CareerVillage.org Career Development Research Annotated Bibliography Part 1

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Download the first installment of CareerVillage.org's annotated bibliography series. This one covers career development decision / indecision.

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• Measure “Career Adaptability” with just 12 Questions: Career Adaptability is one of the most influential career development frameworks of the past two decades, but measuring it has historically required a relatively long survey. This study introduces “Career Adapt-Abilities Scale Short Form” (or “CAAS-SF” for short), a 12-question form of the survey that appears to do a great job at predicting employment outcomes and quality of life. 1

• “Career Engagement” predicts career outcomes, and can be measured in 9 questions: This study outlines how to measure career engagement, the degree to which an individual is proactively developing career behaviors. The study found that career engagement scores on a 9-question survey predicted a smoother transition from university-to-work, higher self-efficacy and sense of agency, and sustained success in career environments. 2

Want to go even deeper? Here's extra credit reading for those looking to get immersed:

• Does career research have a jingle-jangle problem? Key terms used in career development research papers often lack cohesion (what is referred to as the jingle-jangle fallacy). Some terms are used to describe different things, and other terms are synonyms for the same thing. This linguistic fragmentation makes it especially difficult to disambiguate new research. This paper published in the Journal of Career Development attempts to define and distinguish all of those disparate terms. 3

• Is career readiness the key to getting students excited for college? “College first, then career” is often the starting point for discussions about education-to-employment pathways. But this study of 541 high school students in Belgium found that high school seniors are more excited for college if their “career adaptability” and “career decidedness” scores are higher.1 

• Do your peers’ opinions of your career goals affect your career outcomes? We all know how important peer opinion is to young learners, but there has not been much research on how those opinions play into career outcomes. This study of 322 Finnish teenagers showed that if your peers think your career goals are attainable, you’re more likely to successfully transition to a career outcome you find satisfactory after you finish your education.2

• Boosting career adaptability helps refugees succeed in their host countries. There are more than 26.4 million refugees around the world3, around half of whom are under the age of 18. This study of refugees looked at the types of future goals refugees set and found that refugees set more frequently materialistic goals and less frequently goals connected to be able to have a “decent job”. It also found that career adaptability and future orientation play a crucial role in determining multiple useful goals in refugees for building a decent personal and professional future life in the host country.4

That’s it for today’s roundup! Feel free to send us questions about topics you’re interested in learning about and we’ll do our best to cover it in an upcoming research roundup. And since this publication is for you, please tell us what you think and what you’d like to see more of in the future!

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