Relation of career adaptability to meaning in life and connectedness among adolescents in Hong Kong

This study examined relationships among career adaptability, meaning in life, and connectedness in Hong Kong with Chinese male and female Grade 9 students (n = 543). The results indicated that presence of meaning in life positively predicted connectedness; and in the males career concern was predicted by presence of meaning in life. Also in males, career control was predicted both by presence and search for meaning in life, while career curiosity was predicted by connectedness to school, and by presence and search for meaning in life. Career confidence was predicted by connectedness to school, and presence and search of meaning in life. In the females, career concern was predicted by presence of meaning in life and connectedness to school, but negatively by connectedness to peers. Career control and career curiosity were predicted by presence and search for meaning in life. Career confidence was predicted by presence of meaning in life. Limitations of the study are identified; and implications for future research and guidance with Chinese adolescents in schools are discussed.     

Career adaptability predicts subjective career success above and beyond personality traits and core self-evaluations

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) measures career adaptability as a higher-order construct that integrates four psychosocial resources of employees for managing their career development: concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. The goal of the present study was to investigate the validity of the CAAS with regard to its effects on two indicators of subjective career success (career satisfaction and self-rated career performance) above and beyond the effects of employees' Big Five personality traits and core self-evaluations. Data came from a large and heterogeneous sample of employees in Australia (N = 1723). Results showed that overall career adaptability positively predicted career satisfaction and self-rated career performance above and beyond the Big Five personality traits and core self-evaluations. In addition, concern and confidence positively predicted the two indicators of subjective career success. The findings provide further support for the incremental validity of the CAAS.     

Daily manifestations of career adaptability: Relationships with job and career outcomes

Most research on career adaptability has examined the construct as an individual differences variable and neglected that it may vary within an individual over a short period of time. In two daily diary studies, the author investigated the relationships of career adaptability and its four dimensions (concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) to their daily manifestations as well as daily job and career outcomes. Both Study 1 (N = 53) and Study 2 (N = 234) demonstrated substantial within-person variability in employees' behavioral expressions of career adaptability across five work days. Results further showed that daily career adaptability and daily confidence positively predicted daily task and career performance, as well as daily job and career satisfaction. Daily control positively predicted daily task performance, as well as daily job and career satisfaction. Daily concern positively predicted daily career performance and satisfaction, and daily curiosity positively predicted daily career satisfaction.     

Career adaptation: The relation of adaptability to goal orientation,proactive personality,and career optimism

This study examines the psychometric properties of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) and its relation to adaptivity (i.e., learning goal orientation, proactive personality, and career optimism) among Australian university students (N = 555). Results demonstrated adequate levels of test–retest reliability (r = .61 to .76) and internal consistency (α = .83 to .94) for the CAAS full scale and subscales over a 4-week interval between measurements. Confirmatory factor analysis also supported the multidimensional and hierarchical model of career adaptability resources. The factor structure generally corresponded with that obtained from other CAAS international validation, thus, expanding its cross-national measurement equivalence. In addition, correlation results supported the predicted positive association between career adaptability and adaptivity in the form of learning goal orientation, proactive personality, and career optimism. Taken together, the present findings confirm the psychometric utility of CAAS in the Australian context and substantiate the proposition that higher personal adaptive readiness relates to better career adaptability among young people.     

The role of chance events in the school-to-work transition: The influence of demographic, personality and career development variables

Chance events are considered important in career development, yet little empirical research is available on their predictors and consequences. The present study investigated socio-demographic (gender, nationality, school-type), personality (openness, locus of control) and career development variables (career decidedness, career planning) in relation to perceived chance events with a retrospective (N = 229, eleventh grade), and 1-year longitudinal prospective study (N = 245, eighth/ninth grade) among Swiss adolescents. The results showed that the majority of both groups reported a significant influence of chance events on their transition from compulsory school to vocational education or high school. Importance of chance events related to socio-demographics and personality but not career preparation. Career preparation and chance events predicted subjective career success in terms of wish correspondence and overall satisfaction with transition outcome among the younger cohort. Implications include the necessity to integrate both thorough career preparation and chance events in theory and counseling practice.     

