Career development of adolescents: An ecological perspective

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development is used as a framework for examining the research on the career development of adolescents. The examination of the four contexts — the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, and the macrosystem — provides an additionalperspective to the ontogenic (individual) approach that has predominated the research literature in this field. Among the four contexts examined, some research on the influence of microsystem, including family, school,peer group, and workplace is identified. The amount of developmentally based research drops off quickly for the other systems, although there are other pertinent research and social issues for each system. Research and intervention implications of this perspective are indicated.This research was supported by grants from the Humanities and Social Science Grants Committee of the University of British Columbia and Youth Employment Program of British Columbia.Received Ed.D. from McGill University. Current research interest is career development and counseling of adolescents.