Validity of the strong interest inventory and skills confidence inventory with Mexican American high school students

The structural and concurrent validity of the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) and Skills Confidence Inventory (SCI) was explored with a sample of 487 Mexican American high school students, and findings were compared with normative samples of the SII and SCI. Holland's (1997) structure was evaluated using circular unidimensional scaling. The hypothesized RIASEC order was supported for general occupational theme (GOT) scores of the SII with female students but not for male students or for general confidence theme (GCT) scores of the SCI with both genders. The model fit for both measures was poor compared with results obtained with reference samples. Additional results supported the concurrent validity of GOT to GCT and both GOT and GCT scores to Holland codes for expressed occupational aspirations. Gender differences were found on four of the six GOTs and three of the six GCTs. Implications for career-related interest and self-efficacy assessment with Mexican American high school students are discussed.