Career Distress Research Articles

Evaluation of a Goal Orientation Model of Vocational Identity

The authors tested a model that considered goal orientation (mastery approach, performance approach, and performance avoidance) as an antecedent to vocational identity (career exploration and commitment) and included both career behaviors (career‐related strategies) and affect (career distress) as outcomes of vocational identity. The authors also assessed vocational identity as a mediator for consistency with models of career development. The study was survey based with 281 young adult participants (77% women, mean age = 26 years). Mastery and performance approach were associated with more career exploration, which, in turn, was associated with greater use of career‐related strategies. Performance avoidance was associated with more career commitment, which was then related to greater distress. The study demonstrated that goal orientation is a potentially important antecedent to vocational identity, which has implications for how practitioners work with young adults with different goal orientations.

The Career Distress Scale

Career distress is a common and painful outcome of many negative career experiences, such as career indecision, career compromise, and discovering career barriers. However, there are very few scales devised to assess career distress, and the two existing scales identified have psychometric weaknesses. The absence of a practical, validated scale to assess this construct restricts research related to career distress and limits practitioners who need to assess and treat it. Using a sample of 226 young adults (mean age 20.5 years), we employed item response theory to assess 12 existing career distress items for model fit, item bias, location dependency, dimensionality, reliability, response option suitability, and construct validity. Three of the 12 items examined were removed as they did not fit the Rasch model or were not invariant across groups. The remaining 9 items, which we combined into a scale labeled the Career Distress Scale, demonstrated excellent psychometric properties, meaning that both researchers and practitioners can use it with confidence. Continued validation is required, including testing its relationship to other nomological net variables, testing predictive validity, and assessing test–retest reliability.

Parental Autonomy Support and Career Well-Being

Self-determination theory (SDT) was used to explain the relation of parental autonomy support for making their own decisions and career well-being (i.e., more academic major satisfaction and less subjective career distress). Perceived academic competence and perceived volitional autonomy were posited to mediate the relation of mother’s and father’s autonomy support and career well-being in 113 university students. Perceived academic competence mediated the relation of father’s support and both indicators of career well-being. Perceived volitional autonomy mediated the relation of mother’s support and both indicators of career well-being. A bootstrap procedure yielded significant mediation effects of mother’s and father’s autonomy support on career well-being. Results are discussed in terms of SDT and career well-being.

Career identity and the complex mediating relationships between career preparatory actions and career progress markers

We tested a cross-sectional, moderated-mediation model of career identity in young adults (N=667, 72.9% female, mean age=20years). In this model, career preparatory activities (career exploration and planning) were associated with perceptions of future employability and career distress. These relationships were mediated by career identity, and career identity was conditional upon level of career calling. We found that career exploration was associated with more career distress, while career planning was associated with less, and both career exploration and planning were associated with higher perceived employability. Career identity mediated between career exploration and planning and both outcomes, and these mediated relationships were stronger when career calling was higher. We interpreted the results from career construction, identity, and exploration perspectives; highlighted the applicability of these perspectives in the development of agency, career calling, and career identity; and made recommendations for testing other theory-based moderators.

Antecedents and consequences to perceived career goal–progress discrepancies

Informed by a goal setting and self-regulation perspective, we tested a model of perceived career goal–progress discrepancies (i.e., perception of progress made towards achieving career goals relative to where one should be if the goals were to be attained), which proposed that negative feedback from significant others predicts career goal–progress discrepancies, which, in turn, predicts levels of career-related distress. The model also proposes that active feedback seeking strengthens the relationship between feedback from significant others and goal–progress discrepancies, and that career self-regulatory behaviours (career exploration and planning) weaken the relationship between career goal–progress discrepancies and career distress. Using a sample of 420 young adults (mean age=20.3years, 73% female), we found that feedback from significant others was related to both career goal–progress discrepancies and career distress, career goal–progress discrepancies were related to career distress, and goal–progress discrepancies partially mediated between feedback from significant others and career distress. Supporting the moderated effects, goal–progress discrepancies were higher at higher levels of negative feedback for those more actively seeking feedback, and career distress was lower at lower levels of discrepancy for those more engaged in exploration and planning.

