Approaching Graduation: Vocational Identity Profiles of Last-Year University Students and Their Links with Volunteering and Personal Values

Abstract

ABSTRACT The last year of university is a developmental milestone, as students are approaching choices which might impact their long-term career development and psychological wellbeing. Despite vocational identity’s relevance for successful career development, there is limited research on its relations with volunteering and personal values as students approach graduation. This study aimed to (1) identify vocational identity statuses in the last semester before university graduation, and (2) analyze the relations between status belonging and volunteering and personal values. The total sample consisted of 653 university students (M age = 24.15, SD age = 4.97, 76.6% females) who filled in questionnaires during the last semester of university. Latent Profile Analysis identified five vocational identity statuses, suggesting an overrepresentation of disengaged vocational identity statuses. In addition to this, education-related volunteering and other-oriented personal values were associated with belonging to adaptative statuses (i.e. achievement, foreclosure), in comparison with less adaptative ones, whereas the reverse pattern was observed for the self-oriented value of self-enhancement. These results support the potential contribution of education-related volunteering and personal values in the context of important career transitions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.