Career Adaptability and Subjective Well-Being in Unemployed Emerging Adults

Abstract

Unemployment is associated with increased levels of anxiety, depression, and disconnection among emerging adults. Given the greater risk of unemployment for emerging adults (13.2% in the United States), career adaptability is relevant to understanding how emerging adults survive and thrive in today’s challenging work environment. This study examined the effect of career adaptability on subjective well-being in 184 unemployed diverse emerging adults of age 21–29. Results revealed that emerging adults with higher levels of control and confidence had higher life satisfaction. Control was positively related to positive affect while at the same time negatively related to negative affect. Control was the most consistent informant of subjective well-being (significant on all three subscale measures). The implications of the significant findings, and the caution warranted in relation to these findings, are discussed.

Keywords

emerging adults career adaptability subjective well-being unemployment career development

Emerging adulthood is a developmental period, ages 18–29, characterized by instability, optimism, personal freedom, possibilities, self-focus, and high expectations (Arnett, 2000, 2006; Arnett & Fishel, 2013). It has been described as one of the most stressful periods due in part to high levels of instability and uncertainty (Kuwabara, Van Voorhees, Gollan, & Alexander, 2007). The ability of emerging adults to find employment is important to maintaining healthy levels of well-being; yet, in the current marketplace, emerging adults are at great risk for unemployment (13.2%; U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). Unemployed status has been shown to have detrimental effects on well-being (McKee-Ryan, Song, Wanberg, & Kinicki, 2005; Milner, Page, & LaMontagne, 2013; Paul & Moser, 2009). Adaptive skills are associated with successful negotiation of this developmental period (Armstrong, Dedrick, & Greenbaum, 2003). One example of successful adaptation is that of career adaptability or the ability to adapt to new jobs or pursue new jobs when needed. Individuals with greater career adaptability were more likely to find employment (Koen, Klehe, Van Vianen, Zikic, & Nauta, 2010). Successful employment may be related to life satisfaction and/or affective state, two components of subjective well-being. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between career adaptability and subjective well-being in unemployed emerging adults.

Career Adaptability

The fluid, global economic landscape, accompanied by current changes in the meaning and pursuit of work, has created a need for a review of extant career developmental theories (Savickas, 2012). Super and colleagues (Super & Kidd, 1979; Super & Knasel, 1981) introduced the psychosocial construct of career adaptability to acknowledge the importance of new and ongoing career-related challenges individuals encounter throughout their life cycle (Savickas, 1997, 2013b). These challenges are not driven by maturational factors and are not within the person exclusively (Super & Knasel, 1981), and the skills individuals manifest are a product of an interaction between the person and his or her environment (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2000; Savickas, 1997). Thus, it is important to appreciate the reciprocity between cognitive person variables and one’s behavior and context (e.g., gender, ethnicity, barriers, support systems) and how these might impact an individual’s ability to temper and adapt to the negative effects of unemployment (Lent et al., 2000).

Career adaptability is defined and assessed in multiple ways in the literature (Hamtiaux, Houssemand, & Vrignaud, 2013). Super and Knasel (1981), for example, defined career adaptability as readiness to cope with changing work and working conditions. Pratzner and Ashley (1984) defined career adaptability as the ability to both adapt to job requirements and change jobs that are more suited to individual needs. Herr (1992) reemphasized the need for a new term that would capture the rapid changes people face in today’s world, which emphasizes personal empowerment and competence. He coined the term personal flexibility, which is a multifaceted construct comprising intellectual, attitudinal, and behavioral components. However, the construct did not achieve widespread acceptance and support until Savickas (1997) reemphasized its importance and utility in understanding the career development of adults over the life span.

According to Savickas’ “Career Construction Theory” (2002, 2013b), career construction consists of a series of attempts by the individual to build a self-concept in the context of social role functioning. This includes adaptation to transitions that occur over the life span (e.g., transitions from school to work, from job to job, and from occupation to occupation; Savickas, 2005). Adaptation to these transitions is facilitated by five types of behaviors, namely, orientation, exploration, establishment, management, and disengagement. As the individual negotiates these periods of transition, a cycle of adaptation becomes more evident (Savickas, 2013b).

