Career Adaptability Resources Research Articles

What Determines Professional Plans in High School Students

Sustainable professional development of the young generation is a foundation for the present, a resource for the future, and it makes a significant contribution to the economic, environmental, and social stability of our society. As never before, professional self-identity and realistic professional plans become relevant for the persistent career development of modern schoolchildren and students. The present article theoretically substantiated three factors that are fundamental for studying the psychological characteristics of the high school students’ professional plans: personality traits, conscious self-regulation, and career adaptability. The empirical study had its purpose to examine carefully the relationship between personality traits, conscious self-regulation, career adaptability, and professional plans of high school students in the Russian schools. To this end, a conceptual model of intrapersonal and regulatory predictors of the certainty and sustainability of the young people's professional plans was proposed and tested on a sample of schoolchildren in grades 9, 10, and 11 (N = 675). Methods: “Self-Regulation Profile Questionnaire, SRPQM-2020” by V.I. Morosanova, the Russian adaptation of “Career Adapt-Abilities Scale, CAAS” by M. Saviсkas and E. Porfeli, the Russian adaptation of the “The Big Five Inventory2 (BFI-2)” by K. Soto and O. John, as well as the ad hoc questionnaire on the students' professional plans. The structural modeling analysis of the obtained data demonstrated that certainty and stability of the professional plans in the high school students depend on the developmental level of their career adaptability, including all career-oriented resources: concern, control, curiosity, confidence. At the same time, the conscious self-regulation of achieving goals also contributes to the certainty and sustainability of students' professional / academic plans through their career adaptability, which acts as a mediator of this influence. As for personality traits, they make an indirect contribution to the professional plans of young people, determining the development of conscious self-regulation and career adaptability. The results obtained reveal the importance of general psychological (conscious self-regulation) and professionally oriented (career adaptability) resources of students in their professional development.

To what extent do career agility and psychological capital activate employees’ career adaptability and foster their career resilience and career satisfaction?

The present study drew from the career construction theory of career adaptation and assessed the extent to which career agility and psychological capital (as psychological states of adaptive readiness) activated employees’ career adaptability resources and fostered their career resilience and career satisfaction (as modes of career adaptedness). A sample of ( N = 412; mean age = 38.79 years) Black African employees in the public services participated in the study. Correlational statistics showed positive associations between the study variables. Mediation effects highlighted technological adaptivity, agile learning, optimism, and hope as activators of career concern, career control, and career curiosity, which in turn boosted self-reliance, personal resilience, and work resilience. Psychological states of career agility and psychological capital had also direct effects on the career adaptedness modes of career resilience and career satisfaction. The findings enriched career adaptation theory and have utility for organisational career development practice in the public services.

Enhancing Career Adaptability Among University Students: An Intervention Study

Recent college graduates are navigating a complex labor market due to the COVID-19 pandemic, changing economic conditions, and advancing technologies. Career adaptability, a psychosocial construct focused on managing career transitions, is critical for college students in this environment. Career adaptability interventions have shown promising results, but many are time consuming or involve one-on-one counseling, and none have focused on US college samples, which prompted this study. We tested a brief career adaptability training on a sample of 89 US college students and measured its effect on participants’ career adaptability resources (career concern, career control, career curiosity, career confidence) and career adapting responses (career decision self-efficacy, career planning). Results showed no increase in career adaptability resources or career planning but indicated an increase in career decision self-efficacy, suggesting that brief interventions may be effective for some desired outcomes but not others. Future research should examine which intervention ingredients are necessary to enhance career adaptability.

