations – lead people to develop goals for future activity involvement, such as the intention to select a
college major or to pursue a career path that is consistent with one’s interests.
The setting and pursuit of career-relevant goals is also responsive to the sorts of supports and barriers (e.g., social, mate-
rial, financial factors) that people receive from their environments. According to SCCT, supports and barriers can affect peo-
ple’s goals both directly and via other routes (e.g., by making the translation of their goals into actions more or less likely).
Bandura (1999, 2000) has envisioned an additional path by which environmental variables may affect people’s goal choices,
namely, indirectly by either bolstering or weakening their self-efficacy beliefs. This indirect pathway is represented by the
dotted paths in Fig. 1.
Although these basic interest and choice hypotheses have been tested in a host of studies (see Lent, 2005; Rottinghaus,
Larson, & Borgen, 2003), a number of research needs remain. For instance, researchers have tended to focus primarily on
math, engineering, and science-related activity domains, which reflect Holland’s (1997) Realistic (R) and Investigative (I)
themes. There have been fewer applications in the context of the Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional
(C) themes (Sheu et al., 2010). In addition, much of the existing research has focused on SCCT’s central person variables (e.g.,
self-efficacy), with less attention to the role of the contextual variables (e.g., Byars-Winston & Fouad, 2008; Ferry, Fouad, &
Smith, 2000; Lent, Lopez, Lopez, & Sheu, 2008; Lent et al., 2001). Finally, the preponderance of research has been on college
students in the U.S. Greater study is, therefore, needed of fuller versions of the SCCT interest and choice models in order to
establish how well they generalize to the educational and career development of younger (and older) persons, across differ-
ent domains of academic and career activity, and to persons from diverse cultures and cross-national contexts.
The cross-cultural validity of SCCT has become an increasingly popular focus of career inquiry in recent years (Lent &
Sheu, 2010). In one relevant study, Lent, Brown, Nota, and Soresi (2003a) tested the utility of SCCT in predicting the
career-related interests and goals of 796 high school students in Italy. In addition to self-efficacy, outcome expectations,
interests, and goals, this study included measures of contextual supports and barriers. The social cognitive measures rep-
resented all six Holland themes. Because the students were in high school, measures of occupational consideration, or
aspiration, were used as an age-appropriate proxy for choice goals. These measures indexed the extent to which students
had seriously considered various RIASEC career options rather than their intent to select a more immediate educational or
occupational path.
The purpose of the present study was to replicate and extend the Lent et al. (2003a) study using a sample of Portuguese
high school students. In particular, the measures used by Lent et al., which had been adapted from English versions originally
developed by Gore (1996; Gore & Leuwerke, 2000), were translated into Portuguese and administered to a sample of high
school students in Portugal. We examined the fit of the choice model (which incorporates the interest model) across the
six Holland themes, testing SCCT’s specific hypotheses that (a) self-efficacy is predictive of outcome expectations;
246 R.W. Lent et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 76 (2010) 244–251

(b) self-efficacy and outcome expectations jointly predict interests; (c) self-efficacy and outcome expectations predict stu-
dents’ choice consideration (goals), both directly and indirectly, through interests; and (d) supports and barriers account
for unique variance in choice consideration, above and beyond the other predictors. We also tested Bandura’s (1999,
2000) hypothesis that environmental supports and barriers are linked to choices indirectly through self-efficacy.

2. Method

2.1. Participants

Participants were 600 students (55% females, 45% males) attending high schools in two coastal (Aveiro, 24%; Coimbra,
40%) and two inland (Castelo Branco, 8%; Viseu, 27%) towns in Portugal’s central region. They were enrolled in the final
two years (50% in 11th grade, 50% in 12th grade) of a program of studies designed to prepare them for higher education
in a variety of majors (e.g., psychology, engineering, architecture, economics, management, arts, journalism, medicine, nurs-
ing). Their average age was 17.13 years (SD = 1.01). Fifty-six percent of the students’ mothers and 53% of their fathers had a
basic school diploma (9th grade); 18% of mothers and 22% of fathers had a secondary school diploma (12th grade); and 26%
of mothers and 22% of fathers had a higher education diploma (data were unavailable for 3% of the fathers).