Career adaptability in Lithuania: A test of psychometric properties and a theoretical model

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Lithuanian Form consists of four six-item subscales measuring concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. These are thought to be the main dimensions of career adaptability reflecting individual psychosocial resources to cope with occupational transitions, developmental tasks, and work traumas. Two studies were administered in a sample (N  =  767) of Lithuanian high school students. The results showed factor structure to be identical to that of the CAAS-International Form. Moreover, good to excellent scale internal consistency coefficients were obtained. With a slight exception, MIMIC model analysis revealed no major effects of demographic variables upon the CAAS factor or factor indicator scores. Concurrent validity analysis showed career adaptability, as measured by the CAAS-Lithuanian Form, to be significantly related to career aspirations, to the frequency of career exploration behaviors and to career decidedness. Finally, as hypothesized by the career construction model of adaptation, career exploration behaviors mediated the link between career adaptability and decidedness.     

Validation of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale and an examination of a model of career adaptation in the Philippine context

This paper presents the validation of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) in the Philippine context. The CAAS consists of four subscales, with six items each, measuring self-regulative psychosocial resources (e.g., concern, curiosity, control, and confidence) for coping with occupational tasks and transitions. Filipino university students (N = 289) and working adults (N = 495) participated in the study. Internal consistency estimates for the full scale and subscales ranged from .87 to .97. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the multidimensional and hierarchical model of career adaptability. The factor structure was similar to that obtained from the CAAS international validation from 18 countries. Results also suggested that career adaptability was positively associated with adaptivity in the form of tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment as well as with adaptation outcomes of career satisfaction and promotability. Overall, the findings confirm the utility of CAAS in the Philippine context and support the model that states higher levels of personal adaptivity (willingness) and career adaptability (competence) relate to better adaptation outcomes in terms of career success.     

Career adaptability as a mediator between personality and career engagement

The current study examined the role of career adaptability as a mediator between personality dimensions and career engagement. This investigation was conducted using a sample of university students (N = 201) who completed the Zuckerman–Kuhlman–Aluja Personality Questionnaire, the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Persian Form, and the Career Engagement Scale. Career adaptability dimensions related positively with activity, negatively with neuroticism, and positively with career engagement. The results indicated that career adaptability dimensions partially mediated the relationships between activity (work compulsion, general activity, restlessness, and work energy) and career engagement, whereas they were a full mediator between neuroticism (anxiety, depression, dependency, and low self-esteem) and career engagement. Among career adaptability dimensions, curiosity fully mediated the effect of sensation seeking on career engagement. These findings suggest that career adaptability is a dynamic mechanism that helps to regulate the relationship between specific dispositional traits and career adapting behaviors.     

Career adaptability and career entrenchment

Career adaptability constitutes a resource that can help employees to effectively manage career changes and challenges. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between the two higher-order constructs of career adaptability and career entrenchment (i.e., the perceived inability and/or unwillingness to pursue new career opportunities), as well as relationships among the dimensions of career adaptability and career entrenchment. We hypothesized a negative relationship between overall career adaptability and career entrenchment, and more differentiated associations among their dimensions. Data for this study came from 404 employees in Brazil. Results of structural equation modeling showed that overall career adaptability weakly negatively predicted overall career entrenchment (standardized effect = − .13), after controlling for age, gender, education, and job tenure. More differentiated findings emerged at the dimension level. Future research should examine the mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship between career adaptability and career entrenchment.     

Big-five personality and BIS/BAS traits as predictors of career exploration: The mediation role of career adaptability

Based on career construction theory, the current research examined whether career adaptability mediates the relations of the personality traits (Five-Factor Model personality traits and behavioral inhibition and activation systems (BIS/BAS)) to career exploration behavior. Results from a survey in Chinese university students (N = 264) showed that career exploration correlated negatively with neuroticism, and positively with openness to experience, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and BAS. Results of regression analyses further showed that openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness and BAS served as the strongest predictors for career exploration. In addition, career adaptability was shown to be a key mediator for the relationships between personality traits and career exploration behavior. Career concern and career curiosity were the more important dimensions in the mediation model. These findings advance current understandings on how different personality traits predict career exploration behavior.     

