Stability of interests across ethnicity and gender: A longitudinal examination of grades 8 through 12

RIASEC interests were assessed in grades 8, 10, and 12 on a large national sample of 69,987 college bound students. Random samples of 1000 were drawn to represent each of the major US ethnic groups (African, Asian, Native, Mexican, Latino (non Mexican), Anglo, and Multiracial Americans) and interests were examined as they varied across time, ethnicity, and gender with respect to structure, mean changes, stability, clarity, and interest-occupational choice congruence. Results indicate that the structure of interests did not vary as a function of time, gender or ethnicity. The pattern of interests was fairly stable and similar across all ethnic groups and both genders. Congruence and clarity increased in 10th grade but both decreased in 12th grade suggesting a time of re-examination.     

Stability and change in interests: A longitudinal study of adolescents from grades 8 through 12

The pattern of RIASEC interests and academic skills were assessed longitudinally from a large-scale national database at three time points: eight grade, 10th grade, and 12th grade. Validation and cross-validation samples of 1000 males and 1000 females in each set were used to test the pattern of these scores over time relative to mean changes, stability, crystallization, and interest-career choice congruence as well as how these patterns were moderated by gender. Results indicate that the pattern of interests was fairly stable in grades 8-12 for males and females. Interests were also found to become more crystallized over time; however interest-career choice congruence evidenced an inverted V pattern. With further examination, student interests became less people based and their career choices more people based in grade 12. The results support the importance of grade 12 as a time of focus for research and intervention, and for continuing investigation of gender differences in adolescent career and academic development.     

Changing interests: A longitudinal study of intrinsic motivation for personally salient activities

The present longitudinal study extends the findings of earlier cross-sectional studies (Waterman, Schwartz, Green, Miller, & Philip, 2003) on the subjective experience of intrinsic motivation. University students generated lists of personally salient (identity-related) activities at the beginning of an academic semester and were asked to evaluate these activities at three points during the semester. Drawing on theories of intrinsic motivation, three subjective indices of intrinsic motivation (interest, flow experiences, and feelings of personal expressiveness) and three theoretically derived predictor variables (self-determination, the balance of challenges and skills, and self-realization values) were used in the present study. Cross-sectional relationships between the predictors and subjective experience indices at each timepoint replicated those observed in previous research. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to demonstrate that, as hypothesized, increases or decreases in the predictor variables between timepoints were associated with corresponding increases or decreases in the subjective experience indices. Implications for the study of intrinsic motivation are discussed.     

Birth cohort change in the vocational interests of female and male college students

The purpose of this research was to investigate the extent to which vocational interests have changed across birth cohorts of college students to better understand how socio-cultural factors may have an impact on career development. Using meta-analytic data collection methods, dissertations and journal articles presenting interests scores representing Holland's RIASEC typology from the Strong Interest Inventory and Strong Campbell interest inventory were gathered. With samples spanning a time period from 1976 to 2004, relations between cohort year and interests were examined with weighted regressions. A salient aspect of our results was an increase in the Enterprising interests of females and decrease in the Realistic and Investigative interests of males. This finding, along with a reduction in differences between female and male Investigative, Enterprising, and Conventional interests from earlier to more recent cohorts parallels movement of American culture toward egalitarian views of gender and provides evidence for the effect of sociocultural factors on interests.     

Stability and change of basic personal values in early adulthood: An 8-year longitudinal study

We examined four types of stability and change in values during young adulthood. 270 respondents (aged 20–28, 54% female) completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire at three time points, separated by 4 years. Rank-order stability coefficients of the 10 values averaged 0.69 (T1-T2) and 0.77 (T2-T3). The mean importance of conservation, self-transcendence, and power values increased over time, the mean importance of achievement values decreased, and openness to change values remained stable. For 75% of respondents, the correlations of the within-person value hierarchies exceeded 0.45 from T1 to T2 and 0.61 from T2 to T3. Correlations among individual change scores for the 10 values formed coherent patterns of value change that mirror the circular structure of Schwartz’s theory.     

