Childhood Environmental Adversity and Career Decision-Making Difficulty: A Life History Theory Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 106907272094097
Author(s):  
Hui Xu
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Life History ◽  
Emerging Adulthood ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Ambiguity Aversion ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Childhood Poverty ◽  
Career Interventions

Although research has examined and supported the role of environmental adversity in career decision-making, little is known about the prediction power of childhood environmental adversity for career decision-making. To provide guidance for early career interventions, particularly in disadvantaged populations, the current study drew on life history theory and used a sample of U.S. college students ( n = 310) and a sample of U.S. noncollege individuals during emerging adulthood ( n = 308) to examine a mediation model involving childhood unpredictability, childhood poverty, career decision ambiguity aversion, and career decision-making difficulty. The results support the mediation of ambiguity aversion in the positive predictions of childhood unpredictability for all four factors of career decision-making difficulty. However, the results do not support the indirect predictions of childhood poverty for all four factors of career decision-making difficulty through ambiguity aversion but support the direct prediction of childhood poverty for lack of readiness. Therefore, the current study illuminates the importance of a predictable family environment during childhood for career decision-making during emerging adulthood and provides implications for the validity of life history theory in career decision-making, the development of ambiguity aversion, and early career interventions. Implications and future directions of research regarding childhood poverty are also discussed.

Social Class Fragility and College Students’ Career Decision-Making at a Private University

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-129
Author(s):  
Keaton C. Muzika ◽  
Aaron Hudyma ◽  
Patton O. Garriott ◽  
Dana Santiago ◽  
Jessica Morse
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Private University ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Career Interventions

The present study examined the role of social class in the career decision-making of undergraduate students attending a private university. Grounded theory was used to describe the process of social class and undergraduates’ career interests and plans. Interviews with undergraduate students ( N = 21) resulted in four categories and 13 axial codes. The grounded theory emerging from the data was labeled, social class fragility. Social class fragility captured the career goals and behaviors associated with participants’ striving for an acceptable career choice, based upon their social class contexts. The contextual factors described by participants included relational influences, social class consciousness, and vocational privilege. Results are discussed in terms of career interventions with college students attending universities that encapsulate upper middle-class norms.

Career decision-making difficulties among university students: does employment status matter?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulfattah Yaghi ◽  
Nizar Alabed
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
University Students ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Employment Status ◽  
Career Decisions ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Career Interventions

PurposeThe study adapted the Career Decision Making Difficulties Questionnaire for the Arab world. The purpose of the study was to test a popular but scientifically unverified belief that people who were employed could experience less CDD.Design/methodology/approachCareer Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire was administered to a sample of 500 university students to analyze CDD among full-time and part-time students and examine whether employment status determines to what extent they experience these difficulties. Univariate and bivariate analyses were used.FindingsEmployment status had no statistically significant effect on students' perceptions of CDD; 6 demographic variables were significantly correlated with CDD (gender, age, income, university grade-point average, satisfaction with the current major and social status); and students had dysfunctional beliefs about the career decision-making process, lack self-awareness, and had inconsistent information about internal and external difficulties.Research limitations/implicationsUniversities should design adequate career interventions before and after graduation and employers should implement human resource policies that reduce CDD and their negative impact on the workplace. Other methods of data collection and analysis could also be useful in the future, such as interviews. While scope of the study was acceptable, comparing countries and public versus private institutions could produce valuable findings.Practical implicationsThe study tested and validated ACDDQ which could be used as diagnostic instrument to design career interventions and training programs. Employers need to allocate resources in the recruitment process to help potential recruits to understand the nature of work, processes, and requirements. Educators need to provide better coaching and career education for students, especially those in senior years.Social implicationsUnderstanding career decision-making difficulties and factors that influence them will influence long-term human resource management, especially productivity, turn over and job satisfaction.Originality/valueThe study examined the important issue of difficulties in making career decisions among two groups of university students. With more employees go back to college for more education, it was not clear in the literature how career decisions might differ between the two groups. The issue was under-researched, especially within Arab countries.

