Published Research

 Previous research has addressed the challenges faced by Veterans transitioning out of the military and back into the community, but little is known about the possible connection between veterans’ transition experiences and their social cognitive processes, career development, and career advancement. Additionally, there is limited empirical research on the impact of the transition experience among those who have served in the US military, especially when exploring their transition into civilian employment (Freytes et al., 2013; Kleykamp, 2013; Robertson & Brott, 2013). The purpose of this study was to apply Bandura’s social cognitive career theory as a means to examine how intent to engage in civic action, current employment status, educational level, and age affected veterans’ career decision self-efficacy. Data were collected from 99 Veterans: men (n= 43), women (n= 55), while one participant preferred not to answer (n= 1). This sample was gathered from a national database of veterans, with prior US military service, was provided by the third party data collection agency Qualtrics. Participants completed a demographic measure, the Civic Action subscale from the Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire, and the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form. This study used a non-experimental research design to predict career decision self-efficacy. Results indicated that Veterans who were more willing to participate in civic action had higher levels of career decision self-efficacy.