Cross-cultural career assessment: Review and prospects for the new millennium

A distinct body of research literature reflects work initiated in the last decade of the 20th century to examine issues in the development and use of career assessment instruments across cultures. The authors review this lite rature to integrate current understandings of career assessment in cultural context and to identify potentially fruitful avenues for future inquiry. T he theoretical framework of cultural validity and cultural specificity deve loped by Leong and Brown was used to guide the current review. Based on thi s framework, the review focuses on literature dealing with (a) the cultural validity of career assessment instruments for use cross-culturally with ra cial and ethnic minority populations, (b) the extent to which culture-speci fic variables may influence the career assessment process, and (c) the cons truction and validation of new culture-specific career assessment measures. Most research contained within the review pertains to cultural validity wi th much less attention given in the current literature on new test construc tion and cultural specificity. The authors conclude their review with a sum mary of findings and implications for research and practice in career asses sment. Surveying leading scholars in the fields of career development and v ocational psychology could elaborate our understanding of career assessment in cultural context and determine empirically its prospects for advancemen t and refinement.