Factorial Invariance of the Indecision Scale of the Career Decision Scale: A Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Results of a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (N= 686) indicated factorial invariance of a 3‐factor model of the Indecision scale of the Career Decision Scale (CDS; Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1976 ). Differential item function was not observed when ΔCFI (comparative fit index) was used for comparison of models, thus indicating strong measurement invariance across gender. Men had significantly greater latent means for all 3 dimensions of career indecision. Given the multidimensional structure, use of the CDS may provide an initial step to help practitioners identify possible factors that are responsible for a client's career indecision. Clients may need assistance for initiating a career search, information to help them identify career possibilities for a chosen major, or detailed information concerning several possible careers that are under consideration.     

Perceived Career Barriers and Career Decidedness of First-Generation College Students

We examined the effects of perceived career barriers on career decidedness among first-generation college (FGC) students (n = 149) and non-FGC students (n = 182) at a 4-year university (mean age = 19.3 years). Participants responded online to measures of perceived career barriers and career decidedness. Results indicated that FGC students scored higher on lack of support and lack of time and financial resources than non-FGC students. For both groups, higher levels of perceived lack of skills were related to lower levels of career decidedness, whereas greater levels of family-related responsibilities predicted higher levels of career decidedness. FGC student status moderated the association between perceived lack of time/financial resources and career decidedness. Further research is needed to investigate the differential effects of various domains of career barriers. Career counselors are advised to consider FGC students' perceived career barriers in guiding students' career exploration and decision-making.     

The Structure and Measurement of Career Indecision: A Critical Review

This article presents a comprehensive review of literature published between 2000 and 2017 relating to the theoretical and empirical progress of indecision structural models and assessment. Because career indecision remains a central topic for counseling, it is important for the field to achieve an updated understanding of relevant models and measurement. Based on their review, the authors found that factors of career indecision can be reliably and validly measured by three instruments: the Career Decision Difficulties Questionnaire, the Emotional and Personality Career Difficulties scale, and the Career Indecision Profile. Drawing from these results, the authors developed an integrative model of career indecision consisting of five factors: neuroticism/negative affectivity, choice/commitment anxiety, need for information, lack of readiness, and interpersonal conflicts. Implications and recommendations for practice and research are discussed in a global context.     

Using the Adult Career Concerns Inventory to Measure Task Involvement

The Adult Career Concerns Inventory (ACCI) uses an attitudinal item-response scale to measure the planning attitudes dimension of career adaptability. This study examined the psychometric properties of the ACCI when used with a behavioral item-response scale. Results supported the hypothesized unidimensionality of the ACCI-B Exploration subscales, which related as expected to vocational identity, need for occupational information, career choice certainty, and career indecision. Using a behavioral ACCI item-response scale, in addition to an attitudinal one, may provide counselors with important information when working with client's making an initial career choice.     

Evaluation of an Intervention to Foster Time Perspective and Career Decidedness in a Group of Italian Adolescents

A structured 10‐didactic unit intervention was devised to foster adolescents’ time perspective and career decidedness. The study was conducted with 50 adolescents who were selected from a group of 624; 25 of the participants were randomly assigned to the control group and 25 were assigned to the experimental group. They were selected according to their level of career indecision and poor propensity to look to the future. A series of repeated measure analyses of variance were carried out to evaluate pre‐ and posttest differences between the experimental and control groups regarding time perspective and career decidedness. At posttest, the experimental group showed higher levels of continuity, hope, and career decidedness than did the control group. Implications for future practice and research are discussed.     

Efficacy and Outcome Expectations Influence Career Exploration and Decidedness

In this multiple regression model, self-efficacy beliefs are the best predictor of career indecision, and outcome expectations are the best predictor of exploration intentions. When indecision was entered as a predictor, it also was a significant predictor of exploration intentions—students who were less decided were also more likely to plan career exploration. Career efficacy and outcome expectations relate significantly more strongly within the group of college men than within the group of college women. Implications for social cognitive career theory and practice are discussed.     

