A typology of career barriers

While most studies have focused primarily on the correlates of career barriers, research examining specific career barrier typology experienced among college students remains limited. Employing cluster analysis, this study explored the career barrier typology of 318 college students using the Korean college students’ Career Barrier Inventory (KCBI). The variables used in this study included ‘personality’ (hardiness, trait anxiety, locus of control, resilience, and optimism) and ‘career maturity attitude’. Two major conclusions were drawn. Firstly, cluster analysis of the KCBI identified four groups of participants; (a) a salient external career barrier group, (b) a well adjusted group, (c) a salient internal career barrier group, and (d) the worst career barrier group. Secondly, the results suggest discrepant differences of personality variables and career attitude maturity among the clustered groups. Limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research are also discussed.     

The Influences of School and Home Factors on the Career Development of Secondary School Students

This study examined the level of career maturity of 324 secondary school students and the impact of career guidance and parental involvement on the career development of these students. The results showed that students who had been exposed to some form of career guidance in school scored higher on the Career Attitude Scale. Those who had received home support in the form of parental involvement in career planning and availability of career role models also showed a higher level of career maturity in terms of career planfulness and work orientation. Although career attitude was found to mature with age, there was no significant sex differences in the career development of these students. Such findings highlighted the importance of career guidance in school and home support in enhancing the career maturity of our students.     

Predicting Two Components of Career Maturity in School Based Adolescents

Three hundred and sixty-seven secondary school students across five year levels (8–12) were assessed for levels of career maturity (attitude and knowledge), work commitment, work value, career decidedness (indecision and certainty), career decision-making self-efficacy and self-esteem, and indicated their age, gender, socioeconomic status, school achievement and work experience. Using two multiple regression analyses, the predictor variables were able to account for 52% of the variance of career maturity attitude, and account for 41% of the variance of career maturity knowledge. Self-efficacy, age, career decidedness (certainty) and work commitment were the main predictors of career maturity attitude. Age, gender, career decidedness (certainty), work commitment and career decidedness (indecision) were the main predictors of career maturity knowledge. Results demonstrated the importance of examining two aspects of career maturity (attitude and knowledge), and were discussed in the context of Super's (1957, 1990) theory of career development.     

Predicting career development in hard-of-hearing adolescents in Australia

This article reports on a study investigating the career development of hard-of-hearing high school students attending regular classes with itinerant teacher support. We compared 65 hard-of-hearing students with a matched group of normally hearing peers on measures of career maturity, career indecision, perceived career barriers, and three variables associated with social cognitive career theory career decision-making self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goals. In addition, the predictors of career maturity and career indecision were tested in both groups. Results indicated that (a) the two groups did not differ on measures of career maturity, (b) the SCCT variables were less predictive of career behaviors for the hard-of-hearing students than for the normally hearing students, and (c) perceived career barriers related to hearing loss predicted lower scores on career maturity attitude for the hard-of-hearing students. These findings are discussed in the context of career education and counseling interventions that may benefit young people who are hard of hearing.     

Chinese Students’ Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help

In this study 1,453 Chinese high school and college students’ attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help and factors contributing to attitude differences were examined. Results revealed that Chinese students possessed generally positive attitudes and their attitudes were significantly associated with gender, prior counseling contact and prior knowledge about counseling and psychology. Previous help-seeking behavior for a major problem was predictive of respondent attitudes. Students with a broad range of help-seeking preferences had more positive attitudes than students with a narrower range. Students who sought help from parents or teachers perceived counseling more positively than students not seeking such help; this result was more significant for high school students. College students’ attitudes differed more in the area of whether or not to seek help. In addition, family structure was related to two dimensions of attitudes toward help seeking—interpersonal openness and stigma tolerance, but not to attitudes toward seeking psychological help.     

A longitudinal study of career maturity of Korean adolescents: the effects of personal and contextual factors

The purpose of this longitudinal study is to examine the effects of personal factors and contextual determinants on the career maturity change of Korean adolescents over a 5-year period. This study used data from the Korea Youth Panel Survey which was administered to 3,449 junior high students from Grades 8 to 12, starting in 2003. A linear mixed-effects regression was used to test the study model. The results showed the levels of Korean adolescents?? career maturity were significantly influenced by personal predictors (gender, work values, career efficacy, self-efficacy, career development activities, school achievement, sex-role stereotyping, pressure for academic achievement, and part-time experiences) and contextual predictors (career conversations with parents, relationships with friends, and private education expense). Among career-related variables, only work values affected the slope of the career maturity growth curve. Implications for career counselors and educators are discussed.     

