The development of realistic vocational projects: study of Angolan

students in Portugal

Liliana Faria1, Joana Carneiro Pinto2 & Nazaré Loureiro3

1Universidade Europeia; 2Universidade Católica de Lisboa; 3Clínica Saúde Atlântica

Goal

• This research seeks to explore the professional projects, interests, self-concept and coping strategies of a group of immigrant Angolan students in Portugal undertaking their higher studies

Participants

• The study included 67 Angolan young adults of both sexes (32, 47.86 girls, and 35%, 52.2% boys)

• Aged between 17 to 20 years (μ=19±.78)

Assessment instruments

• Self-Directed Search (Holland, 1973)

• Scale of Self-Concept and Self-Esteem (Peixoto, Martins, Woods, & Miller, 1997)

• Scale of Coping Strategies (Francis et al., 2003)

Self-Directed Search - SDS

Self-Directed Search - SDS was developed with the purpose of supporting the identification of personality characteristics, taking into account the definition of congruent occupational environment with personality, depending on interests and capabilities

It is an instrument grounded in the hexagonal model of Holland on the characteristics of six types and the nature of person-environment interactions. It is structured into three sections: Activities, Skills, and Jobs

Each section comprises items organized into the dimensions proposed by Holland, namely Realistic (R), Investigative (I) Artistic (A), Social (S), Entrepreneur (E) and Conventional (C)

This instrument is self-administered, easily interpreted by the participant and includes studies of adaptation to the Portuguese context

Scale of Self-Concept and Self-Esteem

• The scale of self-concept and self-esteem (Peixoto, Martins, Mata, and Monteiro, 1997) is a Portuguese adaptation of the Self Perception Profile for Adolescents Harter (1988)

• It is constituted of nine subscales: scholastic competence, social acceptance, athletic competence, physical appearance, romantic attraction, behavior, close friendships, competition in the mother tongue, mathematics competence and self-esteem

• Its adapted version consists of 53 items in a Likert format (level four response categories: exactly like me, like me, different from me, completely different from me). Peixoto et al., (1997) reported Cronbach's alphas between 0.70 and 0.88

Coping strategies scale

Coping strategies scale is constituted by 24 items, where students indicate the frequency, on a likert scale with five points (1 never, 2 rarely, 3 sometimes, 4 almost always, 5 always) of a respective coping strategy, knowing thus the more used coping strategies by these individuals to overcome stress in their day-to-day.

The factorial structure reflects two factors of coping strategies used by students: individual centred coping strategies, and other centred coping strategies. Results shown that the internal consistency, measured by Cronbach's alpha, presents a satisfactory value of .77.

Procedure

Formal contacts were established with the selected institution in order to present the study main purposes, objectives and the research team

After obtaining the approval for the investigation, the data gathering was initiated in a classroom context and in the presence of a researcher

Participants were also explained about the study main purposes and objectives. Instructions were read and explained, as well as the ethical considerations associated with the data processing. This data assessment took about 45 minutes per class.

Results were analysed throughout the Statistic Program for Social Sciences (SPSS, version 19.0 for Windows).

Results were considered statistically significant when the value of significance test was less than .05 (p.05)

Results

• Results indicate the existence of statistically significant differences between boys and girls only in Artistic interests, in favor of girls, and the lack of differences in the average scores of both sexes in the dimensions of self-concept and the preferential use of individual coping styles  

• There is a significant positive association, although weak, between sex and Artistic interests, as well as between preferred coping style centered on the individual, school competence, behavior, and Realistic and Artistic interests and course area.

Results and conclusions

• Considering the self-concept dimensions there are positive and statistically significant correlations between physical appearance and expectations of schooling and self-esteem and expectations of schooling

• Understanding these dimensions may be important in organizing activities aimed at helping them feel more confident in the construction of realistic vocational projects.

The development of realistic vocational projects: study of Angolan

students in Portugal

Liliana Faria1, Joana Carneiro Pinto2 & Nazaré Loureiro3

1Universidade Europeia; 2Universidade Católica de Lisboa; 3Clínica Saúde Atlântica