2.2. Procedure and instruments

Students voluntarily completed a battery of measures in their regular classes after permission was obtained from a
national institutional review board, the regional board of education, and students’ parents. All students who were present
on days the survey was administered agreed to complete it. The battery included demographic and academic status infor-
mation along with measures of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, choice consideration, and social supports
and barriers corresponding to each of the six RIASEC types. The measures were Portuguese language versions of the scales
used by Lent et al. (2003a). They were translated from the original English by the bilingual members of our research team;
they were then back-translated by an English teacher in Coimbra. The few minor discrepancies between the original and
back-translated versions were resolved through consensus.
Participants rated their self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, and occupational consideration in relation to 42
occupational titles, with each of the six Holland types represented by seven titles. Sample occupational titles for the R type
were auto mechanic and electrician; for Investigative, biologist and geologist; for Artistic, musician and artist; for Social, high
school teacher and social worker; for Enterprising, business executive and sales manager; and for Conventional, accountant
and bank teller. The items and instructions for these measures were adapted from Gore (1996; Gore & Leuwerke, 2000).
In measuring self-efficacy, participants were asked to indicate their confidence in their ability to ‘‘become a successful
worker” in each of the 42 occupations along a 10-point scale, ranging from 0 = No Confidence to 9 = Complete Confidence.
On the outcome expectations measure, the instructions noted a variety of positive outcomes, such as independence, creativ-
ity, or prestige, which people may consider when thinking about possible occupational choices. Participants were then asked
to rate each occupational title in terms of the degree to which ‘‘you would get what you wanted” from each occupation
(0 = Not Very Much; 9 = Very Much). Interests were assessed by having participants rate how much ‘‘you think you would like
or dislike the work activities that people in each of these occupations perform” (0 = Strongly Dislike; 9 = Strongly Like). On the
occupational choice consideration measure, students indicated how seriously they would consider each occupation ‘‘as a
possible career for yourself” (0 = Not Very Seriously; 9 = Very Seriously). These procedures produced six sets of self-efficacy,
outcome expectation, interest, and choice consideration scores (one set for each of the six Holland themes). Scores on each
scale were derived by summing item responses and dividing by 7. Higher scores on these scales reflected more positive self-
efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations, stronger interests, and more serious consideration of the occupations within a
particular Holland theme.
The social support and barrier scales were adapted by Lent et al. (2003a) from previously developed measures of the per-
ceived positive and negative environmental influences on students’ academic progress (e.g., Lent et al., 2001). Students were
asked to indicate the types of reactions they might expect to receive from important people in their lives if were to choose
various occupational paths. Six broad occupational paths were described, corresponding to each Holland theme. For instance,
for the Realistic theme, participants were told to ‘‘imagine that you wished to enter an occupation that involved manual,
technical, agricultural, electrical, or technical skills (e.g., electrician, mechanic).” They were then presented with the item
stem, ‘‘If I were to enter such a field, I would. . .”, followed by four support (e.g., ‘‘feel support for this decision from important
people in my life”) and four barrier statements (e.g., ‘‘receive negative comments or discouragement about this choice from
friends”). Students indicated their level of agreement with each statement (1 = Strongly Disagree; 7 = Strongly Agree). In this
way, each Holland theme was assessed with four support and four barrier items. Scores for the support and barrier scales
were computed by dividing the summed item responses by 4. Higher support scores implied expectations of greater social
support relative to the choice of a particular Holland occupational cluster; higher barrier scores reflected the perception that
choice of a particular Holland cluster would be met by negative social reactions.
Gore (1996; Gore & Leuwerke, 2000) reported that 84-item versions of the self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest,
and choice consideration scales (14 items for each Holland theme) yielded adequate internal consistency reliability
 R.W. Lent et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 76 (2010) 244–251 247

estimates and related to one another in theory-consistent ways. Lent et al. (2003a) used the current, shorter (42-item)
version in their study of Italian high school students, finding that the 7-item self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest,
and occupational consideration scales yielded internal consistency reliability values ranging from .80 to .94. They also found
that the 4-item social supports and barriers measures produced internal consistency estimates ranging between .72 and .86.
Confirmatory factor analyses provided support for a correlated six-factor latent structure of the social cognitive measures,
and path analyses indicated that the six factors related to one another in theory-consistent ways (Lent, 2003a).