Career construction theory emphasizes specific attitudes, beliefs, and competencies of career construction, namely, concern, control, curiosity, and confidence (Savickas, 2013b). These are central to problem-solving strategies and coping behaviors and serve to synthesize vocational self-concepts with work roles. Hence, adaptive individuals are viewed as people who (a) become concerned about their future, (b) increase personal control over their future, (c) display curiosity by exploring future selves and scenarios, and (d) strengthen the confidence to pursue their aspirations (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). More specifically, career adaptability is defined as being ready to cope with the predictable tasks of preparing for a work role in conjunction with unpredictable changes in work and work conditions (Savickas, 1997). Increasing a client’s career adaptability is regarded as the central goal of career construction counseling (Savickas, 2013b; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012).

Several studies have investigated career adaptability and its relationship with career-related variables (e.g., Creed, Fallon, & Hood, 2009; Koen et al., 2010) such as spirituality and religiosity (e.g., Duffy & Blustein, 2005) and personal power and life satisfaction (e.g., Hirschi, 2009). However, the measurement of career adaptability has varied from study to study and it is, therefore, difficult to generate meaningful conclusions from the accrued body of literature. For example, Super and Knasel (1979) proposed that the measurement of career adaptability includes the measurement of work values and work salience, autonomy or sense of agency, planfulness or future perspective, exploration and establishment, decision making, and reflection on experience. While Duffy and Blustein measured career adaptability as a function of commitment to career choices and career decision self-efficacy, Koen and colleagues assessed career adaptability with a wide range of measurement tools to capture planning, decision making, exploration, and confidence.

With the goal of expanding a body of literature that allows for uniformity of definition and measurement, Savickas and Porfeli (2012) developed the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale, a concise, valid, and reliable instrument that has been validated in 13 countries. The development of this scale is significant in that it provides an opportunity to analyze and compare studies across a variety of cultural contexts.

Career Adaptability in Emerging Adulthood

The developmental period of emerging adulthood is characterized by intense identity explorations, feeling in between, and instability (Arnett, 2000; Arnett & Fishel, 2013). In the process of exploring and consolidating their identities in relationship with their worldview, social, romantic, and work lives, emerging adults transition and adapt to new environments and life roles (Arnett, 2000, 2003; Konstam, 2014). For example, individuals transition from adolescence, a period of greater dependence on their families, to either college students or members of the workforce where they assume more responsible independent roles. During these transitions, emerging adults strive to set the stage for their adult work lives, to be revisited and reconstructed at later developmental stages.

In this economic and environmental context, emerging adults become more vulnerable to psychological distress; they report feeling unmoored, without an anchor (Bynner, Ferri, & Shepherd, 1997; Konstam, 2014) and they are at high risk for developing depressive and behavioral disorders (Kuwabara et al., 2007). Hence, the mental health of individuals is subject to discontinuities during emerging adulthood (Schulenberg, Sameroff, & Cicchetti, 2004); adaptive skills are critical to the successful negotiation of distress emerging adults encounter (Armstrong et al., 2003; Oinas & Määtä, 2011).

The most recent economic crisis in the United States that began in 2007 resulted in a 60% increase in unemployment rates (Warbelow & Bass, 2012). Although the economy seems to be recovering, its lingering detrimental effects remain, particularly for emerging adults (Fernandes-Alcantara, 2012). Only 54.3% of emerging adults aged 18–24 years are employed, the lowest level since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began collecting such data in 1948 (Pew Research Center, 2012). Fifty-six percent of individuals between the ages of 18 and 26 stay at their work positions for a period of 12 months or less, and 14% leave their job positions within 2 years or less (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). Thus, while emerging adults tend to explore a variety of career opportunities consistent with this developmental period, they are also challenged in terms of finding jobs that are satisfying and longer in duration.

Subjective Well-Being and Unemployment

Subjective well-being, a multidimensional construct, consists of two components, namely, cognitive evaluation of one’s satisfaction with his or her overall life (i.e., life satisfaction) and affective reactions (i.e., positive affect and negative affect; Diener, 1984). It is assumed that high frequency of positive affect, infrequency of negative affect, and a higher global sense of life satisfaction lead to a greater level of subjective well-being (Diener, 1984; Myers & Diener, 1995). Subjective well-being is defined by levels of happiness and satisfaction people experience in the various roles they assume (Diener, 1984).