The Development and Initial Validation of a Scale to Assess Career Goal Discrepancies

Career goal discrepancy, which is at the heart of goal-oriented, career models of motivation and agency, is the perceived gap between an individual’s career goal (i.e., future self or situation) and the progress being made toward achieving that goal (i.e., current self or situation). There are no existing scales that assess this construct. To progress research in this area, we devised a brief, 12-item measure suitable for use with young adults. Devising a scale for this population is appropriate, as young adulthood is the age when occupational goals and occupational goal progress are important foci. We generated initial items for four underlying domains of goal discrepancy (achievement, effort, ability, and standard discrepancy), had the items rated by experts, and then administered them to a large, diverse sample of young adults ( N = 615, mean age 20.9 years). We reduced the number of items and tested the factor structure of the scale using exploratory factor analysis, confirmed the structure on a holdout sample using confirmatory factor analysis, and assessed construct validity by testing hypothesized relationships with existing measures (career goal commitment and career distress). Being able to assess discrepancy in the career domain will stimulate research into the career development of young adults and will allow practitioners to explore issues around career goal setting and adaptive responses to career setbacks.

Career Compromise, Career Distress, and Perceptions of Employability

We surveyed 175 university undergraduates and assessed whether career compromise was associated with career distress and perceptions of employability (employment demand and employment confidence), and tested whether core-self evaluations and social capital buffered the effects of career compromise. Career compromise was associated positively with career distress and negatively with self-perceptions of employment demand. Social capital moderated the relationship between compromise and employment demand and between compromise and employment confidence. No assessed variable moderated between compromise and career distress. Understanding the correlates of career compromise and under what conditions these relationships are strengthened or weakened contributes to an understanding of how goal adjustment in the career domain might affect young people’s well-being and career progress.

Career Development Strategies as Moderators Between Career Compromise and Career Outcomes in Emerging Adults

The authors surveyed 130 first-year university students (80% female; mean age 20.5) and assessed (a) the level of career compromise they reported between their ideal and enrolled university programs, (b) their career-related strategies, (c) their perceptions of employability, and (d) their career-related distress. The authors tested a model that proposed that career compromise would predict perceptions of employability and career distress and that the effects of compromise would be moderated by the career-related strategies. Two strategies, seeking career guidance and self-presentation, moderated the relationship between compromise and career distress. There was no moderated effect for perceptions of employability, although compromise was directly associated with these perceptions. Thus, while compromise may be a normal aspect of career development, it was associated with more career distress when career development strategies were low and associated directly with more negative employment perceptions. Practitioners might assist with career compromise by enhancing career development strategies.

P.8.a.010 Effects of galantamine on serum vitamin B12 and folic acid levels in patients with chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome

Informed by a goal setting and self-regulation perspective, we tested a model of perceived career goal–progress discrepancies (i.e., perception of progress made towards achieving career goals relative to where one should be if the goals were to be attained), which proposed that negative feedback from significant others predicts career goal–progress discrepancies, which, in turn, predicts levels of career-related distress. The model also proposes that active feedback seeking strengthens the relationship between feedback from significant others and goal–progress discrepancies, and that career self-regulatory behaviours (career exploration and planning) weaken the relationship between career goal–progress discrepancies and career distress. Using a sample of 420 young adults (mean age = 20.3 years, 73% female), we found that feedback from significant others was related to both career goal–progress discrepancies and career distress, career goal–progress discrepancies were related to career distress, and goal–progress discrepancies partially mediated between feedback from significant others and career distress. Supporting the moderated effects, goal–progress discrepancies were higher at higher levels of negative feedback for those more actively seeking feedback, and career distress was lower at lower levels of discrepancy for those more engaged in exploration and planning.

The Development and Validation of Coping With Career Indecision

This paper reports on four studies which provide the initial reliability and validity estimates regarding Coping With Career Indecision (CCI; Larson, 1992), a career indecision instrument that focuses on people's coping appraisals during career indecision. The factor analysis indicated at least four content areas: subjective career distress and obstacles, active problem-solving, academic self-efficacy, and career myths. Estimates of reliability indicate these constructs are internally consistent and reliable over a 2-week period. Moreover, students who endorse difficulty on the CCI also report: weaker vocational identities, less career certainty, more career indecision, and more ineffective problem-solving appraisal. The CCI also correlates minimally with academic achievement, aptitude, or personality types. Finally, the CCI factor scores accurately identified 85% of students into a very decided and a very undecided group.