Childhood Career Development in Mainland China: A Research and Practice Agenda

Career development in adolescence and adulthood has been widely researched; however, less is known about childhood career development, particularly in non‐Western cultures. This is especially the case in mainland China, where children grow up in a unique context. The Confucian tradition of emphasizing education as an important social ladder and parents' role in their children's development may restrict children's development of career‐planning skills. By contrast, the shift from a planned economy to a market economy enables individuals to choose careers and demands that individuals have career‐planning skills. The elementary school years could be a starting point to develop such skills by providing career guidance for children. This article considers childhood career development in mainland China, discusses the status quo of childhood career development research and practice, and considers an agenda for future research and practice.     

Measuring Career Development: Current Status and Future Directions

Donald E. Super's work to linguistically explicate and operationally define career development and its central processes has strongly influenced how counselors throughout the world comprehend and guide their clients' vocational behavior. Starting at midcentury, Super conceptualized career development in terms of life stages and developmental tasks. He proposed that counselors measure career maturity, globally, by comparing chronological age with developmental task being encountered, and that they measure career maturity, specifically, by identifying the coping methods used in facing a task. Super advanced counselors' abilities to understand and counsel adolescents who are trying to specify educational and vocational choices by explaining the importance of career choice readiness and by devising measures of career maturity. To complement the construct of maturation as the central process in adolescent career development, Super proffered the construct of adaptability as the central process in adult career development and also devised a measure of this process.     

Spirituality,Religion, and Career Development: Current Status and Future Directions

The growing interest in the role that spirituality and religion play in mental health has spawned research investigating the relationships between spirituality, religion, and career development. To date, only a limited number of studies have explored these variables in tandem, but generally these investigations have found aspects of spirituality and religion to relate positively to career decision self‐efficacy, career values, and job satisfaction. Theoretical models that explore the connection between these variables are outlined, and future research directions and counseling implications are suggested.     

Applying Current Theory and Research in Career Exploration to Practice

This article provides a selected review of two lines of recent research on career exploration, with a specific focus on applications for counseling practice. The first line of research deals with identifying the antecedents of exploratory activity focusing on the role of internal factors in motivating self- and environmental exploration. The second line of research addresses the application of information processing biases to career exploration. The article describes relevant counseling interventions that are derived from recent theory and research and concludes with a summary of six goals to consider in designing career exploration interventions for individual and group counseling.     

Children's Career Development: Metaphorical Images of Theory,Research, and Practice

This summative article discusses 5 invited contributions on children's career development. The authors of these articles were asked to consider the status quo of children's career development, issues facing this field, and future directions. Several emergent themes focused on theory, research, and practice and their interactive potential in children's career development. Suggestions for future direction in the study of children's career development include the need for greater contextualization and interdisciplinary collaboration, the revision and innovation of theory, and the need for organizing frameworks for theory, research, and practice.     

国家级新区的理论、实践及其未来研究方向

国家级新区是我国区域经济发展到一定阶段的产物,是区域战略平台的新体现。本文根据国家级新区的已有研究成果,对国家级新区的概念、特征、功能等做了详细的理论综述,并尝试提出了未来我国国家级新区的几个研究方向。     

Integrating Perspectives in Career Development Theory and Practice

The author explores the possibility of theory integration in career development and counseling, focusing primarily on bridging the gap between objectivist/positivistic and constructivist approaches. The potentiality of combining concepts from varied theories into a preliminary framework is discussed. This framework proposes 3 possibilities: career as self‐realization, growing experiences, and context conceptualization. Because its focus is career development practice, this framework triggers some heuristic thoughts that might be seen by career counselors as applicable to their counseling interventions.     

A Future Agenda for Congregate Housing Research

No abstract available for this article.     

Annual Review: Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development, 1988

This review of the 1988 literature on career development and counseling addresses career development theories and their application, career intervention, career exploration motives and constraints, and problems in career decision making. Emphasis was given to conceptual contributions that offered new perspectives on career choice and development, research reports that stated specific implications for practice, and articles that described counseling methods or other career services.     

Annual Review: Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development, 1991

The purpose of this review was to integrate information from selected journal articles, book chapters, and a few books published in 1991 about careers. More than 140 entries were selected from more than 400 identified and were organized under three broad categories: (a) understanding careers, (b) the context of careers, and (c) career interventions. Each category was subdivided into thematic sections containing several entries on the same topic. The material, both from individual entries and integrated themes, was interpreted as lessons for the professional development of counselors, program planners, and researchers.     

Annual Review: Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development, 1990

This review of the 1990 literature on career development and counseling emphasizes literature on career counseling approaches and interventions, and literature related to the general theme of “work within a life.” This theme addresses how work simultaneously expresses and influences how an individual functions as an integrated psychological being. The importance of the context of an individual's life is also emphasized throughout the review. Topics include race, sex, and multiple role issues, selected career choice issues and indecision, coping on the job, and job change and unemployment. Implications for career counseling are provided.     

Annual Review: Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development, 1993

This is not a boring, sterile review. Neither is it exhaustive, unbiased, or genteel. My aspiration was to write an interesting, informative, and forthright article that would encourage career counselors to continue their education by reading the original books and articles discussed herein. The praise I expressed is genuine, as is the criticism. My intent was to explain what I found useful, thoughtful, helpful—or not. My hope is that those who read this review will appreciate my viewpoints. I do not expect everyone, however, to subscribe to my positions for, surely, controversy and eclecticism may hone the critical and creative thinking necessary to move career counseling and development forward into the next millennium.     

A Content Analysis of Career Development Theory,Research, and Practice—2013

This annual review of the career counseling and development literature presents a content analysis of refereed journal articles published in 2013. Four research questions guided the analysis: (a) What content topics were included in career development articles published in refereed journals in 2013? (b) To what extent are theory, research, and practice integrated in career development articles published in refereed journals in 2013? (c) What variation exists in the characteristics of career development articles published in refereed journals in 2013? and (d) What variation exists in the content included in theory, research, and practice articles? A total of 360 unique topics were identified in 357 articles from 24 journals. Results indicated that topic content in journals evolved slowly with limited integration of theory, research, and practice. Implications are suggested for (a) future topic content; (b) better integration of theory, research, and practice; (c) education and training; (d) journal editorial policy; and (e) future content analyses of journal articles.     

Collaboration,Partnership, Policy,and Practice in Career Development

This article discusses the importance of collaboration among professional organizations, governmental entities, and counselors in behalf of career development. Examples of possible international and national collaborative initiatives and policy emphases are described.