It has been established that unemployment is one of the most significant contributors to psychological difficulties (for a review, see McKee-Ryan et al., 2005; Milner et al., 2013; Paul & Moser, 2009). Since employment provides individuals with time structure, social contact, collective purpose, status, and activity (Jahoda, 1981), unemployment causes both material and psychosocial losses that are detrimental to mental health and well-being (Paul, Geithner, & Moser, 2009). Although the detrimental mental health effects of unemployment have been empirically reported in the literature (McKee-Ryan et al., 2005; Paul & Moser, 2009), considerable variability exists among all individuals (Green, 2011) including emerging adults (Arnett, 2000). Furthermore, effective and well-designed protective evidence-based interventions have not been adequately developed for unemployed emerging adults (Koen, Klehe, & van Vianen, 2012).

Career Adaptability and Subjective Well-Being

The potential links between subjective well-being and career adaptability have been demonstrated in theoretical literature. According to motivational theory of subjective well-being (Emmons, 1986; Omodei & Wearing, 1990), the pursuit of meaningful goals is central to the development and maintenance of well-being (Brunstein, 1993). Consistent with how personal goals are linked to subjective well-being, Savickas’ career construction theory (2002, 2013b) aims at understanding how work can facilitate overall life satisfaction and happiness (Hartung & Taber, 2008). Furthermore, as the term “subjective” implies, the person is the most important actor in evaluating his or her well-being and how he or she thinks and perceives the world determines subjective well-being. Similarly, career construction theory emphasizes the personal meanings people derive from their careers, providing a valuable perspective in understanding how subjective well-being and career goals and behaviors relate to each other (Hartung & Taber, 2008).

There have been a limited number of studies investigating the link between career adaptability and subjective well-being among emerging adults. Studies with adolescents provide support for the link between these two variables. For instance, Hirschi (2009) argued that career adaptability is critical to positive youth development, particularly as it relates to sense of power and life satisfaction over time. Moreover, Creed, Prideaux, and Patton (2005) found that higher levels of career decidedness were associated with higher levels of career planning/exploration, career decision-making self-efficacy, life satisfaction, and self-esteem among adolescents. In a qualitative study with employed college graduates (aged 22–25 years), Murphy and colleagues (2010) reported that well-informed expectations are crucial to understanding emerging adults’ perceptions in relation to their self-assessments of life satisfaction. The authors concluded that assessment of career adaptability can be useful in understanding the ways individuals navigate unanticipated work-related and relational experiences (Savickas, 1997). In a recent study with emerging adults, Creed and Hughes (2013) concluded that well-developed career strategies alleviate the detrimental effects of career compromise on well-being.

The Present Study

Previous research findings provide evidence of the negative effects of unemployment on the well-being of educated emerging adults. Due to the preponderance of studies that are specific to adolescents and the lack of consensus regarding the measurement of career adaptability, it is difficult to make meaning of the above-mentioned findings, specifically in regard to understanding how career adaptability informs subjective well-being among emerging adults. Thus, to enrich our understanding of the potential role of career adaptability in mitigating detrimental effects of unemployment in emerging adults, there is a need to further explore the relationship between career adaptability and subjective well-being among emerging adults using instruments that (a) are conceptually coherent and (b) provide increasing clarity to a body of literature that to date has been characterized by a diversity of measurement tools.

Expanding upon the previous literature, the purpose of this study was to answer one main research question: To what extent does career adaptability inform subjective well-being of unemployed emerging adults? This study specifically focused on emerging adults who hold at least an associate’s degree because the pursuit of higher education beyond high school is critical to future economic success; emerging adults who have less than an associate’s degree seem to differ greatly from those who hold at least an associate’s degree with respect to the pathways they follow (Settersten & Ray, 2010).

We hypothesize that (a) all four subscales of career adaptability (i.e., concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) will be positively associated with life satisfaction; (b) all four subscales of career adaptability (i.e., concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) will be positively associated with positive affect; and (c) all four subscales of career adaptability (i.e., concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) will be negatively associated with negative affect. We believe that this study contributes to existing literature by examining the role of career adaptability in emerging adults, 21–29 years of age, using a theory-driven, reliable instrument, newly developed, and validated by Savickas and Porfeli (2012) in 13 countries.

Method

Participants

The sample consisted of 184 unemployed emerging adults between the ages of 21 and 29 (M = 25.1, SD = 2.5) residing within the United States. The sample was fairly equal in gender, with 54% (n = 100) male subjects. Most of the sample, 72% (n = 133), reported White as their race. The rest of the sample consisted of 9% (n = 17) Asian, 9% (n = 16) Latino/Hispanic, 6% (n = 11) Black, and 4% (n = 7) Multiracial participants. All participants had completed some college, with a majority having a bachelor’s degree, 65% (n = 120), a smaller percentage with an associate’s degree, 28% (n = 52), and few with a professional degree, 7% (n = 12). As this was an unemployment study, it is no surprise that a large number of participants reported incomes of less than US$5,000, 64% (n = 117), with 13% (n = 23) reporting incomes between US$5,000 and US$10,000, and the remaining (24%; n = 44) reporting incomes greater than US$10,000.