The role of career adaptability resources in dual career pathways: A person-oriented longitudinal study across elite sports upper secondary school

ObjectivesObtaining education is an important milestone in athletes’ preparation for their professional career after sport. Literature indicates that combining school and sport is not an easy task for many aspiring youth athletes. It has been proposed that career adaptability, which refers to psychosocial resources enabling individuals to solve complex occupational transitions, present and anticipated vocational development tasks, and career related challenges could be a relevant concept for applied work with student-athletes. In this study, we examined whether there are distinct developmental profiles of career adaptability among adolescent athletes across the upper secondary school years. We also investigated the associations between career adaptability and sport withdrawal and academic achievement. Design and methodsA total of 391 Finnish-speaking student-athletes completed the questionnaire on career adaptability (Career Adapt-Abilities Scale – Dual Career Form; Ryba & Aunola, 2015; Ryba et al., 2017) at the beginning and end of upper secondary school. The participants’ background information about their sport participation and grade point average were collected upon completion of each grade of upper secondary school. The data were analysed using cluster analysis, cross-tabulation, and one-way analysis of variance. ResultsFour distinct adaptability profiles were identified: higher adaptability, lower adaptability, increasing adaptability, and decreasing adaptability. Higher and lower adaptability profiles showed stable levels of adaptability across time, whereas the adaptability level either increased or decreased in the other two profiles. Student-athletes with a lower career adaptability profile were overrepresented among those who withdrew from competitive sports, and they reported lower grade point averages than those with higher scores of career adaptability. ConclusionsHigh scores of career adaptability were associated with high grades, whereas low scores of career adaptability were associated with low grades and a probability to withdraw from competitive sport. Therefore, it is recommended that career adaptability be considered as important self-regulation resources for sustaining dual career pathways over time.

Career Adaptability as a Predictor of Job Search Intentions and Career Readiness of Young Adults in the United Arab Emirates

In this study, we used the career construction theory (CCT) to examine the effects of career adaptability resources and career adapting responses on the career readiness of young adults in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using data from a sample of 635 senior business students at two universities, we found that career adaptability has a positive impact on two measures of career readiness including career decidedness and perceived employability. Our findings also indicate that career adaptability, as expected, predicts two relevant career adaptive responses within the United Arab Emirates context including intentions to seek “Wasta” (using social connections to help in finding a job) and willingness to work in the private sector (WWPS). We further found that WWPS mediates the relationship between career adaptability and perceived employability. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Career counseling for college students: Assessment of an online and group intervention

There has been a growing demand for evidence-based interventions to help students prepare for the transition between university and the world of work. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a career counseling intervention, in groups and online, on the career adaptability resources and perceptions of professional development and employability of college students in the final stage of their undergraduate courses. The study was based on career construction theory and the theoretical model for professional development of college students. As a preliminary activity, the intervention was performed with a pilot group (n = 20), followed by the actual experiment with an IG (n = 14) and an N-TG (n = 14). Based on a detailed protocol, the intervention was applied for three months, with six weekly sessions and a follow-up session one month after the end of the intervention. Between the sessions, the participants were expected to accomplish directed tasks. Two observers were part of the experiment and elaborated reports of each session. The Linear Mixed Regression Model (LMM) and the Jacobson and Truax (JT) Method were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention, comparing each participant with themself before and after the intervention. The results show that career counseling with graduating college students expands their career adaptability resources, and their perceptions of professional development and employability. The no-treatment group did not present an increase in the score's dimensions over time. Therefore, based on the study, career counseling interventions can be recommended for college students to promote proactive action to anticipate barriers and increase awareness of possibilities and work interests among participants.

Development and initial validation of the job-search self-regulation scale: Expanding the career adaptation model of job search.

Given the pressing issues of unemployment during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the underrecognized role of job-search self-regulation (JSSR) in general within career construction theory (CCT), it is socially and theoretically important to expand the career adaption model of job search by examining the role of JSSR in predicting job-search outcomes. However, a psychometrically sound measure of JSSR is lacking. Study 1 used a sample of U.S. unemployed individuals (n = 300) to develop and explore the factor structure of a measure of JSSR. Study 2 tracked a sample of U.S. unemployed individuals (n = 399) to validate the JSSR by examining its structural, concurrent, and predictive validities. Study 2 also examined the mediation of the JSSR subscales in the links from career adaptability to subsequent employment status and job-search progress (JSP). The results supported the psychometric soundness of the newly developed JSSR and demonstrated that JSSR behaviors mediated the positive predictions of career adaptability resources for subsequent employment status and JSP. Therefore, the present study offers a measure of JSSR for future research and practice and highlights JSSR as an important adapting response. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A Framework of Facilitators and Barriers to Career Adaptability: Migrant Hotel Workers During COVID-19