Competing interests: The need to control conflict of interests in biomedical research

Individual and institutional conflict of interests in biomedical research have becomes matters of increasing concern in recent years. In the United States, the growth in relationships — sponsored research agreements, consultancies, memberships on boards, licensing agreements, and equity ownership — between for-profit corporations and research universities and their scientists has made the problem of conflicts, particularly financial conflicts, more acute. Conflicts can interfere with or compromise important principles and obligations of researchers and their institutions, e.g., adherence to accepted research norms, duty of care to patients, and open exchange of information. Disclosure is a key component of a successful conflict policy. Commitments which conflict with a faculty member's primary obligations to teaching, research, administrative responsibilities, or patient care also need attention. Institutional conflict of interests present different problems, some of which are discussed in an analysis of an actual problem posed by two proposed clinical trials. This paper is adapted from a lecture presented to a Symposium on Scientific Integrity, Warsaw, Poland, 23 November 1995. Daniel Steiner was Vice-President and General Counsel of Harvard University (1972–92) and in that capacity became familiar with conflict of interest issues. He is currently Counsel to the Boston law firm. Ropes and Gray, and is Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Harvard University.     

Global self-evaluations and perceived instability of self in early adolescence: A cohort longitudinal study

A cohort longitudinal design with four adjacent cohorts of students ( n = 1689) followed over two years was used to study key issues identified in the research literature on the development of self-evaluations in early adolescence. There was no clear relationship between age/grade and self-evaluations. We found no support for a "stressful periods" hypothesis with respect to self: Possible changes were very gradual and quite small. However, there was a consistent "relative age" effect implying that younger students within a grade had more negative self-evaluations. There were small but consistent sex differences in self-evaluations in favor of the boys; more detailed analyses of very negative self-evaluations suggested that the early adolescent years are the period in which a sex difference in depression related symptomatology begins to emerge. Finally, the usefulness of some kind of effect size measure and advantages and problems associated with a cohort longitudinal design were discussed.     

Stages of change in fruit intake: A longitudinal examination of stability,stage transitions and transition profiles

The present study examined stability and transitions in Transtheoretical stages of change for fruit intake in an adult cohort of 735 individuals not exposed to a planned intervention. Six assessments took place within a four-month period with varying time intervals using electronic questionnaires, measuring fruit intake, stage of change and demographic characteristics. Precontemplation and maintenance were the most stable stages of change, while preparation was the least stable. Longer time intervals showed lower stability, but frequent stage transitions also occurred in shorter time intervals. Seven transition profiles were distinguished. Sequences within transition profiles mostly showed stage transitions to adjacent stages, independent of the interval duration. Differences in fruit intake, age, level of education and ethnicity were found between different transition profiles. Stability rates and most transition sequences largely support the Transtheoretical Model. Results indicating potential deviations from the model, e.g. short-term stage instability and stage transition profiles not in accordance with the Transtheoretical Model are discussed.     

Financial interests of authors in scientific journals: A pilot study of 14 publications

Disclosure of financial interests in scientific research is the centerpiece of the new conflict of interest regulations issued by the U.S. Public Health Service and the National Science Foundation that became effective October 1, 1995. Several scientific journals have also established financial disclosure requirements for contributors. This paper measures the frequency of selected financial interests held among authors of certain types of scientific publications and assesses disclosure practices of authors. We examined 1105 university authors (first and last cited) from Massachusetts institutions whose 789 articles, published in 1992, appeared in 14 scientific and medical journals. Authors are said to “possess a financial interest” if they are listed as inventors in a patent or patent application closely related to their published work; serve on a scientific advisory board of a biotechnology company; or are officers, directors, or major shareholders (beneficial owner of 10% or more of stock issued) in a firm that has commercial interests related to their research. Applying the criteria to the reference population of journals and Massachusetts academic authors, we measured the following frequencies for lead authors: .20 for serving on a scientific advisory board; .07 for being an officer, director, or major shareholder in a biotechnology firm; and .22 for being listed as an inventor in a related patent or patent application. The joint frequency of articles in the journals reviewed with a lead author that meets one of the three conditions is .34. Implications of these results for the new conflict of interest guidelines and disclosure policies are discussed.     