Procedure

After institutional review board approval was obtained, a survey including our measures was created using an online data collection website. The link included an informed consent page and a survey was posted on the online crowdsourcing marketplace platform, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) over the duration of a month. The informed consent provided participants with information regarding the purpose of the study and the requirements for participation. In order to enroll in the study, participants were required to be (a) between 21 and 29 years of age, (b) currently living in the United States, (c) graduates with a minimum of an associate’s degree, and (d) not employed for at least 6 months. The full survey consisted of items related to subjective well-being, career adaptability, leisure activity, volunteer activity, and demographic information. Additionally, quality control items were included in the survey. Described subsequently is the subset of items that appeared in the survey. Participants received US$1 as compensation for completing the survey.

Instruments

Subjective well-being

Based on the conceptualization of Diener (1984) and Myers and Diener (1995), subjective well-being was measured by Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985).

Positive and negative affect

The items of the PANAS were grouped into two subscales, namely, positive affect and negative affect, each consisting of 10 mood-related adjectives. The adjectives for positive affect were active, alert, attentive, determined, enthusiastic, excited, inspired, interested, proud, and strong. The negative affect adjectives included afraid, ashamed, distressed, guilty, hostile, irritable, jittery, nervous, scared, and upset. Participants were asked to rate how frequently they experienced the emotions enumerated earlier on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 = never to 5 = always. Responses were summed creating scores ranging between 1 and 50 in each subscale; higher scores referred to higher frequencies of the affect for each subscale. Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988) reported that positive affect and negative affect together accounted for 68.7% of the total variance with general time frame with internal consistency reliabilities ranging from .88 and .87 for positive affect and negative affect, respectively. The scale has been widely used among a range of populations. In the present study, the internal consistency coefficient was α = .91 for positive affect and α = .93 for negative affect.

SWLS

The SWLS consisted of 5 items (e.g., “In most ways, my life is close to my ideal”) measured on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree. Items were summed to create a range between 5 and 35, with higher scores referring to higher levels of life satisfaction. It is a valid and reliable measure that has been used with diverse populations based on the evidence provided by several independent data (Lucas, Diener, & Suh, 1996; Pavot & Diener, 1993; Pavot, Diener, Colvin, & Sandvik, 1991). Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985) found the scale to have good internal consistency reliability (α = .87) and 2-week test–retest reliability (r = .82). In this study, the internal consistency coefficient was found to be α = .92.

Career adaptability

Career adaptability was measured by Career Adapt-Abilities Scale USA Form (CAAS; Porfeli & Savickas, 2012), developed to measure specific attitudes, beliefs, and competencies of career construction in four subscales, namely, concern (e.g., “Thinking about what my future might be”), control (e.g., “Making decisions about myself”), curiosity (e.g., “Exploring my surroundings”), and confidence (e.g., “Performing tasks efficiently”). Each subscale was comprised of six 5-point Likert-type scale items ranging from 1= not strong to 5 = strongest. Items were summed to create a score ranging between 5 and 30 for each subscale, with higher scores referring to higher levels of career adaptability. While this is a relatively new scale, the scale was shown to have very good psychometric properties, with construct validity established for 13 countries (e.g., Porfeli & Savickas, 2012; van Vianen, Klehe, Koen, & Dries, 2012). Convergent validity was recently established by Öncel (2014). The internal consistency coefficients were .82, .80, .84, and .90 for concern, control, curiosity, and confidence, respectively (Porfeli & Savickas, 2012). In this study, the internal consistency coefficients were α = .88, α = .88, α = .86, and α = .90 for concern, control, curiosity, and confidence subscales, respectively.

Data Analysis

First, correlations were calculated among the major study variables. In order to test the hypotheses, a multivariate regression analysis was conducted to examine the predictive power of the four subscales of career adaptability (i.e., concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) on subjective well-being, which includes positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction among the participants. All analyses were conducted using SPSS version 22.0.

Results

The calculated means and SD are provided in Table 1. Correlations were computed to determine the interrelationships among positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction and the four subscales of career adaptability, namely concern, control, curiosity, and confidence.

