Research on protean careers and career success has generally used unidimensional measures of career satisfaction, which ignore the complex ways individuals conceptualize career success. This study explored the multivariate relationship between the dimensions of protean career ( self-directed and values-driven ) and the dimensions of career success ( recognition , quality work , meaningful work , influence , authenticity , personal life , growth & development , and satisfaction ). A time-separated survey was used to collect data from a sample of U.S. women ( n = 377), and canonical correlation analysis was employed. Authenticity was removed due to lack of discriminant validity. The results revealed a statistically significant multivariate relationship between the protean career and career success dimensions, indicating which career success dimensions are most salient to each protean dimension. Overall, growth and development had the strongest shared variance, and recognition the weakest. For self-directed, growth and development and satisfaction had the strongest shared variance, whereas personal life was the strongest for values-driven. These findings demonstrate that the two protean dimensions are distinct and differentially related to specific domains of career success, providing support for use of multidimensional measures. Collapsing protean career or career success into a higher-order factor masks the distinct and meaningful relationships revealed when separately examining each dimension.
Although career adaptability is well-established as pivot to adolescent career development, the network interconnections among its dimensions remain unexamined. Moreover, while collective contributions to career efficacy (CCCE) from different significant others have been viewed as key contributors to adolescent career adaptability, such associations have been rarely approached from a network perspective, leaving potential differential specificity in such links under-detected. To narrow these gaps, this study employed network analysis to investigate the interconnections among career adaptability dimensions and their associations with CCCE from different sources over time. Three-annual-wave longitudinal data were collected from 1,952 Chinese adolescents (15.54 ± 0.54; 43.9% males) across their senior high school years. Results indicated that curiosity and confidence consistently served core functions in the career adaptability network over time. CCCE from parents and teachers exhibited stronger connections with career confidence than CCCE from peers, while peers’ CCCE was closely related to career curiosity. The findings highlight the importance of cultivating adolescents’ career curiosity and confidence to improve career adaptability. The differential specificity in the links between different sources of CCCE and career adaptability dimensions offers insights for designing interventions in family and school settings that are aimed at promoting adolescents’ career adaptability.
Though much evidence has been put forth to describe the benefits and consequences of perceiving work as a calling, little is known about the experiences of vocational calling for gender and sexual minority (i.e., LGBT+) employees. As workplace diversity climate has been demonstrated as influential to LGBT + employees’ experiences based in Signaling Theory, we integrated Work as Calling (WCT) and Signaling Theory to explore the hypothesized role of diversity climate perceptions in supporting LGBT + employee outcomes derived from calling perceptions. Using a three timepoint, time-lagged assessment of 404 LGBT + workers, we found results supporting the notion that LGBT + employees’ perceived calling and diversity climate perceptions were associated with greater job satisfaction and satisfaction with life, and lower turnover intentions and burnout. Results further supported the role of perceived calling being more strongly negatively related to turnover intentions for LGBT + employees working in stronger (versus weaker) diversity climate perceptions, though evidence of moderation was not found for other examined criterion variables. This study contributes to an increased understanding of how and under what conditions perceiving a calling relates to LGBT + employee experiences under the WCT model, underscoring the benefits of perceived calling and organizational diversity climate as worthy of encouragement.
Career decision-making is a critical developmental task for college students, yet many experience low self-efficacy, anxiety, and uncertainty during this process. Xin-Yang is a set of ideologies that is a manifestation of individuals’ values and has traits that are similar to and different from Western spirituality. It is culturally grounded psychological resources and may support career development; however, empirical evidence remains limited. This randomized controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of Xin-Yang based group intervention on career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE) among Chinese college students. A total of 109 students were randomly assigned to either the intervention group or an active comparison group that received mindfulness psychoeducation. Measures of Xin-Yang and CDMSE were collected at baseline, post-intervention, and at 1- and 3-month follow-ups. A two-slope piecewise growth model assessed changes in CDMSE, career decision-making difficulties, and Xin-Yang over time. Participants in the intervention group showed significant improvements in two CDMSE dimensions—Problem Solving and Self-Appraisal—and reductions in the Anxiety dimension of career indecision at post-intervention and follow-ups. Both groups improved in other CDMSE dimensions and the Self-Identity Concept dimension of career decision-making difficulties. Additionally, the intervention group demonstrated increasing trends in two Xin-Yang dimensions: Mental Guidance and Relationship to Others.
