Social cognitive career theory (SCCT; R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994) and general social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1999, 2000) posit somewhat different relations between contextual variables and choice actions. The authors tested the predictions of these 2 model variations. Participants (328 students in an introductory engineering course) completed measures of SCCT's person (self-efficacy, coping efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, academic goals) and contextual variables (environmental supports and barriers) related to the pursuit of engineering majors. Findings indicated good support for a model portraying contextual supports and barriers as linked to choice goals and actions (i.e., persistence in engineering) indirectly, through self-efficacy, rather than directly, as posited by SCCT. Implications for future research on SCCT's choice and environmental hypotheses are discussed.

Self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977, 1997) has become a popular topic of inquiry in the literatures on career and academic behavior over the past 2 decades. Self-efficacy, referring to people's beliefs about their ability to perform particular behaviors or courses of action, has been shown to be an important mechanism of personal agency and positive adaptation across many domains of psychosocial functioning (Bandura, 1997). This construct was introduced into the career literature by Hackett and Betz (1981), who noted its potential to help explain certain aspects of women's career development, such as the tendency to avoid male-dominated career paths. Ensuing research has supported the utility of self-efficacy as a theoretical mechanism for understanding a variety of academic and career-related outcomes in both women and men (e.g., Hackett & Lent, 1992; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2002; Swanson & Gore, 2000).

One of the major streams of research on academic and career-related self-efficacy has involved science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Although much of this research has examined math self-efficacy (beliefs about one's math capabilities) in general samples of students (e.g., Betz & Hackett, 1983; Hackett &...