Vocational Identity in College Students: Path Analysis of Childhood Attachment, Gender, Age, and Socioeconomic Status

Lara Strate (Tennessee Tech University, United States)
Tony Michael (Tennessee Tech University, United States)
Marie Hammond (Tennessee State University, United States)

COUNS-EDU: The International Journal of Counseling and Education
Vol. 8 No. 1 (2023)

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of gender, age, socioeconomic status, and early childhood parental attachment on vocational identity. Participants included 309 college students who completed a demographic questionnaire, the Adult Scale of Parental Attachment-Short Form (ASPA-SF; Michael & Snow, 2019), and My Vocational Situation (MVS; Holland, Gottfredson, & Power, 1980). Responses were examined through structural equation modeling. Results indicated an overall acceptable model fit and the specific strength of the corresponding variables had on the levels of vocational identity. Implications and areas for future research are proposed.