Career sustainability has become a popular topic of inquiry in the career, educational, organizational, and management literatures. Interest in the topic has been heightened by a confluence of economic, social, political, and technological developments that are affecting many workers and challenging traditional notions of what constitutes a viable career or work path. Career sustainability has been defined and measured in a variety of ways, yielding an active but fragmented research literature. It has been difficult, for example, to reach consensus on whether sustainability refers primarily to employability (obtaining, maintaining, and/or regaining employment) or whether it implies attainment of higher-level outcomes indicative of flourishing. It is possible to conceptualize both employability and flourishing as parts of a larger system of influences, resting on an economic base, that enables or deters career development. Yet employability would appear to represent the more fundamental challenge for many workers. Extending the social cognitive career framework, I focus on the resources and behaviors that may foster (a) employability, (b) preparedness for work instability and transitions, and (c) coping with periods of unemployment. A selective review of findings is presented, along with conceptual models intended to stimulate practice-relevant inquiry.
In the increasingly competitive job market, college graduates inevitably encounter negative events of varying strengths in the job search process. The current study aims to explore how and when negative event strength influences their job search performance. Drawing on crisis decision theory, we argue that negative event strength interacts with individual characteristics (i.e., error aversion and social comparison orientation) to influence job seekers' job search effort and subsequent job search performance (i.e., the number of job offers). Using a sample of 245 college graduates, we tested our hypotheses with the PROCESS macro Version 4.1. Our results show that the effect of negative event strength on job search effort was more pronounced for individuals with lower levels of error aversion and those with lower levels of social comparison orientation, leading to a greater number of job offers. This study contributes to the job search literature by shedding light on the mechanisms through which negative event strength influences job search performance.
Using a sample of 883 Latine engineering students, the present study explored the measurement characteristics of the Negative Outcome Expectations Scale for Engineers (NOES-E), applying advanced psychometric techniques, including bifactor and the exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) framework, to ascertain the scale's most suitable factor structure. Additionally, measurement invariance across Latino and Latina participants was tested to investigate if the scale operates equally across gender groups and whether the latent mean scores are invariant. The results suggested that the bi-factor ESEM provided the best model fit when contrasted with other possible factor structures. The findings generally highlighted the general factor as reflecting the negative outcome expectations, suggesting that the use of total score is advised over the use of individual subscale scores. Findings from the measurement invariance testing across men and women indicated the NOES-E score can be compared between both groups.
The complex dynamics of racism and sexism in the workplace, particularly gendered racial microaggressions (GRMs), remain a critical concern for Black women. However, despite mounting research that experiencing GRMs predicts psychological distress and other adverse outcomes, the mechanisms through which GRMs influence workplace functioning and well-being remain understudied. Therefore, with a sample of working Black women (N = 156) from an online recruitment platform, we sought to identify mediators (sociopolitical participation and identity shifting) that explain the link from workplace GRMs to work well-being outcomes (workplace stress and work engagement). We also explored whether gendered racial identity centrality (GRI) and perceived organizational justice (POJ) moderated these indirect effects. Results indicated that identity shifting significantly mediated the relation between workplace GRMs and workplace stress, while sociopolitical participation significantly mediated GRMs and work engagement. GRI and POJ did not significantly moderate these paths. However, POJ was negatively associated with workplace stress and positively associated with work engagement, suggesting the importance of organizational fairness for Black women. Taken together, findings underscore the need for culturally responsive and equity-centered workplace practices that validate racial identity, reduce identity suppression, and encourage authentic sociopolitical expression.
