Journal of College Student Development

Abstract:

Persistently low graduation rates continue to leave educators in search of ways to promote the success of college students. One understudied factor that scholarship has linked to student persistence and success is students’ confidence in their major and career paths—their major and career self-efficacy (MCSE). Ways to increase students’ MCSE in higher education are understudied, and what researchers typically focus on is the effectiveness of specific college interventions like career courses or workshops. In this study, I centered how college educators adopting a strengths-oriented, affirming, and validating approach to supporting students affects students’ MCSE. Drawing on a longitudinal data set of 760 students, I found that a strengths-oriented, affirming, validating approach to support significantly increases students’ MCSE. Moreover, this positive relationship held true across a range of student characteristics including sex, race/ethnicity, first-generation status, ACT scores, college GPA, academic self-efficacy, and earlier reported levels of MCSE. Findings indicate that a validating approach to supporting students’ development is a promising direction for college educators to increase students’ MCSE and by extension their college success.