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.     

Motivational Profiles and Career Decision Making of High School Students

Based on self‐determination theory, this study sought to identify distinct motivational profiles in a sample of high school students (N = 396, mean age = 17.02 years) using a person‐centered approach. Three motivational clusters of students emerged: self‐determined students, non‐self‐determined students, and externally regulated students. Differences between and among these profiles across career exploration and career indecision levels were analyzed. Overall, self‐determination theory appears to offer a conceptual framework for organizing career interventions. The fact that motivational profiles can distinguish students among career exploration and career indecision levels leads the authors to reaffirm the importance of differential career intervention practices. Future research should examine the stability of motivational profiles, their predictive power over career exploration and career decision making, and the differences between highly motivated students regarding the career decision‐making process.     

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.     

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.     

The Undecided Student: Effects of Combining Levels of Treatment Parameters on Career Certainty,Career Indecision,and Client Satisfaction

The author investigated the impact of a 4‐phase combined intervention on outcomes of career certainty, career indecision, and client satisfaction in undecided college students and compared it to a 2‐phase intervention. Both interventions were effective in increasing career certainty in the sample population; however, the 4‐phase treatment was significantly more effective in increasing career certainty. Both treatments were effective in decreasing career indecision, although no significant difference was found between these 2 groups. There was no significant difference in ratings of satisfaction between the 2 groups. The findings suggest that even the most basic and cost‐effective intervention may benefit the undecided student.     

Leisure Activities in Unemployed Emerging Adults: Links to Career Adaptability and Subjective Well‐Being

The present study examined if frequency and quality of 3 types of leisure activities (i.e., relaxation, achievement, and social) can function as protective factors for subjective well‐being (SWB) and career adaptability (CA) among 184 unemployed emerging adults (84 women, 100 men). Participants responded to measures of leisure frequency and quality, SWB, and CA. The results of a multivariate analysis of variance indicated that the frequency of relaxation, achievement, and social leisure activities had no effect on SWB and CA. However, regression analyses indicated that the quality of social leisure activities significantly predicted SWB and the quality of achievement and social leisure activities significantly predicted CA. The quality of relaxation leisure activities was not associated with SWB and CA. Findings indicate that counselors who work with unemployed emerging adults can use leisure activities to promote SWB and CA. Future research to better understand the role of leisure in well‐being and career development among emerging adults is encouraged.     

Using Values‐Based Webinar Interventions to Facilitate Career‐Life Exploration and Planning

Using a quasi‐experimental design, the authors examined whether career indecision could be reduced by participation in a values‐based career webinar designed to translate various types of psychological data (e.g., Holland‐type themes) into values‐based language. Participants (N = 67; 36 women, 31 men; mean age = 36 years) were divided into 1 control and 2 treatment groups. The 1st treatment group received an interest‐based intervention. The 2nd received a values‐based intervention. Both interventions consisted of 1 additional webinar spanning 1 hour in length. This study demonstrated a statistical significance of career indecision decrease through use of the values‐based, process‐oriented webinar intervention, which is particularly helpful to career counselors working with adults. The study also illustrated the effective application of online technology as a service delivery tool. Future research might examine the efficacy of this intervention in a variety of settings (e.g., K–12, postsecondary, agency, mental health, corporate).     

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.     

Longitudinal Relationships Between Part-Time Work and Career Development in Adolescents

In discussions about the effects of part-time work on adolescents, career development processes have received little attention. This study examined relationships between part-time work and two components of career development (work values and career indecision) in 483 high school students. Comparisons of longitudinal and cross-sectional data revealed that peripheral work aspects were less valued as a consequence of being involved in part-time work; thus, the relative value placed on central work aspects increased. However, part-time work did not affect career indecision. The decision of whether to work seemed unrelated to the preexisting career development status, except for the value placed on physical activity in boys.     

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.     

