The Influence of the African American Father on Level of Self-Efficacy, Career Achievement, and Aspirations of His African American Daughter

The purpose of this correlational study was to investigate the influence of perceived and desired paternal involvement of the African American father on his African American daughter. The research problem is how father involvement may influence self-efficacy, career achievements, and aspirations of African American females. This study sought to contribute to applied knowledge that will be beneficial to professionals in the development and implementation of evidence-based interventions and techniques geared at increasing levels of self-efficacy, career achievement, and aspirations among African American females in relation to the impact of perceived and desired father involvement. This study was modeled on Kerpelman, Eryigit, and Stephens's (2007) study, "African American Adolescents' Future Education Orientation: Associations with Self-efficacy, Ethnic Identity, and Perceived Parental Support" and guided by Social cognitive career theory. Online recruitment and data collections methods were used. Seventy-nine African American female participants were recruited from the Alpha Kappa Alpha Network and the Black Career Women's Network groups on LinkedIn to complete a brief demographic questionnaire, the Father Involvement Scale (Finley & Schwartz, 2004), the Career Attitudes and Strategies Inventory (Holland & Gottfredson, 1994), and the General Self-Efficacy Subscale of the Self-Efficacy Scale (Sherer et al., 1982). The majority of the participants felt that their father or father figure influenced their career development. The results indicated that perceived and desired involvement of the father is not a primary contributor to the level of self-efficacy, career achievement, and aspirations of adult African American females between the ages of 21 and 63 years old. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]