Structure of RIASEC scores in China: A structural meta-analysis

A structural meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the fit of four different representations of the relations among RIASEC types, [13] and [14] circular order model, Gati’s (1991) three-group partition model, Rounds and Tracey’s (1996) alternative three-group partition model, and Liu and Rounds’ (2003) modified octant model, on 29 RIASEC correlation matrices collected from Chinese participants. The randomization test of hypothesized order relations was used to evaluate model fit. The results indicated that Holland’s model had the worst fit and was lower than it is fit in US samples; while Gati’s and Rounds and Tracey’s models had best fit. The fit of the Liu and Rounds’ model lay between the fit of Holland’s model and the other models. There was minimal difference in this ordering of model fit across instrument, age, gender and region. These results are interpreted with respect to differences in Chinese culture relative to the US.     

Vocational interests across 20 years of adulthood: Stability,change, and the role of work experiences

Vocational interests demonstrate high rank-order stability during childhood and adolescence. However, few studies have investigated the development of vocational interests into adulthood. The present study examined rank-order and profile stability, mean-level and correlated change, and individual differences in change in RIASEC scores across 20 years of adulthood. In addition, life events were examined as moderators of change. Rank-order stability was strong across vocational interest dimensions. Mean-level changes also occurred, with increases in Realistic interests and decreases in Investigative interests for men, increases in Enterprising interests for women, and decreases in Artistic interests for men and women. Individual differences in change indicated that not everyone changed in the same manner, with occupational experiences, such as job loss, related to greater change.     

Gender-stereotyped preferences in childhood and early adolescence: A comparison of cross-sectional and longitudinal data

Children are exposed to a gender-specific environment on an everyday basis through media, books, school supplies and especially toys. Children’s movies and television programs were found to portray protagonists’ occupational and private roles in a very traditional, gender-stereotypical way. The present two studies aimed to investigate gender-specific preferences in childhood and early adolescence. Cross-sectional data (study 1) were compared to longitudinal one (study 2) as we specifically aimed to investigate changes in gender preferences over time. A person-oriented approach, namely Configural Frequency Analysis was applied, to categorically analyze the relationship and development of gender-stereotyped preferences throughout childhood and early adolescence. Consistent with former studies, study 1 showed that gender-stereotypical preferences increased by age, for boys to a higher extent than for girls. By the age of twelve, these preferences had decreased supporting the theory of Kohlberg that children’s gender-stereotypic preferences continuously grow until around six years of age to finally lower thereafter. Gender-specific preferences generally became much more flexible over time.     

A Measure of the Stability of Activities in a Family Environment

The Stability of Activities in the Family Environment (SAFE) measure was developed to assess aspects of the construct of family stability. An earlier version of the SAFE was revised to improve its psychometric properties and better elaborate the construct that underlies the measure. College students completed the revised SAFE and other measures of family functioning with respect to their families of origin and measures of current adjustment. Findings support the reliability, internal consistency, and factor structure of the SAFE. It is suggested that the results of the factor analyses and findings that different aspects of family stability demonstrated different patterns of relationships to indices of family functioning, are consistent with the presumption guiding the development of the SAFE that families achieve stability in diverse ways. The validity of the SAFE was further supported by its relationship to measures of current self-esteem and depression.     

