Assessing Role Model Influences on Students' Academic and Vocational Decisions

This article describes four studies that addressed the development and validation of an instrument that assesses the degree and type of role model influences on students' academic and vocational decisions. Factor analyses of the Influence of Others on Academic and Career Decisions Scale (IOACDS) yielded two factors that measure Support/Guidance and Inspiration/Modeling. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency estimates across studies were high. The Support/Guidance and Inspiration/Modeling subscales correlated in expected directions with measures of general social support, occupational information, career indecision, and career certainty, and they were not significantly related to a measure of social desirability. Only the Inspiration/Modeling subscale was significantly related to a measure of vocational identity. Suggestions are made for using the IOACDS in research and practice.