Erik J. Porfeli

Childhood and adolescent predictors of early adult career pathways

Abstract Individual and contextual factors in childhood and adolescence that were hypothesized to contribute to career pathways were examined in a prospective study. Four career pathway groups were distinguished in a sample of 202 at-risk men (23–24 years of age); namely, young men with long-term unemployment, short-term unemployment, full employment, or a college education. Measures of educational attainment, family and peer characteristics, and personal adjustment during childhood and adolescence were used to determine if they would predict early adult career pathways. Findings indicated that the long-term unemployed young men, overall, showed the poorest levels of educational attainment, family and peer characteristics, and personal adjustment during childhood and adolescence.The most important predictors of differing career pathways were educational attainment, arrests, and mental health problems. Implications of the findings for conceptualizing the school-to-work transition within an integrative framework are discussed.

Influence of Social and Community Capital on Student Achievement in a Large Urban School District

Education professionals and policy makers have been working to “close the achievement gap” for some time. Differences in school performance for children from diverse and different family backgrounds have been at the core of past and present social, political, and education reform initiatives and practices. Previous research suggests that student characteristics and social capital (i.e., supportive aspects of social structures and people) predict academic achievement. In the present study, we examined the impact of school demographics, including distributions of exceptional children, and community capital (i.e., financial, human, and social capital in a family) on educational achievement as an opportunity to reframe the perspective on blame and explore the benefits of intentional diversity and integration on the educational advancement for all children. One result showed that community capital was a strong predictor of academic outcomes. We also found that the concentrations of students with academic gifts, behavior problems, or mental retardation and interesting interactions among these variables had differing impacts on academic achievement at the school level.

Counseling Psychologists and Schools Toward a Sharper Conceptual Focus

The articles in this major contribution on counseling psychology in schools demonstrate that developmental-contextualism is a metatheoretical framework that is relevant and useful for the work of counseling psychologists. The actual utility of the framework depends on the user’s having a clear understanding of its basic constructs and underlying assumptions, as well as avoiding some common misconceptions. Counseling psychologists are urged to acquire a good working knowledge of developmental-contextualism and of recent theoretical advances in the developmental-contextual framework, specifically the developmental systems theory of D. H. Ford and Lerner and the motivational systems theory of M. E. Ford.