This study examined how university graduates’ work values relate to their career adjustment outcomes during the university-to-work transition from a proactive perspective. Using a four-wave time-lagged design that tracked 455 Chinese university graduates from two weeks before graduation to 18 months after entering the workforce, structural equation modeling results showed that the variety dimension of openness-to-change values was positively related to a job-growth mindset, which was in turn associated with subsequent proactive career behaviors and, ultimately, higher person-job fit and job satisfaction. In contrast, the comfort dimension of conservation values showed a negative association with this sequence. By demonstrating a temporally ordered pathway from value orientations to context-specific beliefs, proactive behavior, and adjustment, these findings provide insight into value-based proactive processes underlying career adjustment during the university-to-work transition.
Grounded in the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT), prior studies have examined whether social support buffers the negative effects of contextual constraints. However, findings remain inconsistent, with some patterns contradicting PWT's buffering proposition and instead aligning with Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. To explore whether patterns consistent with these two perspectives emerge within specific subgroups, the present study adopts a person-centered approach. We examined configurations of three constraints (economic constraints, university prestige-based marginalization, and age-based marginalization) and three sources of career support (college, family, and friends) among Korean job seekers. Latent profile analysis identified four profiles: (a) advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported, (b) disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported, (c) disadvantaged-and-unsupported, and (d) advantaged-and-supported. Subgroup comparisons revealed that the advantaged-and-supported group showed the most positive career development outcomes, whereas the disadvantaged-and-unsupported group showed the most negative outcomes, consistent with COR's resource gain and loss spirals. Notably, the disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported group showed higher occupational engagement and job search behaviors than the advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported group. These findings suggest that patterns consistent with PWT's buffering proposition may emerge in subgroups characterized by moderate constraints and college-based career support. However, no profile with extreme constraints and high support was identified, underscoring the need to ensure equitable access to institutional support for individuals facing substantial constraints.
Existing measures of outcome expectations in career exploration and decision-making tend to focus on positive expectations and may not adequately sample the range of anticipated outcomes (e.g., self-evaluative, social) that could motivate or discourage students' engagement in career planning activities. We developed a novel measure assessing negative and positive outcome expectations and explored its factor structure, validity, and reliability in a sample of undergraduate students in the United States (N = 291). We then administered the scale to a sample of Turkish undergraduates (N = 307) and tested measurement invariance across the two cultural/linguistic groups. Results supported a four-factor structure of the 22-item Career Exploration and Decisional Outcome Expectations (CEDOE) scale in both samples, reflecting positive (self and social benefits) and negative (self and social costs) outcome expectations. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses supported configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance across countries. The scale also yielded promising reliability and validity estimates, including relations with an established measure of career exploration outcome expectations, decisional self-efficacy, and exploratory goals. However, evidence of intercept non-invariance and weaker reliability of the social benefits sub-scale in the Turkish sample suggests that further research, including targeted item refinement, is needed to support cross-cultural use of the CEDOE.
Identifying distinct career indecision profiles allows for the tailoring of counseling interventions to address each client's specific needs. While Levin, Lipshits-Braziler, and Gati (2024) established a general seven-profile typology across 16 countries, cultural and socioeconomic variations necessitate replicating this model while exploring potential context-specific profiles within a specific country. Accordingly, this study explored career indecision types among Turkish undergraduate students (N = 1,377) and examined profile differences in relation to background characteristics and career-related outcomes. Latent profile analysis replicated six profiles from the general typology with some nuances: Unrealistic-Indecisive, Generally Uninformed, Uninformed-Conflicted, Internally Conflicted, Externally Conflicted, and Unmotivated. Additionally, a context-specific seventh profile-Generally Conflicted-emerged. Results indicated that gender and socioeconomic status were significant predictors of profile membership, whereas age had a minimal impact. Furthermore, profiles differed significantly in career decidedness, self-efficacy, locus of control, and ambiguity intolerance. These findings are discussed within the Turkish socioeconomic and cultural framework, as well as the broader international literature. The findings provide a basis for implementing targeted counseling strategies and outline key directions for future research.