We examine internal and external factors that build or thwart the career adaptability resources of migrant hotel workers. Drawing on qualitative data at two points in time over a 12-month period during COVID-19, results show that while some migrant workers changed roles and exited hotels, for most, job changes were a shorter-term, separation phenomenon, with migrants transitioning back to their employer within a year. Psychological, social, and human capital resources facilitated career adaptability, while psychoemotional support from managers and peers fostered the confidence of temporary migrants, and facilitated positive affect, which was integral to their openness to exploring alternate hospitality careers. Inhibitors to career adaptability included a lack of agency among temporary migrants, and career entrenchment of mid-career permanent migrants. Our model provides a fine-grained, holistic understanding of the antecedents of career adaptability, enriching career construction theory by clarifying the contexts that drive career adaptability in the evolving, COVID-19 context.

A latent transition analysis examining the nature of and movement between career adaptability profiles

Research on career adaptability has mainly relied on a variable-centered approach, focusing on the average effects of its four resource dimensions (i.e., concern, control, confidence, and curiosity) in relation to antecedents and outcomes within a given sample. A complementary approach is person-centered research (i.e., mixture models). Following 93 university students across an 11-week service-learning project, we collected data about students' career adaptability resources in three waves (at the beginning, middle, and completion of the project). Our analyses identified unique subgroups with distinct profiles of career adaptability resources that differed in level (i.e., low career adaptability, average career adaptability and high career adaptability), but not in shape. We then explored the patterns of movement and stability in these three profiles over time using latent transition analysis. Data about personal (i.e., regulatory focus: prevention and promotion focus) and situational (i.e., challenge and hindrance stressors) factors were collected to help explain the transitional probabilities for stability and change in profiles over time. The negative valence predictors (i.e., prevention focus and hindrance stressors) did not play a role in explaining the transitional probabilities between profiles, whereas the positive valence predictors (i.e., promotion focus and challenge stressors) did – a finding also relevant to the literature on developmental tasks as instigators of young people developing their career adaptability. Overall, these findings suggest that the person-centered approach can be a useful method to analyze change and stability in career adaptability profiles.

One Common Factor, Four Resources, Both, or Neither: A Network Model of Career Adaptability Resources

Career adaptability is better described as interconnected resources than as manifestations of a common factor. Using a sample of 1053 responses to the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale, we compared traditional confirmatory factor analysis models (unidimensional, bifactor, hierarchical) with a confirmatory network model, which is found to outperform the others.

Resources to respond: A career construction theory perspective on demands, adaptability, and career crafting

AbstractThis study tests and extends the career construction theory's model of adaptation and provides valuable insights into the interplay of agency and structure in career self‐management. It studies the interactive effect of career adaptability resources with intensified career demands on career crafting by examination of structural predictors for adapting responses, and the role of career adaptability as a moderator between intensified demands and career crafting responses. Using a representative sample of the German working population (N = 2000), the authors test the model with structural equation modeling. Latent structure analysis showed that each of the four career adaptabilities strengthens the relationship between intensified career demands and the career crafting responses of goal setting/networking and reflection. It suggests to focus strongly on the development of career resources in order to enable career crafting.

Career adaptability of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.