3. Results

Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, and internal consistency reliability estimates of the social cognitive
measures aligned with each Holland theme. All scales produced adequate coefficient alpha estimates; range = .81 to .96. Path
analyses were performed to test the fit of the data to the hypothesized relations among the social cognitive variables as rep-
resented in Fig. 1. These model tests were conducted using EQS 6.1 (Bentler & Wu, 2005), the variance/covariance matrices of
the measured variables, and maximum likelihood estimation.

Table 1
Descriptive statistics for the social cognitive scales and fit indices from the path analyses, by Holland theme.

Theme/scale Descriptive statistics Model fit indicies

M SD a v2 CFI SRMR RMSEA
*
Realistic 17.76 .99 .02 .08
Self-efficacy 2.70 1.96 .89
Outcome exp 2.37 1.98 .90
Interest 2.23 1.79 .86
Occup consid 1.81 1.80 .88
Soc supports 3.22 .93 .86
Soc barriers 2.46 .94 .81
Investigative 4.74 1.00 .02 .02
Self-efficacy 3.69 2.11 .90
Outcome exp 3.37 2.24 .91
Interest 3.49 2.29 .90
Occup consid 3.07 2.31 .91
Soc supports 3.98 .87 .87
Soc barriers 1.91 .85 .83
Artistic 12.48* .99 .02 .06
Self-efficacy 2.89 2.09 .89
Outcome exp 2.69 2.13 .89
Interest 2.74 2.21 .90
Occup consid 2.19 2.05 .88
Soc supports 3.47 .96 .89
Soc barriers 2.27 .92 .83
Social .95 1.00 .01 .00
Self-efficacy 2.93 1.88 .89
Outcome exp 2.56 1.94 .90
Interest 2.42 1.92 .90
Occup consid 2.08 1.87 .89
Soc supports 3.60 .95 .89
Soc barriers 2.12 .88 .85
Enterprising 14.45* .99 .02 .07
Self-efficacy 3.02 2.07 .92
Outcome exp 2.58 2.14 .94
Interest 2.45 2.14 .93
Occup consid 2.03 2.06 .94
Soc supports 3.53 .94 .88
Soc barriers 2.17 .86 .83
Conventional 16.32* .99 .03 .07
Self-efficacy 2.47 2.13 .95
Outcome exp 2.25 2.17 .96
Interest 2.04 2.16 .96
Occup consid 1.78 2.10 .96
Soc supports 3.57 .90 .88
Soc barriers 2.16 .87 .83

Note. N = 600. CFI = comparative fit index. SRMR = standardized root mean square residual. RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation. For all model
tests, df = 4.
*
p < .05.
248 R.W. Lent et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 76 (2010) 244–251

Three primary indices were used to reflect the adequacy of data-model fit: the comparative fit index (CFI), the standard-
ized root mean square residual (SRMR), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). Hu and Bentler (1999)
have suggested that good model fit can be inferred by CFI values near or above .95, SRMR values of .08 or lower, and RMSEA
values of .06 or lower. Although non-significant v2 values may also indicate adequate fit, the v2 has several limitations (e.g.,
sensitivity to sample size) and is, therefore, typically given less weight than other indices in interpreting model adequacy. As
shown in Table 1, the fit indices for each model test, organized by Holland theme, generally achieved good fit to the data.
Fig. 2 displays the path coefficients of the model tests for each Holland theme.

