Cognitive–motivational antecedents of career decision-making processes in Portuguese high school students: A longitudinal study

The how and the why of study choice processes in higher education: The role of parental involvement and the experience of having an authentic inner compass

INTRODUCTION

Late adolescents differ in the degree to which they are thoroughly engaged in the study choice process and in the degree to which their choices are autonomous in nature. This study examined the unique and interactive roles of (a) parental involvement in the study choice process and (b) late adolescents' sense of having an authentic inner compass (AIC) in predicting their study choice decision-making.

METHOD

A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted among 331 12th-grade adolescents from the Flemish part of Belgium (68.3% female; Mage  = 18.04, SD = 0.48) in the spring of 2017 and 2018.

RESULTS

Results of the latent sum and difference models revealed that late adolescents experiencing a stronger AIC and more need-supportive parental involvement showed more engagement in and autonomous regulation of the study choice process. In contrast, when experiencing more controlling parental involvement or uninvolvement, late adolescents showed more controlled regulation, with parental control also being linked to less commitment. Although mothers were perceived to be more involved than fathers, maternal and paternal involvement were equally strongly related to the study choice tasks.

CONCLUSION

Overall, late adolescents' sense of having an AIC and parental involvement were related independently to the outcomes, with sense of having an AIC yielding the strongest associations.

It takes more than agency: Linking support from teaching staff, career engagement, and movement capital among university students

Introduction

Career self-management behaviours are key to overcoming the challenges of entry into the labour market. Combining the Conservation of Resources and Career Self-management theories, this study delves into the concept of Career Engagement among Italian University students by examining its relationship with Support from teaching Staff and Movement Capital. We hypothesised a mediation model in which Support from Teaching Staff predicts Career Engagement which, in turn, fosters Movement Capital. As the pandemic led to the adoption of online learning solutions, we also explored whether and how the interaction between teachers and students during online classes moderates the said mediation relationship.

Methods and results

We collected data from 276 Italian University students through an online questionnaire. Results supported the mediation hypothesis, corroborating the mediating role of Career Engagement. We also observed that this relationship is stronger at medium and higher levels of online interaction between teachers and students.

Discussion

Findings contribute to existing evidence about the role of Career Engagement in facilitating career resources' acquisition and extend the understanding of its contextual antecedents in Higher Education contexts. Results also align with the importance attributed to interaction in online learning environments. This work suggests ways to encourage career behaviours in Higher Education and equip prospective labour market entrants with career resources.

Autonomous Versus Controlled Motivation on Career Indecision: The Mediating Effect of Career Exploration

Effective career decision-making outcomes may depend on the type of motivation underlying career development. The purpose of this study was to analyze how autonomous and controlled motivation predict exploration behaviors and career indecision and in which degree the effect of motivation on indecision is mediated by career exploration (environmental exploration, self-exploration, intended-systematic exploration and amount of information), among a group of high-school students (10th, 11th, and 12th grades, N = 523, M = 16.40). An integrative model was tested using path analysis to test direct and indirect effects and model fit (AMOS 20.0). The final model showed good fit to the data. Three indirect effects were found significant, being self-exploration, and amount of information presented as mediators. Our results highlight the importance to design career interventions not only focusing on promoting exploration behaviors but also on creating purposeful planning, based on students’ reasons underlying their involvement in the career decision-making process.

What Makes Happy Counselors? From Self-Esteem and Leader-Member Exchange to Well-Being at Work: The Mediating Role of Need Satisfaction

This study was aimed at examining the extent to which well-being at work is linked to self-esteem and psychosocial resources such as leader-member exchange (LMX). Drawing on self-determination theory, we looked at whether psychological needs (perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness) act as specific mediators between self-esteem and well-being, and between LMX and well-being. Two hundred and twenty four employment counselors (psychologists) from a French national employment office (Pôle emploi) answered a questionnaire. The data were analyzed using Hayes and Preacher's method for testing multiple mediations. The results showed that satisfaction of psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness mediated the links between self-esteem and LMX as inductors, and well-being as a criterion. These findings confirm the relevance of self-esteem and LMX for counselors, and of the importance of need satisfaction that plays a critical role in matters of well-being.

