Self-Efficacy, Perceptions of Barriers, Vocational Identity, And the Career Exploration Behavior of Latino/a High School Students‪.‬

This study explored the potential relationship between the social cognitive variables of career decision-making self-efficacy and perceptions of barriers and the outcome variables of vocational identity and career exploration behaviors in a sample of 128 urban Latino/a high school students. The results indicated that higher levels of career decision-making self-efficacy were related to both a more differentiated vocational identity and a greater engagement with career exploration tasks. Perception of fewer barriers was also found to be related to a more integrated vocational identity. Implications for career counseling and future research are discussed. **********