Developmental Issues in Career Maturity and Career Decision Status

There is considerable diversity in the literature regarding age and gender differences on career maturity and career decision status. There is also a dearth of data on high school samples. The present study reports cross‐sectional data from 1,971 Australian adolescents, ages 12.51‐17.99 years, who completed the Career Decision Scale (S. H. Osipow, C. G. Carney, J. Winer, B. Yanico, & M. Koschier, 1976) and the Career Development Inventory (Australian; J. Lokan, 1984). Results illustrated a developmental progression in career maturity, although a less uniform pattern emerged with gender differences. Findings regarding career indecision also presented a complex picture and highlight the need to focus on other demographic and contextual factors.     

Integrating Career and Personal Counseling

Career and personal counseling are inextricably intertwined. Career problems have a strong emotional component. Career indecision and procrastination may be better interpreted as zeteophobia, the fear of career exploration. Trait and factor theory pictures career counseling as unrealistically simplistic and leads neophytes to view it as boring. Training all counselors to integrate career and personal counseling would lead to better service for clients.     

Counseling for Career Decision‐Making Difficulties: Measures and Methods

Career indecision may be the primary reason people go to career counselors. Much effort has been exerted to identify and investigate the causes of clients' career decision‐making difficulties. With the aim of facilitating clients' career decision making, the use of career indecision assessments can promote the effectiveness and efficiency of face‐to‐face career counseling. The authors review three evidence‐based, cost‐free assessments derived from decision theory: the Career Decision‐Making Difficulties Questionnaire, the Emotional and Personality‐Related Career Decision‐Making Difficulties questionnaire, and the Career Decision‐Making Profile questionnaire. The unique features of these assessments are described, and the ways they can contribute to facilitating career decision making in career counseling are explored with a case study example.     

Relationships Among Career and Life Stress,Negative Career Thoughts,and Career Decision State: A Cognitive Information Processing Perspective

According to cognitive information processing theory, career thoughts mediate the relationship between career and life stress and the ensuing career decision state. Using a sample of 232 college students and structural equation modeling, this study found that an increase in career and life stress was associated with an increase in negative career thinking and that an increase in such thoughts was associated with a lower level of decidedness and satisfaction with career choice. However, when the variation associated with negative career thoughts was partitioned in the mediated causal model, career and life stress became associated with less career indecision and dissatisfaction with career choice. The results suggest that counselors attend to negative career thoughts when individuals encounter career and life stress.     

Predicting Career Indecision in College Students: The Roles of Identity Formation and Parental Relationship Factors

Students' identity formation and perceptions of parental acceptance and encouragement of independence were investigated as predictors of career indecision. The Mother-Father-Peer Scale (Epstein, 1983), Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (Bennion & Adams, 1986), and Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1976) were administered to 169 undergraduate students with a mean age of 19.68. Analysis using multiple regression indicated that career indecision was predicted by a greater degree of identity moratorium and diffusion, less maternal acceptance and fewer years in college. Suggestions for future research and counseling applications are provided.     

Reducing Adolescent Career Indecision: The ASVAB Career Exploration Program

An independent evaluation of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) Career Exploration Program was conducted using nationally representative samples of high school students. The sample consisted of current ASVAB Program participants (n = 255) and two control groups of nonparticipants (n = 233, n = 189). A pretest‐posttest design showed that participation in the ASVAB Program increased career exploration knowledge and reduced diffusion and approach‐approach forms of career indecision, as assessed by the Career Decision Scale (S. Osipow, 1986).     

Career Engagement: Investigating Intraindividual Predictors of Weekly Fluctuations in Proactive Career Behaviors

This study applied a microlevel perspective on how within‐individual differences in motivational and social‐cognitive factors affected the weekly fluctuations of engagement in proactive career behaviors among a group of 67 German university students. Career self‐efficacy beliefs, perceived career barriers, experienced social career support, positive and negative emotions, and career engagement were assessed weekly for 13 consecutive weeks. Hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that above average levels of career engagement within individuals were predicted by higher than average perceived social support and positive emotions during a given week. Conversely, within‐individual differences in self‐efficacy, barriers, and negative emotions had no effect. The results suggest that career interventions should provide boosts in social support and positive emotions.     

An Outcome Study of Career Decision Self‐Efficacy and Indecision in an Undergraduate Constructivist Career Course

This study explored outcomes in a constructivist career course. Using a pretest‐ posttest design, the authors assessed the empowerment (operationalized as career decision self‐efficacy) and career indecision of 82 culturally diverse college students at a large, midwestern university. Data were analyzed using a multivariate analysis of variance. Results indicated that students reported significant increases in empowerment with no commensurate decreases in career indecision. In addition to shedding light on the nuanced relationship between empowerment or career decision self‐efficacy and indecision, results indicate the potential constructivist career development has to empower culturally diverse college students.     