Future work self and career adaptability in the prediction of proactive career behaviors

This study examined the motivational resource of future work self salience and the additive effect of career adaptability dimensions in the prediction of career planning, proactive skill development, and proactive career networking in a sample of university students (N = 113). It was hypothesized that greater clarity of future work self would predict engagement in each of the proactive career behaviors and that specific dimensions of career adaptability would have an additive effect in predicting particular proactive career behavior in line with the theory of career construction. Results indicated that future work self predicted career planning and that career concern had an additive effect. Future work self also predicted proactive skill development and proactive career networking. However, career confidence and career curiosity mediated these relationships in the prediction of skill development and networking respectively. In sum, results suggest that future work self and career adaptability play an influential role in the engagement of proactive career behavior.     

Career decision-making profiles and career decision-making difficulties: A cross-cultural comparison among US,Israeli, and Chinese samples

Assessing individuals' career decision-making difficulties and career decision-making profile (style) allows counselors to help them make better career decisions. The present study focused on the associations between the Career Decision-Making Profiles (CDMP) questionnaire and the Career Decision-making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ) in four large samples: American adults (N = 601), Israeli young adults (N = 623), American students (N = 915), and Chinese students (N = 929). The pattern of associations between the 12 CDMP dimensions and the 10 CDDQ scales was generally replicated across the four samples, and indicated that certain CDMP dimensions were associated with career decision-making difficulties. Additionally, in all four samples, the higher an individual's career decision-making adaptability, as derived from the CDMP, the fewer difficulties he or she encountered prior to and during the career decision-making process. However, a few unique patterns of associations between the CDMP and the CDDQ emerged in some samples.     

Validation of the German version of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale and its relation to orientations to happiness and work stress

Career adapt-ability has recently gained momentum as a psychosocial construct that not only has much to offer the field of career development, but also contributes to positive coping, adjustment and self-regulation through the four dimensions of concern, control, curiosity and confidence. The positive psychology movement, with concepts such as the orientations to happiness, explores the factors that contribute to human flourishing and optimum functioning. This research has two main contributions; 1) to validate a German version of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS), and 2) to extend the contribution of adapt-abilities to the field of work stress and explore its mediating capacity in the relation between orientations to happiness and work stress. We used a representative sample of the German-speaking Swiss working population including 1204 participants (49.8% women), aged between 26 and 56 (M_age = 42.04). Results indicated that the German version of the CAAS is valid, with overall high levels of model fit suggesting that the conceptual structure of career adapt-ability replicates well in this cultural context. Adapt-abilities showed a negative relationship to work stress, and a positive one with orientations to happiness. The engagement and pleasure scales of orientations to happiness also correlated negatively with work stress. Moreover, career adapt-ability mediates the relationship between orientations to happiness and work stress. In depth analysis of the mediating effect revealed that control is the only significant mediator. Thus control may be acting as a mechanism through which individuals attain their desired life at work subsequently contributing to reduced stress levels.     

Career adaptability,calling and the professional competence of social work students in China: A career construction perspective

Based on career construction theory, the current research examined individual and contextual predictors for the professional competence of Chinese undergraduates majoring in social work (N = 270). Results showed that career concern and career curiosity predicted social work students' professional competence, with these relations mediated by the calling in social work. It was also found that the positive effect of calling on professional competence was stronger among students who perceived a lower level of career-oriented learning environment. The corresponding moderated mediation model was supported such that the indirect effects of career concern and career curiosity on professional competence were stronger among students who perceived a lower level of career-oriented learning environment. These findings carry implications for research on career construction theory, as well as career education and career counseling practices.     

Career identity and the complex mediating relationships between career preparatory actions and career progress markers

We tested a cross-sectional, moderated-mediation model of career identity in young adults (N = 667, 72.9% female, mean age = 20 years). In this model, career preparatory activities (career exploration and planning) were associated with perceptions of future employability and career distress. These relationships were mediated by career identity, and career identity was conditional upon level of career calling. We found that career exploration was associated with more career distress, while career planning was associated with less, and both career exploration and planning were associated with higher perceived employability. Career identity mediated between career exploration and planning and both outcomes, and these mediated relationships were stronger when career calling was higher. We interpreted the results from career construction, identity, and exploration perspectives; highlighted the applicability of these perspectives in the development of agency, career calling, and career identity; and made recommendations for testing other theory-based moderators.     

