Exploring career decision-making experiences of Mexican American re-entry community college women

The purpose of this phenomenological investigation was to increase understanding of the career perspectives of 12 Mexican American, re-entry women who were attending a community college. The questions guiding this investigation were: (a) How do Mexican American re-entry college women describe their career decision-making experiences, (b) What do Mexican American re-entry college women perceive as influential factors of their career decision-making processes, and (c) To what extent are Bandura's four major tenets of self-efficacy expectations substantiated in the career decision-making experiences of Mexican American re-entry college women? The decision-making themes that emerged from this study were Parental Messages, Spontaneous Career Paths, Helping Others, Volunteerism, Religious Faith, Resource Awareness and Acquisition, and Familial Responsibility. Minor themes also emerged. Themes uncovering factors about career decision-making processes included Spouse or Significant Other Priorities, Critical life-changing Occurrences, and Participants' Children. The research findings corroborated Bandura's four major tenets of self-efficacy expectations.

Results of this study suggested that a traditional way of assisting college students may not be beneficial to the nontraditional college student. Implications for counselors and counseling programs are shared to enhance the career counseling process of nontraditional student populations.