The validity of the Crites model of career maturity

To test the validity of the Crites model of career maturity, career maturity and noncareer maturity measures were administered to 312 ninth graders and to 200 technical college students. Scores on all measures were intercorrelated and factor analyzed. The results show that, as predicted, most of the Career Choice Competencies have more in common with each other than they have with Career Choice Attitudes; Career Choice Competencies are fairly highly positively related to each other; Career Choice Attitudes and Career Choice Competencies have more in common with each other in grade 9 than they do in the post-secondary grades; and there is a relationship between career maturity and sex and race of ninth graders and technical college students. The results do not support the hypothesized multidimensional structure of the Crites model or the hypothesis that variables in the Crites model have more in common with each other than they have with noncareer maturity variables. Discussion includes several possible explanations for failure to support the Crites model, and suggestions for further research.