Disentangling stable and malleable components—A latent state-trait analysis of vocational interests

Abstract

Although vocational interests are conceptualized as stable individual differences, their scores can contain stable components and malleable components. Using data from a 3-year-study with German adolescents (nt1 = 793, nt2 = 705, nt3 = 666), we analyzed latent state-trait models to differentiate stable components, attributable to the person, from malleable components, attributable to the occasion and/or person-occasion-interactions. Vocational interest scores contained mainly stable (latent traits), but also malleable variance (latent state residuals). Stable components reflected the theoretically posited hexagonal structure and differentiated well across interest dimensions. Malleable components shared a positive manifold across interest dimensions, also reflected the hexagonal structure, and indicated potential for additional stabilizing processes. We discuss how distinguishing the stable and malleable components enhances the understanding of vocational interest scores and their development.