Positive Affect and Career Decision‐Making: The Moderating Role of Interpersonal Spin

We investigated the moderating role of interpersonal spin in the relationships between positive affect, career decision self‐efficacy (CDSE), and career indecision among young adults (16 women, 79 men). Interpersonal spin was calculated using the diary method, wherein students reported their daily interpersonal behaviors for 14 consecutive days. Results indicated that positive affect was positively associated with CDSE and negatively associated with career indecision. Interpersonal spin diminished the positive relationship between positive affect and CDSE and the negative relationship between positive affect and career indecision. Our findings extend prior studies by uncovering the influence of positive affect and behavioral stability, including interpersonal spin, on the career decision process. Counselors are encouraged to foster individuals' positive affect and reduce their interpersonal spin to obtain positive career outcomes, such as high CDSE and low career indecision.     

Factors Influencing the Career Decision Status of Chinese American Youths

The purpose of this study was to understand how intergenerational family conflict and relational‐interdependent self‐construal influence the career decision status of Chinese American youths. Participants were 129 Chinese American youths, with ages ranging from 14 to 21 years. Results from regression analysis indicated that high intergenerational family conflict was predictive of career indecision. High relational‐interdependent self‐construal, on the other hand, was predictive of career certainty. Implications for counseling and future research are also discussed.     

Career Choice Anxiety,Coping, and Perceived Control

Extrapolating from D. H. Barlow (2000), the authors explored whether perceived control moderated the relation between coping with career indecision and choice anxiety among 126 women in low‐level jobs. Analyses of the women's career indecision, coping, perceived control, and career choice anxiety scores through regression identified the moderator effect. Perceived control interacted with problem‐focused coping to increase accountable variance in choice anxiety (p < .05). Women perceiving high control and doing more problem‐focused coping reported lower anxiety than did women doing comparable coping but perceiving lower control. Implications are discussed for interventions with women in low‐level jobs.     

Creative Use of the Career Construction Interview

Designed as part of an individual career construction and life design counseling intervention, the Career Construction Interview (CCI) and My Career Story (MCS) workbook aid career counselors and other career service providers in helping clients construct, deconstruct, and reauthor their career stories. Recently, some career counselors have developed ways of using the CCI and the MCS in group settings. In this article, the author offers 3 additional ways to use the CCI and, thereby, add creativity to the career counseling process. These 3 ways include use of written exercises, career collages, and career portfolios. The article concludes with a call for career practitioners to continue to think creatively in using the CCI with clients.     

Constructivist Counseling for Career Indecision

Twentieth-century vocational guidance has been an objective enterprise in which counselors have studied and treated career indecision by abstracting and objectifying it. This article describes how the logical positivist perspective on indecision as an objective phenomenon has evolved over the course of this century. Then, the article explains how constructivist counselors view indecision as clients' subjective attempts to give meaning to crisis points in their lives. This view permits a conceptualization of career counseling as a process of articulating a client's life theme. The article concludes with a case study that illustrates a life-theme approach to counseling for career indecision.     

Predicting Career Adaptability From Positive Psychological Traits

This study investigated positive psychological traits as predictors of career adaptability in a group of emerging adults. A total of 415 undergraduate students (185 men, 230 women) from a large state‐funded university in Turkey responded to Turkish versions of the Career Adaptability subscale of the Career Futures Inventory (Rottinghaus et al., 2005 ), the Dispositional Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991 ), the Life Orientation Test (Scheier & Carver, 1985 ), and the Ego Resiliency Scale (Block & Kremen, 1996 ). Results indicated moderate to strong correlations among the variables and suggested that students who are more resilient, hopeful, and optimistic are more likely to perceive themselves as more adaptable in their careers. Simultaneous multiple regression analysis indicated that career adaptability was significantly predicted by hope, resilience, and optimism. In light of these results, when designing career interventions to enhance the career adaptability of emerging adults, counselors should integrate various strategies to foster hope, resilience, and optimism.