engleski

Autonomous Career Motivation and career adaptability in adolescence

Studies in the domain of career construction place strong focus on career adaptability as an important factor which facilitates career development in adolescence. On the other hand, motivation for career construction has rarely been in focus. However, a recent study indicated its important incremental contribution over career adaptability in explaining career behaviors. This study aims to supplement these finding with exploring potential determinants of both constructs. We encompassed the total of 1891 adolescents, enrolled in the 1st grade (N=528), 2nd grade (N=578) and 3rd grade (N=785) of secondary school (approximately 15-17 years). We applied Autonomous Career Motivation Scale, Career Adapt-Abilities Scale, HEXACO personality inventory, along with measures of career gender stereotyping, career-related parental behaviors, and socioeconomic status. A first, we explored relations between autonomous career motivation and career adaptability. Autonomous career motivation was expressed on relative autonomy continuum (RAC), while career adaptability was calculated as overall total score. In the three samples correlation coefficients exceeded .50, indicating that the two constructs are related, but still distinct. To explore potential differences in determinants of the two constructs, we conducted regression analyses in three age samples to explore the possible importance of HEXACO personality traits. In all samples, autonomous career motivation was dominantly defined by conscientiousness and extraversion. However, for career adaptability the importance of openness to experience was also observed, which also somewhat raised the total amount of variance accounted for. At last, we explored a potential contribution of several risk factors, but each in a separate sample. Due to the complex research design, career gender stereotyping measure was applied in the 1st grade, a measure of career-related parental behaviors in the 2nd grade, and an estimate of socioeconomic status in the 3rd grade. According to the data, we observed that career gender stereotyping and socioeconomic status had no effect either on career autonomous motivation or on career adaptability. On the other hand, the role of career-related parental behaviors showed an interesting pattern as parental support had encouraging effect on career adaptability, while parental interference and lack of engagement had adverse effect on autonomous career behavior. To conclude, our data suggest that autonomous career motivation and career adaptability share similar determinants from the personal and contextual domains, but that clear differences among them can also be observed. Further studies that encompass broader determinants and outcomes, ideally in a longitudinal manner, are needed to systematically study the differences among these two interrelated constructs, which are both important for career development of adolescents.

autonomous career motivation, personality traits, risk factors, adolescence

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