3.1. Interest model

According to SCCT’s interest model hypotheses (Lent et al., 1994), self-efficacy and outcome expectations are individually
(Hypotheses 1A and 1B) and jointly (1C) predictive of interests. Consistent with these hypotheses, the path coefficients from
self-efficacy and outcome expectations to interests were significant across the Holland themes (b’s of .30–.58). The combi-
nation of self-efficacy and outcome expectations explained substantial amounts of interest variation in each Holland theme
(R2 values were as follows: Realistic = .62; Investigative = .74; Artistic = .71; Social = .68; Enterprising = .67; Conven-
tional = .66). In addition to its direct path to interests, SCCT posits an indirect path from self-efficacy to interests through
outcome expectations. Self-efficacy was found to be strongly predictive of outcome expectations across Holland themes
(b’s of .69–.79). These findings are consistent with SCCT’s Hypothesis 12A. R2 values, reflecting the proportion of variance
in outcome expectations accounted for by self-efficacy in each Holland theme, were as follows: Realistic = .62; Investiga-
tive = .62; Artistic = .59; Social = .48; Enterprising = .48; Conventional = .48.

3.2. Choice model

According to SCCT’s choice model hypotheses (Lent et al., 1994), self-efficacy (3A), outcome expectations (4A), and inter-
ests (5A) each relate directly to choice. Our findings were partially consistent with Hypotheses 3A and 4A in that self-efficacy
produced significant albeit small direct paths to choice consideration in four of the Holland themes (R, I, A, C; b’s ranged from
.13 to .25) and outcome expectations also yielded significant (small to large) direct paths to choice consideration in four of
the Holland themes (I, A, E, C; b’s of .10–.58). Consistent with Hypothesis 5A, the path coefficients from interests to choice
consideration were large and significant across Holland themes (b’s of .51–.70).
SCCT’s choice model also specifies that interests partially mediate the relations of self-efficacy (3C) and outcome expec-
tations (4C) to choice. Our findings suggest that interest did mediate the relations of both self-efficacy (3C) and outcome
expectations (4C) to choice consideration across Holland themes. In fact, interest fully mediated the relation of both self-effi-
cacy and outcome expectations to choice in the Social theme (i.e., self-efficacy and outcome expectations were related to
choice consideration only indirectly through interests in this theme). Partial mediation was found in the other themes, with
self-efficacy and/or outcome expectations yielding direct as well as indirect paths (through interests) to choice consider-

R = .11, I =.06, A = .13, S = .07, E = .04, C = .12

R = -.43, I = -.38, A = -.26

Social Social
8 S= -22, E = -.38, C = -.32
= .2 Supports Barriers
2 7, A 2
,I=
. = .2
.26 ,C
= = .22
R , E
.26
S=
R
=

R = .03
S

.05
=

I = -.01
,I
.00

R = .1
=
,E

6, I = A = .04
-.0

Self-Efficacy .21, A
=

2,

R = .25 S = .02
-.0

=. ,S=
A

44 -.03, E = .02
2,

S= ,I E = .0
C

.01

.32 =. 6, C C = .01
=.

, 3 = .13
01

E = 3, A
R = .71 .30 =.
,C 37
I = .79 =.
A = .77 32 R = .64, I = .58, A = .51
S = .69 Interests Occupational
E = .69
53 S = .70, E = .68, C = .59 Consideration
C = .69 =.
,A
.57 .56
, I= C=
. 41 5 8 ,
=. 9
R= C = .1
Outcome , E = .58,
Expectations = .56 S = .03, E
,
S = . 10
.14, A
4, I =
R = .0

