Decisions related to career choice are influenced by person's interactions with his or her environment. The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of a STEM (Science-Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) career choice. The study included two stages in which two different questionnaires were used. The purpose of the first…

Which occupation to pursue is one of the more consequential decisions people make and represents a key developmental task. Yet the underlying developmental processes associated with either individual or group differences in occupational choices are still not well understood. This study contributes toward filling this gap, focusing in particular on…

This study analyzed the longitudinal development of occupational aspiration prestige scores over a 12-year period (Grade 8 to 8 years postsecondary) to better understand this aspect of career choice from adolescence into adulthood for people with high-incidence disabilities. A curvilinear trajectory was detected where aspirations increased during…

This study examined the relationship between specific factors believed to influence career decision self-efficacy and math/science related goal intentions (proxy for engineering related goal intentions) among African American high school students. Minority students generally tend to be underrepresented in such careers, as indicated by the National…

In an effort to understand the viability of inner-city adolescents' career choice goals, the purpose of this study was to predict relationships among person factors, environmental factors, career maturity, career decision-making self-efficacy, vocational outcome expectations, and viable career choice goals within this population. I predicted that…

Big Five personality traits were analyzed in relation to career decidedness among adolescents in middle and high school. Participants were 248 7th-grade, 321 10th-grade, and 282 12th-grade students. As hypothesized, Conscientiousness was positively and significantly correlated with career decidedness in all three grades. Openness and Agreeableness…

This study examined the relevance of the Goal Instability Scale-Portuguese Adaptation (GIS-P) on the vocational identity and career certainty of 375 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-grade Portuguese high schoolers. After translating the GIS-P, confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the factorial unidimensionality and reliability of the construct.…

During adolescence, one important career-related decision is the choice of a study in higher education. In this article, a new set of measures for different tasks (i.e., orientation, exploration, commitment) that can be distinguished during this career decision-making process was constructed: the Study Choice Task Inventory (SCTI). A sample of 946…