Motives for Choosing a Career in Teaching: A South African Study

The study investigated motives for teaching career entry by students (n= 232, males= 103, females= 129, mean age 23) at a large South African university. Data were collected using a career motives survey differentiating extrinsic, intrinsic and altruistic motivators. Extrinsic motivators scored higher than intrinsic or altruistic motivators. The motives advanced for teaching were in alignment with those reported in similar research carried out in metropolitan and developing countries.     

Results of a Citation Analysis of the Career Counselling Field from an African Perspective

The study examined research and trends in career counselling published in selected professional sources during the period 1980–2010. Citation analysis was used in this study to investigate documents which were indexed in the Web of Science related to career counselling. Career counselling and related keywords were used jointly in the search for documents. There were a total of 730 documents judged to be relevant to the field of career counselling and were citation analysed. The number of citations related to the career counselling field has been increasing continuously since 2000. Research publications on career counselling are projected to increase for both South African authors and the authors of other African countries.     

Job Characteristics That Influence the Career Success of Soldiers in the South African National Defence Force: An Analytical Review

Career success for solders is influenced by objective and subjective job qualities including their antecedents and mediators. This article considers the objective and subjective indicators of career success in the context of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF): achievement, satisfaction, mobility, organizational commitment and retention. Objective determinants of career success include the qualities of the physical environment, physical job demands on effort, typical job demands, role conflict and subjective occupational hazards and the organisational culture of the military. The subjective determinants that impact career success are psychological in nature, such as value conflict, job security and psychological contact. Outcomes for individuals vary as mediated by organizational culture, gender, period of service and education.     

The Role of Career Aspiration,Self-Esteem,Body Esteem,and Gender in Predicting Sense of Well-being Among Emerging Adults

During emerging adulthood, one’s sense of well-being undergoes many rapid changes. Although emerging adults often present considerable energy, creativity, and hopefulness, both in higher education classrooms and workplaces, they often experience a decrease in well-being due to experience confusion, stress encounters, and difficulties in transitioning to adulthood. The authors examined four noteworthy key socioemotional factors that may be linked to emerging adults' sense of well-being: career aspiration, self-esteem, body esteem, and gender. Three hundred 20- to 29-year-old university students participated in the study. Results showed that well-being was correlated positively with self-esteem and body esteem, and body esteem was correlated negatively with gender (men scored higher). Regression analyses revealed that for both men and women, self-esteem and body esteem predicted well-being. Nevertheless, when the gender was analyzed separately, career aspiration predicted well-being only for men, whereas body esteem predicted well-being only for women. The study findings illuminates the importance of generating preventive measures in childhood and adolescence, through reinforcing skills such as resilience and self-esteem with the aim of passing through emerging adulthood with as little harm as possible to the sense of well-being.     

The effects of creative,expressive, and reflective writing on career learning: An explorative study

This study investigates whether creative, expressive, and reflective writing contributes to the formation of a work-life narrative that offers both meaning and direction among students in higher education. The content of writing done by students who participated in a two-day writing course at the start (or in preparation) of their work placements and of a control group who did not take part in the course were compared. Writing samples were analysed using the Linguistic Index Word Count program (Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007) and an instrument based on Dialogical Self Theory (Hermans & Hermans-Konopka, 2010). Results show writing promotes the development of career narratives.     

Emotional self‐efficacy,graduate employability,and career satisfaction: Testing the associations

Graduate employability has been the subject of little empirical research. There are a number of difficulties in defining and measuring graduate employability, which means that there is a paucity of research that looks at its predictors and outcomes. Previous work has proposed that emotional competence improves graduate employability, and this study further investigates this idea by examining the association between emotional self‐efficacy and employability. Also investigated is the association between employability and career satisfaction. Working graduates (N = 306) completed measures of emotional self‐efficacy, self‐perceived employability, and career satisfaction, and the data were analysed using structural equation modelling. We found emotional self‐efficacy to be an important predictor of graduate employability. Additionally, we found that graduate employability mediates the relationship between emotional self‐efficacy and career satisfaction. Some recommendations, in light of these findings, are discussed.     

An individual's work values in career development

This study examined the mediation effect of career decision self‐efficacy in relation to work values and career decision status. The authors surveyed 308 college students about their own intrinsic (e.g., helping others) and extrinsic (e.g., high income) work values and those of significant others, career decision self‐efficacy, and career decision status. The results indicated that the intrinsic and extrinsic work values of significant others were related to the intrinsic and extrinsic work values of the self and that intrinsic work values were more adaptive than extrinsic work values in career development.     

家庭因素中父母情感温暖、文化性与责任心对大学生职业决策自我效能的中介与中介调节研究

目的：探讨大学生家庭因素中父母情感温暖教养方式、文化性家庭环境与责任心对职业决策自我效能的中介效应与中介调节效应。方法：采用责任心量表、职业决策自我效能量表、父母教养方式评价量表和家庭环境量表,对大学四个年级1207名学生进行测量,运用SPSS12.0、AMOS17.0对数据进行统计分析。结果：（1）父母情感温暖通过责任心对大学生职业决策自我效能具有稳定而持久的间接作用。（2）文化性作为父母情感温暖的调节变量,其与父母情感温暖的交互作用对责任心具有明显的预测作用,并通过责任心中介变量,对大学生职业决策自我效能产生稳定而持久的间接作用。     

Factors contributing to the quality of the transition out of elite sports in Swiss,Danish, and Polish athletes

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was (a) to compare athletic retirement of former Swiss, Danish, and Polish athletes; and (b) to explore the influence of factors on the quality of the transition. Based on existing transitional models, we developed a working model to investigate the predictive power of commonly assumed resources and barriers related to the transition (Park, Lavallee, & Tod, 2013).Design and methodsFormer international elite athletes from Switzerland (n = 231), Denmark (n = 86), and Poland (n = 84) from 35 different sports completed an online questionnaire in their native language. Mean/proportional differences across countries were explored using ANOVAs and chi-square tests. For each sample, a multiple regression analysis was performed with 26 predictors on the transition quality, which was a component score of seven variables.Results and conclusionsMore differences were found among individual characteristics (e.g., educational level, athletic identity, confidence in skills), whereas athletes reported a similar pattern concerning retirement planning and voluntariness to end their career regardless of the context. The adaptation process following the career end was easiest for Swiss athletes and most difficult for Polish athletes. Results of the multiple regressions revealed both common resources (e.g., voluntariness) and barriers (e.g., athletic identity), but also factors that worked as resources in one context, but as barriers in another (e.g., high sportcareer income). We propose to avoid generalizations about resources and barriers influencing the transition, but to apply a culturally sensitive approach when studying athletic retirement in different contexts.