Using the Constructs Multifinality, Work Hope, and Possible Selves With Urban Minority Youth

• Published in: The Career development quarterly Vol. 60; no. 3; pp. 243 - 253
• Main Authors: Park-Taylor, Jennie, Vargas, Angela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.2012; Wiley-Blackwell; National Career Development Association
• Subjects: Achievement Need; At risk youth; Career Counseling; Career Development; Career development planning; Career Planning; Careers; Child health; Children; Children & youth; Counseling; Counseling Theories; Education; Educational Opportunities; Goal Orientation; Health aspects; High Schools; Individual Development; Integrated approach; Learning; Middle schools; Minority & ethnic groups; Minority Group Children; Occupational Aspiration; Role models; Schizophrenia; Secondary schools; Social aspects; Students; Teachers; Training; Urban schools; Urban Youth; Vocational guidance; Wages & salaries
• ISSN: 0889-4019; 2161-0045
• DOI: 10.1002/j.2161-0045.2012.00020.x

This article describes and highlights the potential contributions that the constructs multifinality, work hope, and possible selves make for designing career counseling interventions and for better understanding possible career‐related factors associated with academic engagement and achievement among urban minority youth. Multifinality may serve as a superordinate orientation because it conceptualizes development as discontinuous and relatively plastic, allowing for youth deemed at risk to follow more hopeful pathways. Work hope and possible selves emphasize the utility of providing urban minority youth with space to answer questions related to what they might achieve and do in the future and who they might become. Together, multifinality, work hope, and possible selves provide a hopeful conceptual framework for career researchers and practitioners.