中小学生生涯发展辅导构想

中小学生生涯发展辅导是以学生的内在品质和经济社会发展相互关联为基础的,旨在促进学生生涯成熟的一种综合教育计划,具体任务是协助学生在自我探索中,增进自我了解,形成自我发展意识;在生涯探索中,了解工作世界,形成职业价值观和劳动态度;在生涯准备与规划中,掌握职业知识,明了社会需求与个体需求的关系,形成生涯规划和生涯决策的能力。     

Validation of the short form of the career development inventory with an Iranian high school sample

A short 33-item form of the Career Development Inventory was validated on a sample of 310 Iranian high school students. Factor analysis indicated that attitude and cognitive subscale items loaded on their respective factors, and that internal reliability coefficients at all levels were satisfactory to good. Support for validity was demonstrated by associations in the expected direction for career decidedness and career decision-making self-efficacy. This short form of the inventory shows promise as a measure of career maturity with students from a non-Western country.     

Examining the occupational aspirations of Taiwanese Aboriginal adolescents based on the developmental-contextual model of career development

In Taiwan, the occupational achievement of indigenous people has been well below that of their non-indigenous counterparts. Studies have confirmed that the occupational aspirations of adolescents significantly influence their adult career choices and achievements. Therefore, this study tested the proposed theoretical model of occupational aspirations among Taiwanese Aboriginal adolescents by utilizing the developmental-contextual model of career development as its framework. This study simultaneously examined the relationships among the distal contextual variable (social welfare resources), proximal contextual variables (parental occupational aspirations for the child, school support, and neighborhood cohesion), individual-level variable (self-concept), and occupational aspirations in the proposed model. The data were collected from a questionnaire survey of 564 Taiwanese Aboriginal senior high school students and were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results supported the proposed research model, which explained 62.6?% of the variance in occupational aspirations. The study found that social welfare resources influenced parental occupational aspirations for the child, school support, and neighborhood cohesion, which, in turn, directly and indirectly influenced occupational aspirations vis-à-vis their effects on self-concept. In turn, self-concept influenced occupational aspirations. Overall, the results confirmed that the proposed model based on the developmental-contextual model of career development was effective in explaining the development of occupational aspirations among Taiwanese Aboriginal adolescents.     

中职生职业成熟度的特点研究

为探讨中职生职业成熟度的特点及趋势,采用中学生职业成熟度问卷对江西省一所中等职业技术学校的学生进行调查。结果显示中职生职业成熟度,已经形成了稳定的职业倾向,但职业知识不足;中职生在职业态度上存在性别差异,女生功利性大于男生但主动性低于男生;中职生在职业态度上存在年级差异,二年级学生在功利性上低于一年级学生,但在稳定性和主动性上高于一年级学生;中职生职业态度上是否有打工经历存在影响,有打工经历的学生独立性和主动性更高;中职生在职业态度上存在专业差异,机械加工类专业学生在独立性和功利性上不如非机械加工类专业学生但在主动性上好于非机械加工类专业学生。总体来说,中职生职业态度在性别、年级、有无打工经历和专业上均存在一定的差异。     

北京市初中生生涯适应力及生涯需求调查研究

对北京市某中学初中生生涯适应力水平和生涯需求的调查发现,北京市初中生生涯适应力达到中上水平,初二学生的生涯适应力显著高于初一学生,但男女生在生涯适应力各维度上不存在显著差异;有无理想专业对初中生的生涯适应力有显著预测作用.调查样本中,87.70％的初中生认为生涯指导重要,64.30％的初中生希望通过课程的形式开展生涯指...     

Factors influencing school connectedness: Chinese adolescents’ perspectives

This study explored the concept of school connectedness and the factors that may influence its development with a sample of Chinese adolescents. Six focus groups involving 52 high school students were conducted using a set of predetermined discussion topics. Results indicated that the students fully understood the notion of school connectedness and could identify a number of key influences affecting its development. These factors could be grouped under several domains including teacher care, peer relations, broader school relationships, school disciplinary policies and practices, activities within the school’s guidance and counseling program, and opportunities for talent development. The students were also able to suggest practical strategies that schools might introduce to enhance and strengthen students’ acquisition of connectedness to school. The implications from the findings are discussed with particular reference to implementing comprehensive school guidance and counseling program in Hong Kong.     

Socio-political influences on EFL motivation and attitudes: comparative surveys of Korean high school students

This paper investigates Korean high school students’ English learning motivation and attitudes. In this regard, the results of a 2002 study were compared with those of a 2006 study. Questionnaire data were obtained from a total of 1,037 high school students in a major city in South Korea, and the data were compared with those on the students’ English proficiency. Statistical analyses verified two distinctive Korean-specific constructs: competitive motivation and attitudes toward Americans among the participants. The results suggest that negative washback effects of the College Scholastic Ability Test in Korea and influences of peer group cohesion, mass media, and the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure play a crucial role in EFL motivation and attitudes among Korean high school students.     

