Applying career construction model of adaptation to career transition in adolescence: A two-study paper

Abstract

This paper evaluates the applicability of career construction model of adaptation for explaining after-school career transition in adolescence by examining the relationships between measures of adaptive readiness, adaptability resources, adapting responses, and adaptation results. To test the model, we conducted two studies on samples of high school students in Croatia (N1 = 622; N2 = 299). The first study focused primarily on the cross-sectional relations between adaptability resources and adapting responses, while the second study explored the full process of career adaptation in the longitudinal framework including all four dimensions of adaptation. As measures of adaptive readiness, GPA, personality traits and core self-evaluations were used. The adaptability resources were measured as four adaptability facets (concern, control, curiosity and confidence), while the adapting responses were operationalized as engagement in career construction and career decision-making difficulties. Adaptation results were operationalized as study satisfaction, study engagement and self-reported study performance. The results of the path analysis supported the career construction model of adaptation in both studies. Overall, the findings from the two studies supported the career construction model of adaptation indicating that adaptability resources and adapting behaviors had a mediating role in the process of career construction in adolescence. Furthermore, it was confirmed that adaptive readiness indirectly and directly influenced adaptability resources, adapting responses, and adaptation results. Career construction model of adaptation provides suitable framework for exploring career transition after high school.