Lea Ferrari

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.

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

An Examination of the Structure of the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale (Short Form) Among Italian High School Students

This study aims to evaluate the factor structure of Career Decision Self-Efficacy scale-short form in a sample of Italian high school adolescents. confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the degree to which a one-factor structure and a five-factor structure provided the best fit. In view of available research the five-factor structure was expected to provide the best fit. Moreover, factorial invariance in males and females was tested. It was expected to be invariant across groups. As expected the five-factor structure showed a better fit than the one-factor model and the factorial invariance resulted invariant across boys and girls.

Work Valence as a Predictor of Academic Achievement in the Family Context.

This study asserts a theoretical model of academic and work socialization within the family setting. The presumed associations between parents’ work valences, children’s work valences and valence perceptions, and children’s academic interest and achievement are tested. The results suggest that children’s perceptions of parents mediate the relationship between parents’ and children’s self-reported work valences and children’s work valences are, in turn, associated with academic interest and achievement. The results also demonstrate the moderating role of gender, with an indication of parental socialization to work occurring within same-sex parent–child dyads that is not reflected in cross-sex dyads. Implications and limitations of this study are discussed with a special emphasis on the relatively weak association between parents’ self-reported work valence and their children’s perception of them.

Design My Future An Instrument to Assess Future Orientation and Resilience

This article reports the development and psychometric requisites of Design My Future, an instrument assessing future orientation and resilience. Three different studies involving Italian preadolescents were conducted. With the first, the items were developed and the factor structure verified; the second confirmed instrument’s multidimensional structure and evaluated its discriminant validity. The third study was conducted to verify the invariance of factorial structure across gender. Results provide strong psychometric support for Design My Future as a valid measure for analyzing middle school students’ thoughts about their future orientation and resilience and for career education and career counseling activities.

The career indecision profile : measurement equivalence in two international samples

This study tested for the measurement equivalence of a four-factor measure of career indecision (Career Indecision Profile–65 [CIP-65]) between a U.S. sample and two international samples; one composed of French-speaking young adults from France and Switzerland and the other of Italian adolescents. Previous research had supported the four-factor structure of the CIP-65 in both the United States and Iceland but also showed that items on two of the four scales may be interpreted differently by young adults growing up in these two countries. This study extends previous research by testing whether the four CIP-65 factors are measured equivalently in two additional international samples. Results largely supported the configural and metric invariance of the CIP-65 in the United States and international samples, but several scales showed a lack of scalar invariance. Some explanations are offered for these findings along with suggestions for future research and implications for practice.

Constructions of Work Among Adolescents in Transition

To analyze the conception of work and its relationship with the various indices of progress in career development, we administered a structured, open-ended questionnaire that explored beliefs about working among a sample of Italian high school students considering university options. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, we found that the majority of students considered work as a means to an end; a smaller proportion of students viewed work as a source of psychological satisfaction. The quantitative analyses revealed that students who considered more than one dimension of work in their internal constructions tended to rely on more adaptive means of career decision making. The results are discussed in light of previous research and current perspectives in career development theory.

Parental Influences on Youth’s Career Construction

Increasingly, scholars are urging that there should be a careful examination of the role of social relations, especially those between parents and children, on the professional development of youth. In this chapter, we first present the recent models and theoretical approaches (e.g., contextual action theory, social cognitive model, and the life design approach) that recognize the need to carefully consider the role that parents play in their children’s career development. Next, the parental support role in their children’s professional development is explored, in relation to socioeconomic circumstances. Poverty, unemployment, precariousness, and underemployment are becoming characteristic of the context even in the richest countries; thus today’s parents find themselves playing their support role in their children’s professional development within much more complex societies. Some parents, especially those with low socioeconomic status (SES), are pessimistic in their overall perception of the economy, and, despite being concerned about their children’s future, may find it hard to plan for it; thus, they do not encourage their children and do not start interactions centered on the future with them.

The Structure of the Career Beliefs Inventory on a Sample of Italian High School Students.

This study was an examination of the validity of Krumboltzs Career Beliefs Inventory in a sample of Italian high school students (N = 256). The factor structure was examined at the item level using exploratory factor analysis. A five-factor structure emerged during analysis highlighting beliefs about Career Confidence, Career Activity, Career Independence, Career Flexibility, and Career Positivity. These factors appear to have little overlap with the results of other studies examining American and other cross-national samples. The factor scores were correlated with several career measures to aid interpretation.