Super's Life-Span Research Articles

Subjective quality of leisure & worker well-being: Validating measures & testing theory

For many workers, leisure is a highly valued part of life. Yet, workers' leisure experiences have largely been overlooked in the career development and work-life literatures. This paper addresses the question of when workers' leisure experiences—and compatibility between work and leisure roles—are important for workers' overall subjective well-being (SWB). We draw on Super's life-span, life-space theory of career development to posit that the subjective quality of workers' leisure experiences—and lack of conflict between work and leisure roles—is important for SWB, especially when leisure roles are highly salient relative to other roles. In three studies, we develop and validate scales to measure the subjective quality of leisure (i.e., leisure affect and leisure satisfaction) and test our hypotheses using a heterogeneous sample of working adults. Results provide evidence for the reliability and validity of our new measures and suggest that the subjective quality of workers' leisure experiences influence workers' overall SWB beyond the effects of the subjective quality of job and family experiences—often regardless of levels of relative leisure role salience. However, work-leisure conflict does not appear to substantially influence overall SWB beyond the effects of work-family conflict, even when relative leisure role salience is high. We discuss implications for the career development and work-life literatures.

Employee age and reactions to downsizing.

The present study explored the career development concerns among employees varying by age who had worked for organizations that either had or had not engaged in downsizing within a 1-year timeframe. The sample consisted of 72 layoff survivors and 92 non-survivors (employees whose organizations had not downsized). Each completed an online survey assessing career concerns framed in the context of Super's Life Span Life Space theory of career development, as well as measures assessing perceptions of loss, job insecurity, distress, social support, loss history, religiosity, and job satisfaction. Younger employees reported more job dissatisfaction, as did survivors, and younger survivors reported more such dissatisfaction relative to older survivors, and saw the downsizing as less equitable than did older survivors. Among non-survivors, age effects were minimal. Younger employees reported more concerns about Crystallization, Specification, Implementation, Innovation, Stabilizing, Consolidating, Advancing, and Updating, as did survivors. For Crystallization, and to a lesser extent for Innovation, younger survivors reported more such concerns than did older survivors, while among non-survivors, these differences were minimal. A similar age by survivorship pattern was found for psychophysical health, career-recycling tendencies, and for concerns at Super's career stages/maxicycles of Exploration, Establishment, and Maintenance. These findings suggest that young survivors appear to be less vocationally adaptable, more vocationally and personally vulnerable to downsizing, and more impacted in seeing downsizing as unfair, perhaps due to unrealistic career trajectory expectations. In contrast, older employees, perhaps due to increased job and/or layoff experience or the perception that downsizing was handled more equitably via greater loyalty to the organization, appear to be more resilient in these respects.

Integrating Existentialism and Super's Life‐Span, Life‐Space Approach

As workers face a changing and ever‐complex employment landscape, traditional career theories and approaches may not be sufficient in meeting career challenges. Calls for integrated career theories have emerged as more people seek meaning and purpose in their lives and careers. This article proposes a career counseling option that integrates existentialism and Super's (1990) life‐span, life‐space approach to establish a foundation for a broader approach to career development that views clients holistically by exploring life and career meaning and purpose from a developmental perspective. A case example and interventions are provided to demonstrate practical application and a contextual framework, along with implications for counselors.

A Longitudinal, Naturalistic Inquiry of the Adaptation Experiences of the Female Expatriate Spouse Living in Turkey

Using a one-year longitudinal-panel design, 32 American, female, expatriate spouses who relocated to Ankara, Turkey, were interviewed at just-arrived, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-months stages. This project utilized mixed methods research design. Results of the quantitative, repeated measures component is reported in Bikos et al. (2007, this issue). Results of the Naturalistic Inquiry provided rich, thick descriptions of eight themes as they unfolded through the first year of this expatriate assignment. The resulting themes included predeparture preparation, settling in, impact of expatriation on the wife's life roles, social emotional functioning, approaches to coping, supportive systems, language, and interaction with the host culture. The authors interpreted the results in light of the life role salience and career adaptability constructs of Super's Life-Span, Life-Space approach to career development. In addition, results of this project integrated well with previous research about expatriate spouse adjustment.

Career development and counselling for women: Connecting theories to practice

Women's career development is more complex than that of men due to a number of internal and external barriers, including early gender-role orientation, employment inequities, and family responsibilities, which both complicate and restrict women's career choices and advancement. This paper attempts to examine the application of career development theoretical models in the context of career development and counselling for women. It begins with a discussion of some of the internal and external barriers associated with North American women's career development. It then briefly reviews some of the key tenets from three career development theories, namely, Gottfredson's theory of circumscription, compromise, and self-creation, Super's life-span, life-space theory, and the social cognitive career theory (SCCT) in relation specifically to women's career development experiences. The paper concludes with considerations of intervention strategies that aim to address the particular needs of women, including essential aspects such as the counsellor's knowledge and skill, and relevant helping approaches and methods that pertain to the career welfare of female clients.

Work-Family Interface

The objective of this study is to achieve a better understanding of the interrelationships between work and family commitment, work-family conflict, coping, and satisfaction with work and family roles. Super's life-span, life-space theory provides a framework for the study. Participants ( N= 154) are married, employed, college graduates who completed questionnaires regarding their work and family roles. A path model of work-family interface is proposed and tested against an alternative model. Results indicate that the proposed path model adequately fits the data, and this model is deemed better than the alternative model. Implications of the findings are discussed, and directions for future research are provided.

The Effects of Role Congruence and Role Conflict on Work, Marital, and Life Satisfaction

The impact of role congruence and role conflict on work, marital, and life satisfaction was studied using Super's life-span, life-space theory. A conceptual model of relationships between these variables was proposed, and gender differences were examined. Participants were 35 male and 60 female college graduates who completed surveys by mail. Results indicated adequate fit for the proposed model. Results of gender analyses indicated that women in this study participated more in parenting and housework, whereas men participated more in career and leisure activities. Despite the differences in actual role participation, no gender differences were found regarding ideal role participation. Both men and women reported that the parent role was most rewarding. Implications for counselors and directions for future research were discussed.

Integrating Barriers to Caucasian Lesbians' Career Development and Super's Life‐Span, Life‐Space Approach

Researchers and practitioners do not fully understand the nature and extent of actual and perceived barriers in lesbians' career development (S. L. Morrow, P. A. Gore, & B. W. Campbell, 1996). In this study, 10 lesbian women, ages 42 to 64 years, were interviewed and asked to identify barriers to career development due to sexual identity. Integration of sexual orientation in D. E. Super's (1990) Life‐Span, Life‐Space approach is proposed.

Toward an Integration of Gay and Lesbian Identity Development and Super's Life-Span Approach

The purpose of this article is to consider how the identity development of gay men and lesbian women influences their career stage development, as proposed in Super's (1990) Life-Span Approach. First, there is an overview of a model that describes six stages in coming to accept a gay or lesbian orientation. Next, Super's Life-Span Approach to career development and its key concepts are briefly described. Within that section, there is discussion of the implications of gay and lesbian identity formation for the various stages and tasks in the career development of gay and lesbian individuals. Finally, implications for career counseling practice and future research are discussed.