重庆市大学生职业心理成熟度研究

重庆市大学生的总体职业成熟度和职业成熟度各因子的表现水平均一般。其中以职业世界知识最低;大学生职业成熟度在性别上存在显著差异,男生比女生职业成熟度高;大学生职业成熟度在年级上存在显著差异,大四最高,整个发展趋势呈“V”型;大学生职业成熟度在是否兼职上存在显著差异,兼职过的学生比未兼职过的学生职业成熟度高：大学生职业成熟度在家庭收入上存在显著差异．家庭收入高的学生职业成熟度高。     

Characterizing High School Students’ Written Explanations in Biology Laboratories

The purpose of this qualitative interpretive research study was to examine high school students’ written scientific explanations during biology laboratory investigations. Specifically, we characterized the types of epistemologies and forms of reasoning involved in students’ scientific explanations and students’ perceptions of scientific explanations. Sixteen students from a rural high school in the Southeastern United States were the participants of this research study. The data consisted of students’ laboratory reports and individual interviews. The results indicated that students’ explanations were primarily based on first-hand knowledge gained in the science laboratories and mostly representing procedural recounts. Most students did not give explanations based on a theory or a principle and did not use deductive reasoning in their explanations. The students had difficulties explaining phenomena that involved intricate cause–effect relationships. Students perceived scientific explanation as the final step of a scientific inquiry and as an account of what happened in the inquiry process, and held a constructivist–empiricist view of scientific explanations. Our results imply the need for more explicit guidance to help students construct better scientific explanations and explicit teaching of the explanatory genre with particular focus on theoretical and causal explanations.     

A Cross-Cultural Study of the Career Maturity of Korean and United States High School Students

The present study aimed at conducting a cross-cultural comparison of career maturity between Korea and the United States. First, a Korean version of the Career Attitude Maturity Inventory (CAMI) was constructed. Then, an English version parallel to that Korean version was formed following three stages of procedure; translation, back translation, and field study. Finally, high school students of 11th grade from two different cultures (331 from Korea and 266 from the United States) were administered to the CAMI. Results indicated that constructs of career maturity are similar across two cultures with no gender differences. However, it was found that the level of maturity for those constructs was culture-bound. Those findings were discussed in cultural aspects of the development of career maturity.     

Career coping styles: differences in career attitudes among secondary school students

The types of difficulties associated with career attitudes were studied using Super’s model of career maturity (1990) in a group of 620 Portuguese students from grades 9 and 12. A cluster analysis identified four styles with different patterns of association between time perspective, attributional beliefs, self-esteem and career attitudes. The adaptive style showed more committed career attitudes, and the other three styles—superficial, insecure and pessimistic—showed lower levels of career maturity. Implications for career counselling are further discussed.     

Pupils’ pedagogical well-being in comprehensive school—significant positive and negative school experiences of Finnish ninth graders

Basic education has two main goals: to promote high quality learning outcomes and pupils’ personal growth and well-being. The interrelated nature of learning and well-being is here referred to as pedagogical well-being. In this study, we explore Finnish comprehensive school pupils’ (N = 518) experienced pedagogical well-being by examining the kinds of situations that pupils themselves find either highly positive or highly negative during their school career. Pupils’ pedagogical well-being is empirically examined in two complementary aspects: (1) determining the point in the pupils’ school career in which the critical incidents are situated and (2) identifying the primary contexts of pupils’ experienced critical incidents of pedagogical well-being. Results showed that critical incidents for pedagogical well-being reported by the pupils were situated all along their school career. A variety of episodes causing empowerment and satisfaction, as well as disappointment and anxiety, were reported by the pupils. Pupils perceived the social interactions within the school community as being the most rewarding as well as the most problematic part of their school career.     

Family Interaction Patterns,Career Planning Attitudes,and Vocational Identity of High School Adolescents

The purpose of the current study was to examine how perceptions of family interaction patterns as defined along three dimensions of family environment (quality of family relationships, family goal-orientations, and degree of organization and control within the family system) predict vocational identity and career planning attitudes among male and female adolescents living at home. One hundred twenty three high school students completed measures of family environment, vocational identity, and career planning attitudes. Analyses revealed that the quality of family relationships (i.e., degree to which family members are encouraged to express feelings and problems) played a small, yet significant role in predicting career planning attitudes of adolescents.     

Transferable skills representations in a Portuguese college sample: gender, age, adaptability and vocational development

The departing point of this study is the theoretical framework of “Making the Match project” (Evers and Rush in Management Learning 27:275–299, 1996) about how to develop a common language among stakeholders regarding transferable skills. Thus, the paper examines the impact of demographic variables (age and gender) and developmental dimensions (Career adaptability and Vocational development) in the representations of transferable skills construction within a Portuguese sample of first-year college students (Vocational developmental variables are part of career construction theory; Savickas 2001, 2002, 2005, Journal of Vocational Behavior 75:239–250, 2009), a theoretical framework that significantly supports the notion that the acquisition of transferable skills is one of the consequences of vocational tasks’ resolution. Results suggested that career adaptability seems to be the most robust predictor for the transferable skills’ groups advanced by Evers and colleagues, followed by career development, and, finally, age and gender as a block. Results are discussed in the light of the two aforementioned main frameworks.