This descriptive phenomenological study examines career adaptability of parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Participants include 30 parents (18 fathers and 12 mothers; 6 of them were couples) ranging in age from 26 to 45 years, selected by a purposive sampling method. The semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers based on the Career Construction Theory was used to collect data after receiving expert verification on the questions. In addition, to triangulate data sources, the Participant Feedback Form filled by the participants on the day following the interview and the Researcher Diary filled by the interviewer during the data collection process were utilized. Colaizzi's seven-step method was followed to analyze the data. Four major domains emerged, highlighting traumas/changes in work-life after ASD, career adaptability, influences of COVID-19 pandemic, and post-interview awareness of this particular sample. Results from the study highlighted looking ahead, being persistent, career decision-making, career-exploration accompanied by some expectations such as more time, income and flexibility, and coping skills build upon the ASD, along with postponement and abandonment of previous career goals, alteration of future career plans, and lack of self-exploration. The results contributed to the theory by providing evidence for career adaptability of parents of children with individual differences, including career adaptability resources and needs. Findings also implied the need for interventions to foster career adaptability skills of parents regarding looking ahead in a positive way, decision-making, self-exploration, and coping with career barriers and difficulties.

Pathological traits and adaptability as predictors of engagement, job satisfaction, burnout and workaholism

Abstract This study aimed to test the predictive capacity of pathological traits of personality and career adaptability on four constructs that compose the well-being at work: work engagement, job satisfaction, burnout, and workaholism. A total of 204 Brazilian working adults (M age = 34.02, SD = 10.39) participated in the study, which responded to scales measuring pathological traits, career adaptability resources, and well-being components at work. Our findings indicate that pathological traits are, in general, negatively related to job satisfaction and work engagement and positively associated with burnout and workaholism. After the insertion of career adaptability, there was an increase in most of the models' explanation. The contribution of adaptability was significant only for job satisfaction prediction.

Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Short Form: Validation for Use in India

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) is popular among researchers and validated in many countries but has not yet been tested for the Indian context. This study examined the CAAS Short Form (CAAS-SF) among a sample of Indian business school students. The CAAS-SF consists of four subscales, each with three items measuring concern, control, curiosity and confidence as psychosocial resources. A sample of 369 Indian business-school students with human resource management as major participated in the scale validation process. The internal consistency estimates for the subscales and total scores were found to be comparable or better than previous CAAS-SF assessments. Based on this study’s findings, the CAAS-SF appears to be appropriate for measuring career adaptability resources in Indian business school students.

A Psychometric Analysis of the Russian Career Adapt-Abilities Scale in High School Students

The aim of the research is to develop a Russian-language version of Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) by M. Savickas and E. Porfeli and test its psychometric properties on a Russian sample of high school students from 9th, 10th, and 11th grade. The relevance of the study is determined by the modern society demand for the search, creation and development of effective tools for diagnosing meta-skills that are conducive to a persons professional self-determination, success and well-being. The study involved 607 people (360 girls and 247 boys) aged 15 to 19. The Russian-language version is identical to international form of Career Adapt-Abilities Scale. It includes 24 items that are summarized to give a total score for diagnosing career adaptability and are equally divided into four subscales to measure adaptability resources, including: concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. The internal consistency coefficients of the scale and its subscales ranged from good to excellent and were close to the corresponding parameters of the international version of CAAS. The study demonstrated the retest reliability of CAAS, the factor structure and correlations of the general indicator of career adaptability and its parameters with other psychological constructs associated with personality traits, regulatory mechanisms and processes of professional self-development. Thus, the adapted Russian-language form of Career Adapt-Abilities Scale is a reliable and valid tool for studying personal career adaptability and career-adaptive resources in Russian-speaking samples. Further research is related to the analysis of the age invariance of the method; it is also planned to study its invariance separately in men vs women groups. The article contains the text of the questionnaire, instructions and keys.

The role of career adaptability and future orientation on future goals in refugees

ABSTRACT Using a full mixed-method design, the study aims to explore refugees’ future goals, and secondly, it aims to examine the relationship between career adaptability and future orientation in considering a breadth of future goals. Results showed that refugees set more frequently materialistic goals and less frequently goals connected to be able to have a “decent job”. Moreover, it was found that career adaptability and future orientation play a crucial role in determining multiple useful goals in refugees for building a decent personal and professional future life in the host country. The results emphasise the relevance to help refugees to set goals related to decent work and to develop career adaptability resources and future orientation.