Employment stress as a moderator of the relationship between proactive personality and career decision-making self-efficacy

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Shuyi Zhou ◽  
Shiyong Wu ◽  
Xiaoyan Yu ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Wen Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Proactive Personality ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role

We investigated the moderating role of employment stress in the relationship between proactive personality and career decision-making self-efficacy among recent Chinese graduates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main results are as follows: (a) proactive personality positively predicted career decision-making self-efficacy, (b) employment stress was negatively related to proactive personality and career decision-making self-efficacy, and (c) employment stress significantly and negatively moderated the effect of proactive personality on career decision-making self-efficacy, meaning that the moderating effect was stronger at a lower level of employment stress. The results indicate that students graduating during the COVID-19 pandemic are more prone to suffering from complex career decisionmaking processes exacerbated by a challenging and changing labor market. Our findings suggest that graduates should secure flexible employment options and that officials, staff, and managers in governments, universities, and industries should work together to enhance graduates' career decision-making self-efficacy and assist them in achieving their early career aspirations by alleviating internal and external employment pressure.

Plan: Me – a practical tool for career decision making

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-32
Author(s):  
Katie J Dallison
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Career Theory ◽  
Career Interventions ◽  
Career Service ◽  
Practical Tool ◽  
The Subject

Due to the realities of modern career service provision within most universities, clients attend short (often one-off) career interventions. Hence, practitioners require simple, adaptable tools that are underpinned by career theory and can be explained easily, and empower clients to progress through their career journey independently. This paper explains a tool that has been developed from theory and through practice, and is now positioned to become the subject of further research and formal evaluation. This tool, referred to in the article as 'Plan: Me', takes a holistic approach to career decision making, integrating goal setting and allowing clients to map out a process of how they move themselves forward.

scholarly journals Extending a Conceptual Framework for Junior Doctors’ Career Decision Making and Rural Careers: Explorers versus Planners and Finding the ‘Right Fit’

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1352
Author(s):  
Beatriz Cuesta-Briand ◽  
Mathew Coleman ◽  
Rebekah Ledingham ◽  
Sarah Moore ◽  
Helen Wright ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Junior Doctors ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Rural Workforce ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Rural Work ◽  
The Right

This study uses data from a Rural Clinical School of Western Australia (RCSWA) and WA Country Health (WACHS) study on rural work intentions among junior doctors to explore their internal decision-making processes and gain a better understanding of how junior doctors make decisions along their career pathway. This was a qualitative study involving junior doctor participants in postgraduate years (PGY) 1 to 5 undergoing training in Western Australia (WA). Data was collected through semi-structured telephone interviews. Two main themes were identified: career decision-making as an on-going process; and early career doctors’ internal decision-making process, which fell broadly into two groups (‘explorers’ and ‘planners’). Both groups of junior doctors require ongoing personalised career advice, training pathways, and career development opportunities that best “fit” their internal decision-making processes for the purposes of enhancing rural workforce outcomes.

scholarly journals An Online Career Intervention for Promoting Chinese High School Students’ Career Readiness

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shi Chen ◽  
Huaruo Chen ◽  
Hairong Ling ◽  
Xueying Gu
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Career Readiness ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Career Intervention ◽  
School Students ◽  
Career Interventions ◽  
Chinese High School Students

To assist Chinese high school students in improving their career readiness and tackling career decision-making difficulties, we designed a synchronous online career intervention based on the Cognitive Information Processing (CIP) theory during the Covid-19 pandemic. The online career intervention consisted of a series of career courses to develop high school students’ knowledge and skills in career planning, career assessments for exploring their vocational interests and academic self-concept, and a database providing basic information about university majors. To evaluate the intervention’s effectiveness, 957 10th grade students were recruited in the study, 601 participants (girls = 227, boys = 324) were randomly assigned to the experimental group (online career intervention), and 356 (girls = 159, boys = 197) participants were randomly assigned to the control group (no any career interventions). All participants completed a pre- and post-intervention assessment of their career maturity, vocational identity and career decision-making difficulties. Results indicated that the online intervention significantly increased high school students’ career readiness and reduced their career decision-making difficulties. The practical implications of this research for online career interventions directed at Chinese high school students are also discussed.

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