Social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) seeks to explain the factors that shape educational and vocational interests and choices. We used meta-analytic path analyses to synthesize data (from 1981 to 2008) relevant to SCCT's interest and choice hypotheses, organizing the literature according to Holland's (1997) broad…

Efforts to test hypotheses derived from social cognitive theory require sound measures of the theory's constructs. Because the theory is concerned with domain-specific aspects of human functioning, it raises special measurement challenges. For example, unlike traits, which can be indexed with general, all-purpose measures, social cognitive…

Italian high school students (n=796) completed measures related to Social Cognitive Career Theory and Holland's personality types. Findings supported hypotheses that self-efficacy and outcome expectations predict interests. Whether the mediation effect of interests was full or partial varied across types. Social supports/barriers related to career…