Fig. 2. Path coefficients from the model tests for each Holland theme. Significant paths (p < .05) appear in bold print.
 R.W. Lent et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 76 (2010) 244–251 249

ation. Collectively, the set of predictors explained substantial proportions of the variance in choice consideration across the
Holland themes (R2 values were as follows: Realistic = .65; Investigative = .76; Artistic = .67; Social = .71; Enterprising = .68;
Conventional = .72).
In addition to self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interests, SCCT posits that environmental supports and barriers
play several important roles relative to choice goals. For example, supports and barriers are assumed to yield direct paths
to goals, explaining unique variance in choice criteria beyond the other predictors. Our findings do not support these hypoth-
eses given that the path coefficients from supports and barriers to choice considerations were small and non-significant
across all Holland themes. Bandura (1999, 2000) had posited that environmental factors also relate to goals indirectly
through self-efficacy. Our findings offer partial support for this indirect pathway in that all paths from social supports to
self-efficacy were significant (b’s of .22–.28). However, only three path coefficients from social barriers to self-efficacy were
signicant (R, A, and C themes; b’s of .11–.13) and these coefficients were positive in sign, which may suggest the presence of a
suppression effect of social supports on the barriers/self-efficacy relationship (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001). As expected, the
relation between supports and barriers was negative and significant across all Holland themes, indicating that high per-
ceived support is associated with the perception of low barriers. Together, supports and barriers together explained a modest
amount of the variance in self-efficacy across most Holland themes; R2 values were as follows: Realistic = .05; Investiga-
tive = .06; Artistic = .07; Social = .06; Enterprising = .04; Conventional = .04. The fact that supports and barriers were related
only indirectly to choice consideration, through self-efficacy, suggests that self-efficacy fully mediated their relation to the
choice criterion.

4. Discussion

Our findings indicated that self-efficacy and outcome expectations each served as useful predictors of interest across Holland
themes, providing support for the supposition that people’s vocational interests tend to reflect the activity domains at which
they both feel efficacious and expect to receive favorable outcomes (Lent et al., 1994). The path between self-efficacy and
outcome expectations was also strong across Holland themes, which is consistent with SCCT’s view that self-efficacy beliefs
help to inform outcome expectations. Moreover, interests were consistently and strongly related to students’ ratings of the
occupational fields that they were seriously considering. This interest-choice path supports Holland’s (1997) assumption,
adopted by SCCT, that people tend to choose vocational options that are consistent with their interests.
SCCT posits that, in addition to interests, occupational choices tend to reflect people’s self-efficacy beliefs and anticipated
outcomes, together with the environmental supports and barriers they expect to encounter, should they opt to pursue par-
ticular choice options. We found partial support for these hypotheses of SCCT’s choice model in that self-efficacy and out-
come expectations each contributed significant direct paths to choice consideration across four of the six Holland themes.
In the remaining themes (S and E for self-efficacy; R and S for outcome expectations), their relation to choice consideration
was fully mediated by interests.
The findings of uniformly small and non-significant direct paths from social supports and barriers to choice consideration
was contrary to SCCT’s choice model predictions that these environmental perceptions would contribute directly to goal-set-
ting (Lent et al., 2000). On the other hand, our findings were consistent with the indirect pathway that Bandura (1999, 2000)
had posited to exist between environmental factors and choice outcomes. In particular, we observed that the relation of so-
cial supports and barriers to choice consideration was largely mediated by self-efficacy in that all of the support/self-efficacy
paths and three of the barrier/self-efficacy paths (for the R, A, and C themes) were significant. Thus, the main function of
social supports and barriers may have been to inform self-efficacy which, in turn, produced either a direct path to choice
consideration or an indirect path through outcome expectations and interests.
On balance, the present findings replicate and extend earlier findings on SCCT’s interest and choice models. In particular,
these findings are largely consistent with those of studies on U.S. students indicating that self-efficacy and outcome expec-
tations (a) are good predictors of interests and (b) augment interests in the prediction of choice goals (e.g., Fouad & Smith,
1996; Gainor & Lent, 1998). Our results also echo U.S.-based findings of an indirect pathway from environmental supports
and barriers to choice outcomes through self-efficacy (e.g., Lent et al., 2001, 2003a, 2003b). Of most significance, however, is
the remarkable similarity of the present pattern of findings to those of an earlier study with Italian students (Lent et al.,
2003a). These two studies, performed in different countries and languages but with a common set of measures, contribute
to the growing base of findings suggesting that SCCT offers predictive utility across certain cultural, linguistic, and national
contexts (Lent & Sheu, 2010).
These findings should be interpreted in light of several methodological limitations. First, several of the measures required
students to rate occupational titles. Although an effort was made to employ occupational titles with which students would
be familiar, it is possible that their ratings were confounded by limited knowledge of the educational requirements or job
tasks of certain occupations, such as those requiring postgraduate degrees. Second, students indicated how seriously they
had considered various occupations as a proxy for more specific occupational goals. This procedure was employed because,
given their age and educational status, many students may not yet have developed crystallized occupational goals. However,
such a goal proxy may be less leavened by realistic considerations (e.g., such as adequacy of available financial support) than
are the goals that students adopt when they are more proximal to work entry. A third limitation was the issue of common
method variance owing to the use of a common set of occupational titles as the basis for the self-efficacy, outcome expec-
250 R.W. Lent et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 76 (2010) 244–251