Career adaptability and academic satisfaction: Examining work volition and self efficacy as mediators

The present study examined the relation between the four components of career adaptability – concern, control, curiosity, and confidence (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) – and academic satisfaction. Drawing from a diverse sample of 412 undergraduate students, all four components moderately correlated with academic satisfaction. In an effort to explain these relations, work volition and career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) were examined as potential mediator variables. Using structural equation modeling, work volition significantly mediated the control to satisfaction relation and CDSE significantly mediated the concern, control, and confidence to satisfaction relations. After including all variables in the model, none of the career adaptability components significantly related with academic satisfaction. These results suggest that for undergraduate students, feeling adaptable in one's career may link to greater levels of academic satisfaction due, in part, to greater feelings of control and confidence in one's career decision making.     

Career Adapt-Abilities Scale—Iran Form: Psychometric properties and relationships with career satisfaction and entrepreneurial intentions

This study examined the psychometric properties of a Persian translation of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS—Iran Form) and its relationships with career satisfaction, business opportunity identification, and entrepreneurial intentions. It was hypothesized that career adaptability relates positively to these three outcomes, even when controlling for demographic and employment characteristics. Data were provided by 204 workers from Iran. Results showed that the overall CAAS score and sub-dimension scores (concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) were highly reliable. Moreover, confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the CAAS—Iran Form measures four distinct dimensions that can be combined into a higher-order career adaptability factor. Findings also demonstrated criterion-related validity of the scale with regard to career satisfaction and entrepreneurial intentions. In contrast, overall career adaptability was not significantly related to opportunity identification, while concern related positively, and control related negatively to opportunity identification. Overall, the CAAS—Iran Form has very good psychometric properties and predicts important career outcomes, suggesting that it can be used for career counseling and future research with Persian-speaking workers.     

From career decision-making styles to career decision-making profiles: A multidimensional approach

Previous research on individual differences in career decision-making processes has often focused on classifying individuals into a few types of decision-making styles based on the most dominant trait or characteristic of their approach to the decision process (e.g., rational, intuitive, dependent; Harren, 1979). In this research, an alternative approach, which offers a multidimensional profile characterization of individuals’ career decision-making processes based on a simultaneous consideration of 11 dimensions, is presented. Thus, the proposed model refers to career decision-making profiles rather than career decision-making styles. The model, which emerged from a systematic analysis of previous research, was refined on the basis of preliminary empirical tests (five samples, N = 2764) using the Career Decision-Making Profile (CDMP) questionnaire. Study 1 reports the psychometric properties and the results of an exploratory factor analysis of the CDMP questionnaire, in a sample of young adults deliberating their career decisions (N = 285). Study 2 presents the results of a confirmatory factor analysis, based on Israeli (N = 431) and US (N = 208) samples of young adults. The results of both studies supported the hypothesized 11 dimensions. The implications for future research and for counseling are discussed.     

Within-person relationships between daily individual and job characteristics and daily manifestations of career adaptability

Previous research showed that daily manifestations of career adaptability fluctuate within individuals over short periods of time, and predict important daily job and career outcomes. Using a quantitative daily diary study design (N = 156 employees; 591 daily entries), the author investigated daily job characteristics (i.e., daily job demands, daily job autonomy, and daily supervisory career mentoring) and daily individual characteristics (i.e., daily Big Five personality characteristics, daily core self-evaluations, and daily temporal focus) as within-person predictors of daily career adaptability and its four dimensions (concern, control, curiosity, and confidence). Results showed that daily job demands, daily job autonomy, daily conscientiousness, daily openness to experience, as well as daily past and future temporal focus positively predicted daily career adaptability. Differential results emerged for the four career adaptability dimensions. Implications for future research on within-person variability in career adaptability are discussed.     

Career-specific parental behaviors,career exploration and career adaptability: A three-wave investigation among Chinese undergraduates

The current research examined the effects of career-specific parental behaviors (reported by parents at time 1) on Chinese university students' career exploration (reported by students at time 2) and career adaptability (reported by students at time 3). A survey study was conducted among Chinese university graduates (N = 244) and their parents (N = 244). The results supported a mediation model such that a high level of parental support and a low level of parental interference had beneficial effects on Chinese undergraduates' career exploration, which in turn positively predicted their career adaptability. Lack of parental career engagement had a direct negative effect on career adaptability. Significant interaction effects were also found among these three types of parental behaviors such that at a lower level of lack of parental career engagement, the positive effects of parental support, as well as the negative effects of interference on career exploration were stronger. The corresponding moderated mediation models were also supported. These findings carry implications for research on career construction theory and career counseling practices.