The Self‐Directed Search as a Stand‐Alone Intervention With College Students

The Self‐Directed Search (SDS; Holland, 1994 ) is sometimes administered to large student groups outside of counseling to address common career development needs. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the SDS as a stand‐alone intervention by comparing a general sample of college students who completed the SDS (n = 39) with a no‐treatment control group (n = 41) on several outcomes. Completion of the SDS related to an increase in the number of career alternatives being considered 4 weeks later but did not relate to career exploration, career decision‐making self‐efficacy, career indecision, and seeking of career counseling services. If the SDS is used outside of counseling with broad student samples, the authors suggest providing additional intervention to ensure that it promotes exploration of any additional careers being considered.     

Vocational Identity Resources in Emerging Adulthood: Associations With Facets of Dispositional Mindfulness

The processes of career development and forming a crystallized identity can be fraught with emotional turmoil. One multidimensional construct known to reduce emotional reactivity is dispositional mindfulness (DM). We used canonical correlation analysis to examine relationships involving measures of resources for establishing a vocational identity (Hirschi, 2012a) and facets of DM in emerging adults (134 women, 38 men). Observing, describing, and nonreactivity to inner experiences contributed uniquely to the first canonical function with career agency and occupational engagement. Observing, describing, and nonjudging contributed uniquely to the second function with occupational engagement and negative career outlook. These results shed light on key facets of DM that help emerging adults to effectively utilize emotion within the context of career‐life planning. Future research should examine relationships between DM facets and additional constructs subsumed within the career resources model. Counselors may find utility in understanding how clients conceptualize conscious emotional experience and use it in career‐life planning.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

The Effects of Simultaneous Developmental Processes: Factors Relating to the Career Development of Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Youth

C. Hetherington (1991) hypothesized that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents may experience a “bottleneck effect” in career development because of internal psychological energy focusing on issues surrounding sexual identity. This assertion has not yet been tested, however, in the career development literature. The authors examined the relationship between variables indicative of psychological resources being devoted to managing an LGB identity, social support, and career development. Survey data from 102 LGB youth demonstrated that inner sexual identity conflict and social support predicted unique and shared variance in career maturity and vocational indecision, lending empirical support to the bottleneck hypothesis.     

Relation of Type and Amount of Training to Career Counseling Self‐Efficacy in Italy

This study examined the relation of self‐efficacy to length and type of training in a sample of Italian career counselors. Findings indicated that amount of career counseling training was positively related to counselors' self‐efficacy regarding their abilities to conceptualize vocational problems, deal with career indecision concerns, and provide educational counseling. In addition, counselors who had participated in an in‐service training course that focused on social cognitive/learning theories reported stronger self‐efficacy regarding their skills at vocational problem conceptualization and at educational counseling than did those who received more eclectic training.     

Choices and Challenges: A Qualitative Exploration of Professional Women's Career Patterns

With the rapid changes occurring in the role of work in women's lives, this research project was designed to examine the career planning, career decision making, and work history of women in both female‐dominated and gender‐neutral careers (U.S. Department of Labor, n.d.‐a). A qualitative analysis of structured interviews identified 6 emerging themes: variations of career/family patterns, career encouragers, career obstacles, personal compromises, career changes, and career decision‐making patterns. Insights for strengthening the exploration process and strategies for supporting career management are presented based on the emerging themes.     

Adolescent Psychological Well‐being,Radicalism, and Activism: The Mediating Role of Social Disconnectedness and the Illegitimacy of the Authorities

The identification of factors that counter youth’s radicalization while promoting democratic activism is a timely social issue. This paper examines the association of psychological well‐being (PWB) with violent radicalism and nonviolent activism, by focusing on the mediating role of both social disconnectedness (SD) and the perceived illegitimacy of the authorities (PIoA). Two mediation structural equation models (full vs. partial) were applied to data collected from 328 Italian adolescents (14–19 years). The results showed how SD and PIoA fully mediated the link of PWB with radicalism (negatively) and activism (positively). This model was further supported when compared with an alternative one proposing PWB as a mediator between SD and PIoA. The findings are discussed in light of the existing literature and provide potential implications for practice.