tation, interest, and choice measures. Such linked measurement procedures are known to accentuate artificially the relations
among the social cognitive variables (Lent & Brown, 2006b).
Although not ideal, the use of occupational titles, choice aspirations, and linked measures did provide an efficient way to
explore students’ vocational ideation across Holland themes at a developmental point prior to active occupational choice-
making. And it might be argued that the real world choice process is often clouded by such considerations as uneven knowl-
edge of different occupational paths and of one’s personal capabilities (Brown & Lent, 1996). The consistency of the current
findings to that of other studies using different measurement strategies suggests that these findings reflect more than meth-
od artifact. Nevertheless, it would be useful for future research on SCCT’s interest and choice models on adolescents to em-
ploy procedures that surmount the limitations of the current methods, for example, by focusing on performance domains
that, while vocationally relevant, are closer to students’ experiential worlds (e.g., interest in and desire to pursue various
school subjects and extracurricular activities).
Additional directions for future research might also be cited. First, most studies of SCCT’s interest and choice predictions
to this point have employed cross-sectional designs. More use of longitudinal and experimental designs is needed to better
explore the temporal and causal ordering among the theoretical variables. Second, while the base of research on SCCT is
expanding across cultural and national lines (e.g., Kantas, 1997; Lent, Taveira, Sheu, & Singley, 2009; Lent et al., 2003b; Sahin,
2008; Van Vianen, 1999), more research involving non-Western samples, collectivist cultures, and developing countries is
needed. Third, cross-cultural and cross-national research on SCCT should consider use of methods addressing conceptual
and measurement equivalence issues (Lent & Sheu, 2010; Miller & Sheu, 2008). Fourth, additional study is needed of sup-
ports and barriers that are more proximal to actual occupational choices, at which point they may be more salient to deci-
sion-makers and exert more impact on their choice behavior.
In sum, the current findings add to the knowledge base on SCCT by indicating that self-efficacy and outcome expectations
relate to interests, and interests relate to choice criteria, in ways that are largely theory-consistent. However, the paths from
social supports and barriers to choice did not conform with SCCT’s direct-effects predictions, though they were largely con-
sistent with Bandura’s (1999, 2000) indirect-effects hypothesis and with other findings on the choice model (e.g., Lent et al.,
2001). The main contribution of the current study lays in its extension of earlier findings on the SCCT choice model to a novel
cultural and linguistic context, namely, high school students in Portugal. Pending further research, particularly involving
intervention methods, the current findings suggest that Portuguese students’ career planning may be fostered through
the use of theory-derived methods for ensuring that efficacy beliefs are realistic yet optimistic; outcome expectations are
based on accurate information; interests are not prematurely foreclosed by experiential limitations or cognitive biases; goals
are clear, proximal, and public; and students are able to marshal supports and negotiate barriers to their preferred occupa-
tional paths (Brown & Lent, 1996).

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