Abstract
The study compared the contributions of self- and social-oriented personality factors to Chinese adolescents’ career exploration with a longitudinal perspective. The mediation effects of career decision self-efficacy and perceived parental support were also investigated. A total of 488 high school students in Hong Kong took three waves of a questionnaire survey at Grade 10, Grade 11 and Grade 12 respectively. The results indicated that adolescents’ career exploration at Grade 12 could be predicted by both self- and social-oriented personalities at Grade 10. Specifically, both self- and social-oriented personality factors could contribute to adolescents’ environmental exploration, and the effect was mediated by perceived parental support at Grade 11, after controlling for the effect of career exploration at Grade 11; whereas self-oriented personality factor could contribute to self-exploration, and the effect was mediated by career self-efficacy at Grade 11. The implications for career counseling and education for Chinese adolescents are discussed.
Highlights
Career exploration is one of the crucial aspects of individuals’ career development (Super, 1990)
Both self- and social-oriented personality factors could contribute to adolescents’ environmental exploration, and the effect was mediated by perceived parental support at Grade 11, after controlling for the effect of career exploration at Grade 11; whereas self-oriented personality factor could contribute to self-exploration, and the effect was mediated by career self-efficacy at Grade 11
The results of the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the empirical data fitted the measurement model well, χ2(348) = 928.16, p < .001, χ2/df = 2.67, RMSEA= .059, CFI = .91, TLI = .90, and SRMR =
Summary
Career exploration is one of the crucial aspects of individuals’ career development (Super, 1990). The social-oriented personality attributes tap the interdependent aspects of personality (e.g. harmony and reciprocity) and are mainly highlighted in collectivistic cultural contexts, in which “being a part” and “belonging” are highly emphasized (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Attribute is related to one’s interdependent self-construal (Markus & Kitayama, 1998; Singelis, 1994) and functions to develop and maintain harmonious relationships (Kwan, Bond, & Singelis, 1997) Humans have both self- and social-oriented personality attributes, but with differentiated importance and salience depending on the specific environment that they are exposed to (Katigbak, Church, Guanzon-Lapena, Carlota, & del Pilar, 2002; Lin & Church, 2004). The increased emphasis on the individualistic and independent nature of Western culture may lead to insufficient attention to the interdependent dimensions in theories and assessment of personality in modern psychology (Cheung, Cheung, Wada, & Zhang, 2003)
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