Personality change goals and plans as predictors of longitudinal trait change in young adults: A replication with an Iranian sample

Goals and plans for changing one’s personality traits have been found to be commonly held, particularly in young adults. Evidence for whether such goals and plans can predict actual trait change is mixed. The current study replicated and extended the methodology of a previous study to investigate whether trait change goals and plans predict change over a year in a sample of Iranian students. It was found that goals and plans before and after the 12-month period predicted longitudinal change in Openness to Experience, but no association was found for other traits. To explore whether this relationship between goals and change in Openness to Experience is replicable, further research with samples of differing ages and cultures is needed.     

Personality change and personality as predictor of change in psychotherapy: A longitudinal study in a community mental health clinic

Research suggests that personality may change due to important life events, such as psychotherapy, and that personality and attitudes may predict treatment progress. Longitudinal data in a community mental health clinic showed positive changes in Emotional Stability, Hope, Gratitude, and Motivation during the course of psychotherapy. The static approach relating baseline personality and attitudes to treatment progress did not yield fruitful results. The dynamic approach was more effective, in which we treated personality and attitudes as malleable and used changes in these variables as predictors of progress. Treatment progress correlated with an increase in Emotional Stability. Positive changes in general life attitudes (Hope, Gratitude, Quality of Life) more so than therapy-specific attitudes (Motivation, Working Alliance) predicted symptom reduction.     

Stability and change in work values: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies

A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies was conducted to investigate stability and change in work values across the life span. Both rank-order stability and mean-level change were investigated using an integrative classification for intrinsic, extrinsic, social and status work values (Ross, Schwartz, & Surkis, 1999). Results of rank-order stability indicated that work values were stable individual differences (ρ = .62). The stability level was lowest during college years (18–22 years old) and highest after entering the workforce (22 years old and later). Work values were more stable than personality traits across all age categories, whereas not as stable as vocational interests during college years and adulthood. Baby Boomers were found to possess a higher level of rank-order stability as compared to Generation X. Mean-level results showed that during college years (18–22 years old), the population as a whole attached more importance to intrinsic values while deemphasizing all the remaining values; during the initial entry of the workforce (22–26 years old), only extrinsic values showed an increase in importance while all the other values decreased; later on after adulthood years (26 years and after), besides the continuous increase of extrinsic values, there was also a dramatic increase in status values. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.     

Stability and change model of job resources and work engagement: A seven-year three-wave follow-up study

Using the stability and change model, conservation of resources theory and the job demands-resources model, this study aimed to determine: (1) the extent to which work engagement and job resources can be explained by a component reflecting stability and a component reflecting change in these constructs, and (2) the strength and direction of the relationship between work engagement and job resources when their stable components are controlled for. The study was carried out among 1,964 Finnish dentists over a seven-year time period (2003–2010), using a three-wave dataset. Some of the dentists had changed jobs during the follow-up, and therefore the research questions were validated among groups of job stayers and job changers. The stability and change models were examined using structural equation modelling. The results showed that 69–77% of the variance of dentists’ work engagement, and 46–49% of the variance of job resources was explained by the component reflecting stability. However, although there was a positive relationship between job resources and work engagement, the primary direction of this relationship could not be determined. Either job resources or work engagement may be considered as the initiator of this relationship. Job change did not affect the results.     

Crystallizing enterprising interests among adolescents through a career development program: The role of personality and family background

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a new career development program designed to help adolescents explore their interest in enterprise as a career option. Using a person-oriented approach, pre- and post-test measurements of enterprising interests in an intervention (n = 321) and a control group (n = 302) of adolescents aged 16.5 years on average were compared. As predicted, the frequency of five different patterns of enterprising interest development (stable high, stable low, decreaser, increaser, middle) differed between the two groups, with increasers and decreasers more prevalent in the intervention group. Furthermore, a discriminant function analysis revealed that adolescents in the stable high and increaser groups showed the most entrepreneurial personality profile (e.g., low risk avoidance, high social dominance). Moreover, increasers often had a non-entrepreneurial family background. Results suggest that the new program is a useful tool in supporting adolescents’ exploration of enterprise as future career option.