Career-Specific Parenting Practices and Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Among Chinese Adolescents: The Interactive Effects of Parenting Practices and the Mediating Role of Autonomy

This study examined the unique and interactive effects of various career-specific parenting practices (i.e., parental career support, interference, and lack of engagement) on Chinese high school students’ career decision-making self-efficacy (CDSE) as well as the mediating role of autonomy in such associations. Based on data from 641 Chinese high school students (47.6% male; mean age = 15.28 years old, SD = 0.49) in 2016, two moderated mediating effects were identified. Higher level of parental career engagement strengthened the positive association between parental career support and adolescents’ autonomy, which in turn, was associated positively with adolescents’ CDSE. Parental career interference related negatively with adolescents’ CDSE via autonomy when lack of parental career engagement was low, but related positively with adolescents’ CDSE via autonomy when lack of parental career engagement was high. These findings advance our understanding of the underlying processes between career-specific parenting practices and adolescents’ CDSE. Implications for practices were discussed.

Reciprocal Associations Between Career Self-Efficacy and Vocational Identity: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

We examined the changes in career decision-making self-efficacy (CDSE) and vocational identity (VI) and their reciprocal associations among 1,026 senior high school students, comprising 493 from Hong Kong (age in 10th grade: M = 16.31, SD = 0.65; 238 girls) and 533 from Shanghai (age in 10th grade: M = 16.50, SD = 0.56; 237 girls). They completed measures for assessing their CDSE and VI annually from 10th to 12th grades. Latent growth curve analyses indicated that both CDSE and VI significantly increased over time in the Hong Kong sample. Cross-lagged path analyses indicated that the reciprocal positive effects between CDSE and VI over time were supported in both samples. These findings indicated that CDSE and VI are generally dynamic and interrelated dimensions for Chinese adolescents’ career development with some regional differences.

Career Certainty and Major Satisfaction

Information-seeking is conceptualized by multiple career decision-making models but has received insufficient attention in the literature. This may be in part due to the difficulty in assessing the amount of information students have acquired about their chosen careers (i.e., their level of occupational knowledge). The present study, sampling 316 college students, modeled this process, with career exploration activities and occupational knowledge as exogenous variables. We expected both exogenous variables to directly and indirectly relate to career certainty and major satisfaction, with self-perceived occupational knowledge, occupational information self-efficacy (defined as the self-efficacy of seeking occupational information during the career decision-making process), and interest congruence acting as mediators. Results showed that career exploration activities indirectly related to the two outcome variables through both self-perceived knowledge and occupational information self-efficacy. Occupational knowledge only related to interest congruence; the latter did not relate to either outcome variable. This study was the first to objectively assess college students’ knowledge of the careers they were actively pursuing and the first to examine that construct along with other important career decision-making variables.

Parenting Styles, Identity Development, and Adjustment in Career Transitions

Drawing from self-determination theory, this study examines how does perceived parenting and psychological needs relate to identity development and psychosocial adjustment in Portuguese 12th-grade students ( N = 462) who prepare the transition to higher education or to the job market. Path model results revealed two distinct pathways: a “growth-oriented pathway” from need-supporting parenting to integrated career exploration, commitment-making and well-being via need satisfaction and a “vulnerability” pathway from need-thwarting parenting to both diminished well-being and ill-being through need frustration. Findings suggest that perceived parental support is a protective factor, and parental thwarting a risk factor for career decision-making, but this relation is mediated by the adolescents’ subjective feelings of psychological need satisfaction and frustration. Altogether, they suggest the need to customize interventions with adolescents to address “bright” and “dark” trajectories of identity development and establish a supportive counseling climate that facilitates the exploration of different aspects of self-environment in career transition periods.

The Portuguese Validation of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale: Concurrent and Longitudinal Relations to Well-being and Ill-being

This research comprises two studies based on Self Determination Theory. In Study 1, we translate and examine the factor structure of the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS; Chen, Vansteenkiste et al., 2015) in a sample of Portuguese undergraduate students. Further, in Study 2 we used an independent longitudinal sample of 12^th grade students to inspect whether the six subscales differently predict adjustment over time. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that a six-factor solution best fitted the BPNSFS data. Subsequent structural equation modelling indicated that the dimensions of need satisfaction and need frustration predicted unique variance in participants’ well-being and ill-being over time, even after controlling for reciprocal and baseline effects. Taken together the findings support the 6-factor multidimensional structure of the BPNSFS and provide extensive support for the distinction between the satisfaction and frustration dimensions of needs, suggesting that they should be measured and interpreted as relatively distinct motivational constructs.