Career adaptability profiles and their relationship to adaptivity and adapting
Hirschi, A., & Valero, D. (2015). Career adaptability profiles and their relationship to adaptivity and adapting. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 88,220-229, doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2015.03.010
Abstract
Research on career adaptability predominantly uses variable-centered approaches that focus on the average effects in terms of the predictors and outcomes within a given sample. Extending this research, the present paper used a person-centered approach to determine whether subgroupswithdistinctadaptability profiles intermsofconcern,control, curiosityandconfidence can beidentified. Wealsoexploredthe relationship between the variousadaptability profiles and adapting (career planning, career decision-making difficulties, career exploration, and occupa tional self-efficacy beliefs) and adaptivity (core self-evaluations and proactivity). Using latent profile analysis, we found distinct adaptability profiles among 350 German university students. Students with different profiles differed significantly in their levels of adapting. This finding was confirmedinasecondstudyof1226studentsselectedfromthesamepopulation.Inbothsamples, the adaptability profiles differed mainly in terms of their adaptability levels but not their shape. Moreover, in both samples, the students whose profiles indicated generally higher adaptability showed more adapting compared with the students whose profiles indicated generally lower adaptability. Study 2 also showed that students with higher-adaptability profiles showed signifi cantly higher adaptivity. The results suggest that level effects dominate adaptability profiles, implyingthe existence of a generaladaptability factor within universitystudents that is meaning fully related to adapting and adaptivity.