Laura Nota

Testing Social Cognitive Interest and Choice Hypotheses across Holland Types in Italian High School Students.

Abstract Several hypotheses emanating from social cognitive career theory (SCCT) were tested. Participants (796 Italian high school students) completed measures of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, social supports and barriers, and choice consideration related to occupations representing Holland’s (1997) six RIASEC types. Findings indicated general support, across Holland types, for the hypotheses that self-efficacy and outcome expectations jointly predict interests, and that interests mediate the relations of self-efficacy and outcome expectations to choice consideration. However, the specific nature of the mediation effect (i.e., full versus partial) varied somewhat across the RIASEC types. In addition, contrary to SCCT’s predictions, social supports and barriers related to choice consideration mostly indirectly (through self-efficacy) rather than directly. We consider the implications of these findings for further research on SCCT’s choice and environmental hypotheses.

Career Search Self-Efficacy, Family Support, and Career Indecision With Italian Youth

Family support has been found to influence both career self-efficacy beliefs and career decision making. The purpose of this study was to verify whether career search self-efficacy could mediate the relationship between family support and career indecision.Using a sample of 253 Italian youth, the study found that, for male adolescents attending a university-preparation high school, career search self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between family support and career indecision. Contrary to expectations, for female adolescents there was no direct relationship between family support and career indecision; however, family support was directly associated with career search self-efficacy and career search self-efficacy was associated with career indecision.

Time perspective and indecision in young and older adolescents

ABSTRACT Career choices involve an orientation towards the future and the propensity to planning. The ‘mental picture’ of the past, present and future was defined by Savickas as time perspective. The present paper reports the findings of two studies examining time perspective in Italian adolescents. The first study surveyed 498 students aged 11–14 years, and the second, 657 students aged 15–18 years. Results from the first study showed higher levels of time perspective in girls and in older participants. The second study, however, confirmed these differences for gender only. Socioeconomic status (SES) showed little relationship to time perspective in both age groups. It also emerged that time perspective is positively related to school achievement and negatively to career indecision.

Community involvement in promoting inclusion, participation and self‐determination

Over the last few decades, advances and innovations in the field of disability and disability supports have resulted in changes in the way in which disability itself is understood and conceptualised. These changes, which embrace a person–environment fit model of disability, have obvious implications for disability supports and research. Within such conceptualisations, more attention must be given to the interaction between people with disability and the environments in which they live, learn, work and play. As such, there has been increased attention to the rights of people with disabilities to be fully included in their communities and to the importance of self‐determination, participation and quality of life. This emphasis also underscores the important roles family members, teachers, peers, health service providers and volunteers play in promoting community inclusion. This article examines these changes and innovations in depth and provides recommendations to facilitate the involvement of community members in promoting inclusion, participation and self‐determination.

Development of Interests and Competency Beliefs in Italian Adolescents: An Exploration of Circumplex Structure and Bidirectional Relationships.

In a cross-national replication and extension of prior research with American students, Italian middle and high school students completed measures of interests and competency beliefs relative to a variety of school- and nonschool-related activities. Both interests and competency beliefs tended to show greater adherence to circumplex Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (known as RIASEC) structure with increasing age, but this tendency was more pronounced in female than in male students. Interests and competency beliefs were moderately stable over a 1-year interval, with relatively small percentages of participants exhibiting clinically large changes on either variable. Good support was found for a bidirectional model of interest-competency belief relationships in both male and female students. Implications for further efforts to understand how interests and competency beliefs develop over time and across cultures are considered.

Employer Attitudes towards the Work Inclusion of People with Disability.

BACKGROUND This study examines the importance of work in life of people with disability and then focuses on employer attitudes towards these people. In the light of Stone and Colellas model, the study examines the employer attitudes and the role of variables such as type of disability, employer experience in the hiring of persons with disabilities, the description of hypothetical hirees with disabilities, the ways in which employers evaluate work performance and social acceptability, and the work tasks that they consider appropriate for workers with disability. METHOD Eighty employers were randomly assigned to standard condition (candidates with disability were presented by referring to the disability they presented) or positive condition (candidates were presented with reference to their strengths). RESULTS It was found that the type of disability and its presentation influence employer attitudes. In addition, realistic and conventional tasks were considered appropriate for hirees with disabilities. CONCLUSIONS Implications were discussed.

Career Decision-Making Profiles of Italian Adolescents.

The goal of the present study was to test the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Career Decision-Making Profile (CDMP) questionnaire with a sample of 1,835 adolescents. Gati, Landman, Davidovitch, Asulin-Peretz, and Gadassi suggested that the way individuals make career decisions should not be described by a single decision-making style but rather by a multidimensional profile based on a consideration of 11 dimensions. The results showed that the Italian version of the CDMP has adequate psychometric properties and structural validity. As hypothesized, the scores of the Problem-Solving Inventory were correlated with the information-related dimensions of the CDMP. Decided adolescents had more adaptive CDMP profiles than undecided adolescents, supporting the concurrent validity of the CDMP. Female adolescents were more likely to consult with and depend on others, invest greater effort, and, consequently, take more time to make a decision. Theoretical and counseling implications are discussed.

Contemporary Career Construction: The Role of Career Adaptability

Over the last decade, the rapidly changing job market has begun to demand that people more actively construct their professional lives and acquire career adaptability.

Career Guidance for Persons with Disabilities

In the last ten years important theoretical and applicative changes have taken place in the disability field that also have significant consequences for school-career guidance. Therefore, before dealing with the issue of career guidance for persons with disabilities it is appropriate to recall the new disability conceptualisations, formulated between the 1990s and the beginning of this century following the advice of research and social and health care workers and the recommendations of the World Health Organization (Soresi, 2006), in which our reflections on the issues of choice and career development will be anchored. Traditionally, “disability” was considered a disease, negative trait, or deficit that a person possesses (Fabian & Liesener, 2005). Recently, an ecological-behavioural view of disability has emerged that treats a disability as an interaction between individuals and the environments in which they live (Nota, Rondal, & Soresi, 2002; Wehmeyer & Patton, 2000). Consequently, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) itself have proposed a new classification system to guide in the management and planning of social and health care services (International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health – ICF, WHO, 2001; Definition, Classification, and System of Support Manual, Luckasson, Borthwick-Duffy, Buntinx, Coulter, Craig, Reeve et al., 2002). Historically, disability was a categorical definition. One either possessed a disability or did not. The new ICF guidelines emphasised three areas of assessment that relate to: (a) a person’s level of functioning as indicated by physical functioning, activities performed, and degree of participation in various activities; (b) the existence of a disability as indicated by any impairment, limitations on the activities they can perform, or restrictions in their ability to participate in various activities; and (c) health and well-being indicators such as educational attainment and

Career Adaptability, Hope, Optimism, and Life Satisfaction in Italian and Swiss Adolescents:

The consequences of economic crisis are different from one European context to the other. Based on life design (LD) approach, the present study focused on two variables—career adaptability and a positive orientation toward future (hope and optimism)—relevant to coping with the current work context and their role in affecting life satisfaction. A partial mediational model between career adaptability and life satisfaction, through a positive orientation toward future (hope and optimism), was tested across Italian and Swiss countries. Seven hundred twenty-six Italian and 533 Swiss young people between the ages of 12 and 16 years were involved. Results provided support for the model in the Italian group and a full mediation model for the Swiss one. The data suggest that the context may have an effect on how career adaptability has an impact on general life satisfaction. These results have important implications for practice and underscore the need to support adolescents in their LD process.