Career Counseling with Emerging Adults

Abstract

The transition from adolescence to adulthood can be a time when individuals face numerous developmental issues, many of which involve career or work. Arnett (2000) proposed that emerging adulthood is a separate and distinct developmental stage that is unique from adolescence and adulthood. He defined the period as occurring between the late teens through the 20s with a focus on the ages of 18 to 25. Arnett argued that this is a time when the individual has left the dependency of childhood and adolescence, but has yet to enter the enduring responsibilities that are typically a part of adulthood. According to Arnett, “emerging adulthood is a time of life when many different directions remain possible, when little about the future has been decided for certain, when the scope of independent exploration of life’s possibilities is greater for most people than it will be at any other period of the life course” (p. 469). Erikson (1968) suggested that adolescence is a time of identity development where there is a conflict between identity confusion and identity achievement. Erikson further hypothesized that career identity development begins in adolescence, which serves as a major part of identity formation that is necessary for the transition into adulthood. Career life-span, life-space developmental theorists (Super, Savickas, and Super, 1996) proposed that career development is manifested through the progressive mastery of age-related tasks and successfully maneuvering through the career developmental stages. They indicated that adolescents and young adults are typically in the exploration stage of career development in which they are exploring future career options and starting to make preliminary choices. Jepsen and Dickson (2003) found that exploratory behaviors and career choice clarity in adolescents was linked with occupational establishment activities 25 years later. This would indicate that assisting adolescents and young adults with career exploration would be helpful to their later career development. For some adolescents making the transition to adulthood and stable employment progresses well; however, many emerging adults need help with their career development. For example, with a sample of older adolescents, Alboin (2000) found that most students (76.3%) reported that they were slightly or very undecided about their career choice. For many high school students who do not enter college, the transition from school to work can be difficult and many of these youth are inadequately prepared for employment (Worthington and Juntunen, 1997). Many college students also have difficulties, as Fouadet al. (2006) found that numerous college students felt a lack of readiness to make a career decision. Moreover, Murphy, Blustein, Bohlig, and Platt (2010) found that transitioning from college to employment was often a turbulent process and did not always go smoothly. Therefore, the stage of emerging adulthood is a time of work or career transitions and as Fouad and Bynner (2008) documented, work transitions have become increasingly complex due to expanding global markets, the declining number of unskilled jobs, the acceleration of technology, and the expansion of the service industry. For many emerging adults, the effects of this changing world of work are confusion, frustration, and apprehension. Hence, it seems that many emerging adults could benefit from career assistance or counseling. Providing career counseling to older adolescents and young adults may prove to be beneficial to them both financially and psychologically. Feldman (2003) concluded that the length of time young adults spend in switching programs of study, in transient jobs, or in activities which are unrelated to developing work skills is likely to negatively influence their earning capacity. Creed, Prideaux, and Patton (2005) found that adolescents who were undecided were more likely to have lower self-esteem and life satisfaction than their decided peers. Fouad et al. (2006) found that college students simultaneously reported high levels of career decision difficulties and psychological distress. Conversely, Skorikov (2007) found that career preparation was positively related to numerous indicators of positive adjustment. Moreover, it appears that a positive career orientation in adolescence can inhibit future problem behaviors (Skorikov and Vondracek, 2007). Therefore, it seems that adolescents and young adults who receive counseling that increases their levels of decidedness, career preparation, and career orientation would benefit from career counseling. The focus of this chapter is on discussing the research related to career counseling with emerging adults. The first section addresses definitional issues related to career counseling and provides a definition of career counseling that is used throughout the chapter. In the second section, we cover the research related to the effectiveness of career counseling with emerging adults. The next section addresses factors that contribute to effective career counseling with an emphasis on identifying empirically-supported interventions. As career counseling will vary depending on the client, the fourth section of the chapter discusses research related to providing career counseling based on client characteristics. In particular, this section focuses on gender, race or ethnicity, and vocational diagnosis. In considering career counseling with emerging adults, vocational psychologists should also examine the role of theory in the counseling they provide. The fifth section summarizes recent career counseling studies that are grounded in three theories (i.e., person-environment fit, Cognitive Information Process, and career construction theory). The final section identifies topics and areas where future research is needed.