engleski

Career Maturity of High School Students: The Role of Socio- demographic Characteristics, Core Self-evaluations and Personality

The concept of career maturity is a key construct in the Vocational psychology and refers to the readiness of an individual to cope with vocational development tasks that are related to a certain phase of career development. In this study, we examined the career maturity of high school students who are currently in the Exploration phase (14-24 years) which includes the developmental tasks of crystallization, specification and implementation of career choice. An adequate level of career maturity is necessary to make informed and age-appropriate career decisions at the end of high school. Research shows that career maturity increases with the age of students, particularly before career transitions, and that female students have higher career maturity than male students. The aim of this research is to determine the characteristics of students that contribute to the development of career maturity. As potential determinants, we considered gender, age, academic achievement, personality traits, and core self-evaluation. As measures of career maturity, we used Student Career Construction Inventory and Career Adapt-Abilities Scale. The study involved 1849 high school students (37.8% male), of which 496 first, 592 second and 788 third grade of high school. The results indicate a small increase in career adaptability during high school, and significant gender differences in both measures of career maturity. In the line with previous research, it has been established that career maturity is correlated with academic achievement, core self-evaluations, honesty-humility, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience. Interventions to raise career maturity of high school students will be discussed.

career maturity, career adaptability, personality traits, core self-evaluation

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