Future Orientation and Career Development for Culturally Diverse At-Risk Youth: Qualitative Insights

Yonat Ivzori; Dalia Sachs; Shunit Reiter; Naomi Schreuer

doi:10.1177/08948453251392892

Future Orientation and Career Development for Culturally Diverse At-Risk Youth: Qualitative Insights

Department of Occupational Therapy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Adolescence is a pivotal stage in career development, when youth begin to shape skills and adult identities. However, limited opportunities for at-risk youth, intensified for minorities facing cultural and structural barriers, often disrupt these processes. To address these challenges, we implemented a school-to-work transition program in seven schools with 11th-grade students from diverse cultural backgrounds. It was delivered in two versions: Successful Pathways to Employment for Youth at Risk (SUPER) for Jewish Hebrew-speaking students, and Young People Succeed at Work (BALASHNA) for Arabic-speaking students. Interviews with 24 participants were analyzed using qualitative content analysis guided by social-cognitive career theory (SCCT). Interview data were analyzed and organized into themes using the six categories of the SCCT framework. The findings highlight personal and social factors underlying gaps between participants’ perceptions and actual experiences and their evaluation of the STWT program’s contribution to career development.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	60-80
Number of pages	21
Journal	Journal of Career Development
Volume	53
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/08948453251392892
State	Published - Feb 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 4 Quality Education
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

Keywords

Druze society
adolescents
career education
social-cognitive career theory
transition program

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education
Applied Psychology
General Psychology
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Access to Document

10.1177/08948453251392892

Cite this

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abstract = "Adolescence is a pivotal stage in career development, when youth begin to shape skills and adult identities. However, limited opportunities for at-risk youth, intensified for minorities facing cultural and structural barriers, often disrupt these processes. To address these challenges, we implemented a school-to-work transition program in seven schools with 11th-grade students from diverse cultural backgrounds. It was delivered in two versions: Successful Pathways to Employment for Youth at Risk (SUPER) for Jewish Hebrew-speaking students, and Young People Succeed at Work (BALASHNA) for Arabic-speaking students. Interviews with 24 participants were analyzed using qualitative content analysis guided by social-cognitive career theory (SCCT). Interview data were analyzed and organized into themes using the six categories of the SCCT framework. The findings highlight personal and social factors underlying gaps between participants{\textquoteright} perceptions and actual experiences and their evaluation of the STWT program{\textquoteright}s contribution to career development.",

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N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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Future Orientation and Career Development for Culturally Diverse At-Risk Youth: Qualitative Insights

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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