Social Capital and the Career Adaptability of Refugees

AbstractThis study examines how people from refugee and asylum‐seeking backgrounds draw on their social capital to develop their career adaptability. To examine this issue, we drew on interview data from twenty‐five people based in Melbourne, Australia, who have sought asylum between 2008 and 2016. The present study examines the influence of different dimensions of social capital on individuals’ career adaptability. Findings revealed that a more nuanced understanding of linking, bridging and bonding social capital is needed when exploring the career adaptability resources of refugees and people seeking asylum. In particular, important differences were identified between engaging with a social network and trusting a social network.

Parental career-specific behaviours and adolescent career adaptability

Parents are a major influence on adolescents’ career development. However, past studies have mostly explored general rather than career-specific parenting aspects. According to Dietrich and Kracke (2009) parental support, parental interference, and lack of parental career engagement are basic dimensions of career-specific parental behaviours. This study examined the relationship between these parental behaviours and career adaptability in a sample of high school students (N = 197; Mage = 16.79). The data were collected in a group online testing. Student career adaptability was measured with the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) and parental career-specific behaviours were measured by the scale developed by Dietrich and Kracke (2009). Parental support emerged as the most important positive predictor of career adaptability since it predicted both global career adaptability and separate dimensions. Parental interference negatively predicted career control, career confidence, and overall career adaptability but only when parents’ career engagement was higher. The results point out that in understanding parental influences in students’ career development it is important to consider different parenting practices and also examine separate students’ career adaptability resources. Parents should be helped to recognise their career-related parenting practices and to understand the potential of these behaviours in facilitating their children’s career adaptability. Special counselling interventions should be provided for students who perceive that their parents are not providing enough career-related support.

Facets of career agility as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ career adaptability

Background: The fast-changing Industry 4.0 employment conditions require employees to be highly adaptable and resilient in their career self-management. More insight is needed regarding the manner in which facets of career agility (as indicators of adaptive readiness) explain the activation of career adaptability (as an indicator of self-regulated career management resources that help employees proactively respond to the demands of the modern-day technological-driven work context).Objectives: The study explored the career agility facets of technological adaptivity, agile learning, and career navigation as potential explanatory mechanisms of individuals’ career adaptability.Method: The study utilised a cross-sectional research design which involved a convenience sample (N = 177) of employees (mean age = 34 years; SD = 10.14) from various industries on managerial (39%), staff (38%), and professional consultant (23%) level positions across the globe. The sample was mostly represented by individuals employed in the South African organisational context (72%).Results: Multiple regression analyses revealed that technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation function as facets of adaptive readiness that explain higher levels of the career adaptability resources embedded in individuals’ career concern, career control, career curiosity, and career confidence.Conclusion: The findings contribute new insights into the construct of career agility and extends research on antecedents of career adaptability. Modern-day career counselling practice may find the results useful in helping clients be nimble in their adaptation to the changing career and job conditions of the digital era.

Career adaptability and career success in the context of a broader career resources framework

Increasing dynamics of careers make the development and application of different career resources important for successful career development. The study aimed to understand how different career resources are related to each other and different forms of career success. Examining 574 employees with 3-waves of 1-month time lags, we assessed relations between key resources (i.e., self-esteem and optimism), career adaptability resources (i.e., concern, control, curiosity, confidence), and knowledge/skills, motivational, and environmental career resources and their predictive utility for different forms of subjective and objective career success (i.e., salary). Results showed that career adaptability resources are highly related to other types of career resources, but career adaptability and other career resources each explain unique variance in different facets of career success. Using relative weight analyses, we found that especially motivational and environmental career resources are meaningfully positively related to different facets of subjective career success, whereas knowledge and skills career resources are most prominently positively related to objective career success. Under consideration of other career resources, career adaptability related negatively to salary. The findings contribute to career construction theory by situating career adaptability within a broader resource framework in relation to career success.