In the field of career counseling, communication difficulties between practitioners, researchers, and theorists have been observed for many years. Part of this problem may be related to the lack of a common model of the career counseling process. To fill this research gap, this conceptual article introduces the 5As model, an overarching, integrative, and transtheoretical model that consists of five phases (Attending, Analyzing, Agreeing, Activating, and Accompanying) and 14 steps. The relevance of this model for theoretical and research purposes is detailed. The 5As model helps draw attention to overlooked yet serious challenges and opportunities for the field.
Research on sustainable careers often overlooks professionals in under-represented regions. In dynamic labor markets, such as Latin America, there is limited evidence on how individuals build meaningful and healthy career paths over time. Guided by the sustainable careers model, this study addresses this gap by validating a Spanish version of the career sustainability scale and testing its predictive value in the Mexican context. Two studies were conducted, with cross-sectional survey data. Study 1 confirmed the scale's four-factor structure and solid psychometric properties, via EFA/CFA, internal consistency, and measurement invariance by gender, and showed concurrent associations with job autonomy, work engagement, and intention to quit. Study 2 tested a moderated mediation model. Psychological capital mediated the effects of career sustainability on life satisfaction, psychological health, and task performance. Social isolation reduced the indirect effect only for psychological capital. These findings support a view of sustainable careers shaped by personal resources and social contexts and extend this research in Spanish-speaking settings, offering practical implications for well-being and performance in emerging labor markets.
Self-advocacy offers an important route by which workers can exercise agency in their career development. The social cognitive career self-management model has recently been applied to the study of workplace self-advocacy. The present study extended this line of research by considering how attachment dynamics and outcome expectations may operate alongside self-efficacy and supervisor support relative to workplace self-advocacy and its hypothesized outcomes. Participants were 687 full-time employees who completed an online survey. The sample was divided into distinct measurement development and theory testing phases. An exploratory factor analysis (N = 200) found that a novel outcome expectations measure reflected anticipation of both the positive and negative consequences of engaging in self-advocacy behavior. Compared to men, women reported higher negative outcome expectations for self-advocacy behaviors. Results of a structural path analysis (N = 487) indicated support for a model linking secure base support, attachment anxiety and avoidance, self-assertive efficacy, and outcome expectations to the expression of advocacy behaviors (e.g., self-promotion) and, in turn, subjective career success. We consider the implications of the findings for theory, research, and practice with adult workers.
This article positions Critical Quantitative methodology (CritQuant) as a justice-oriented framework for conducting quantitative research in vocational psychology that interrogates power, centers context, and resists the reproduction of structural inequities - aligning with historical and contemporary social justice currents within the discipline. To illustrate specific applications of CritQuant within vocational psychology, an empirical example applies Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) modeling to Youth Development Study (YDS) data to examine differential item functioning in a measure of intrinsic work values across subjective social class groups. This model indicates systematic differential item functioning, or DIF, in two YDS items. This illustrates how vocational psychologists could leverage a CritQuant perspective and the MIMIC approach to identify biased items, which could subsequently be removed or modified to ensure vocational measures less contaminated by class bias (in this example), along with other systems of oppression (more broadly). In sum, this article aims to illustrate how vocational psychologists can leverage quantitative approaches to attain more equitable measures, and thus produce more equitable scholarship, practice implications, and policy recommendations.
Despite an increase in graduate school enrollment for students with marginalized identities, disparities in graduate school entrance persist, particularly for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students of color. Although pilot research has offered preliminary support for interventions designed to assist students in the postgraduate application process, rigorous research allowing for causal inference remains limited. Using a randomized control design, this study sought to extend pilot research on one such graduate school application intervention, Bridging the Graduate Application Process (GAP), through assessing its effectiveness compared to an attention control (AC) condition and waitlist control (WLC) condition. A total of 188 participants recruited from Midwestern universities completed baseline assessments and were included in an intent-to-treat analysis using a linear mixed-effects model to assess changes in postgraduate school application self-efficacy scores across the three intervention conditions at pretest and posttest. A per protocol analysis was also conducted to determine the efficacy of the intervention using participants who completed the condition originally allocated. Results suggest statistically significant improvements in application self-efficacy in the experimental group compared to both the AC and WLC conditions. These findings provide robust support for GAP as a promising intervention to increase sociocognitive resources and promote equity in the graduate application process.
Marginalized youth aged 15-25 who experience challenging school-to-work transitions (STWT) and are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) face long-term risks of exclusion from decent and dignified work. Although career interventions during STWT are well documented, most research concentrates on individual-level outcomes, leaving system-focused approaches underexplored. Guided by critical paradigm, this comparative qualitative study examines career practitioners' potential for challenging inequality and marginalization, exploring how experts' perceptions shape their practice in two contrasting socioeconomic contexts. Drawing on a STWT model based on Psychology of Working Theory, and adopting a life-course perspective on vulnerability, four focus groups were conducted with Swiss and Brazilian practitioners supporting youth at risk of NEET status. The study aimed to (a) investigate practitioners' understanding of youth's vulnerabilities, (b) identify their strategies to facilitate STWT, and (c) compare perceptions and practices between countries. Through Reflexive Thematic Analysis, findings indicate shared perceptions of key vulnerabilities, alongside context-specific nuances spanning individual and structural attributions. However, strategies were mainly person-focused across both countries, revealing lack of system-focused strategies to challenge marginalization. This study underscores the potential of cross-national collaborations and the need for practitioner-researcher partnerships to develop innovative, system-focused career counseling strategies that address structural barriers in STWT.
From the perspective of Psychology of Working Theory (PWT), critical consciousness (CC) is hypothesized to mitigate the effects of contextual barriers on individual variables and access to decent work. This study examined the moderating effects of the dimensions of CC (Critical Reflection, Critical Motivation, and Critical Action) on the relationships between contextual variables (economic constraints and marginalization), individual variables (volition and career adaptability), and access to decent work in a sample of Brazilian workers. The sample comprised 555 participants, predominantly women (62.5%), with a mean age of 35.8 years (SD = 14.3). Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and conditional moderation. The results indicated that: (a) Critical Reflection intensified the negative effects of contextual barriers, suggesting an ambivalent role for this dimension; (b) Critical Motivation exerted a protective effect, attenuating the influence of economic constraints on decent work; and (c) Critical Action demonstrated ambivalent effects, enhancing adaptability in the face of constraints but also amplifying the impact of marginalization on volition. Explanations for these findings are discussed, along with study limitations and recommendations for future research to further investigate the role of CC in PWT, both in Brazil and internationally.
The concept of calling is relevant to many people's working lives. Most extant research examines perceiving and living a calling, but search for a calling is comparatively understudied. We addressed this by examining profiles of searching for and presence of a calling using latent profile analysis (LPA) across student and employed adult samples. We conducted two studies (N = 1,251). Study 1 recruited participants from a U.S. university, and Study 2 drew a subsample of employed adults from the nationally representative Portraits of American Life Study. Profiles were compared across criterion variables including living a calling, academic/job satisfaction, purpose/meaning in life, hope, and faith at work. Among each sample, four profiles emerged: unresolved searchers (low presence, high search), called satisficers (high presence, low search), called explorers (high presence, high search), and unconcerned with calling (low presence, low search). For students, called explorers showed greater work-related and overall well-being. For employed adults, called satisficers appeared most favorable. This research revealed arrangements of how people engage with their sense of calling and identified how the nature of seeking a calling and its associations may differ between students and employed adults.