Table 1.
Descriptive Statistics, Correlation Matrix, and Regression Parameters Among Major Study Variables.

M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 β-1 SE (β) β-2 SE (β) β-3 SE (β)

1. Positive affect 27.50 8.49 1

2. Negative affect 23.10 9.34 −.02 1

3. Life satisfaction 17.22 7.42 .43 −.34 1

4. Career Adaptability-Concern 18.68 4.94 .48 −.08 .24 1 2.289* 0.903 1.105 1.105 −0.142 0.868

5. Career Adaptability-Control 19.54 5.04 .50 −.21 .34 .68 1 2.034* 0.988 −3.570* 1.257 1.886* 0.949

6. Career Adaptability-Curiosity 20.05 4.57 .42 −.03 .21 .53 .61 1 0.838 1.002 2.409 1.275 −1.432 0.963

7. Career Adaptability-Confidence 20.65 5.07 .46 −.14 .37 .57 .67 .69 1 1.461 0.961 −1.306 1.224 2.939 0.924

Note. SE = standard error.

*p < .05. **p < .01.

A multivariate regression was performed with the three dependent measures of subjective well-being and the four career adaptability subscale measures as dependent variables. The assumptions of normality and homoscedasticity were met for each dependent measure. At the multivariate level, the subscales of control, Wilks’s λ = .93, F(3, 177) = 4.48, p = .005, and confidence, Wilks’s λ= .95, F(3, 177) = 3.47, p = .018, were found to be significant, indicating significance for both of these independent variables at the univariate level. The other two subscales of concern, Wilks’s λ = .96, F(3, 177) = 2.52, p = .06, and curiosity, Wilks’s λ = .97, F(3, 177) = 1.91, p = .13, were found to be nonsignificant, indicating no univariate relationships between these two subscales and subjective well-being.

The univariate multiple regression level of analysis will be presented, which analyzed the three dependent variables separately in their relationship with the subscales of control and confidence, which were both significant at the multivariate level. Parameter estimates are displayed in Table 1. The relationship between life satisfaction and career adaptability was found to be significant, F(4, 179) = 8.601, p < .001. Career adaptability accounted for 16% of the total variance in life satisfaction scores. The factors of confidence, β = 2.94, t(179) = 3.18, p = .002, and control, β = 1.87, t(179) = 1.99, p = .048, were both positively related to life satisfaction. Higher levels of confidence and control were correlated with higher life satisfaction scores.

Additionally, career adaptability accounted for 31% of the total variance in positive affect, F(4, 179) = 19.66, p < .001, and 7% of the total variance in negative affect, F(4, 179) = 3.46, p = .009. The control factor was positively related to positive affect, β = 2.03, t(179) = 2.06, p = .041, and negatively related to negative affect, β = −3.57, t(179) = −2.84, p = .005. Higher levels of control were related to higher levels of positive affect and lower levels of negative affect. Confidence was not significantly related to either positive affect or negative affect. Although concern was significantly related to negative affect at the univariate level, as the multivariate test was not significant, this result is not discussed as statistically significant.

Discussion

This study investigated how well the four career adaptability subscales, concern, control, curiosity, and confidence, predict subjective well-being in 184 educated unemployed emerging adults of age 21–29 years. Findings indicated higher levels of confidence and control were significantly related to higher levels of life satisfaction, and higher levels of control were significantly related to higher levels of positive affect and lower levels of negative affect. The subscale of control emerged as the best predictor of subjective well-being, as it was related to all three measures.

Blustein and colleagues (e.g., Blustein, 2006; Blustein, Kenna, Gill, & DeVoy, 2008; Blustein, McWhirter, & Perry, 2005) have moved scholars forward by focusing on the import of lack of control and how it may inform career development throughout the life span (Duffy, 2010). An accumulating body of evidence suggests that career adaptability is an important construct for understanding the management of predictable tasks of career development, even though work-based and relational experiences can be unpredictable (Murphy, Blustein, Bohlig, & Platt, 2010; Savickas, 2013b). In a transition stage during which emerging adults may experience relatively less control in the context of ongoing environmental changes, it can be argued that the more emerging adults perceive themselves in control, the more they are able to adapt to challenges in terms of their career development.

Control allows adults to have greater responsibility for shaping themselves and the world around them by using self-discipline, effort, and persistence (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). Control is measuring individuals’ abilities to take responsibility for themselves and their actions; it captures the degree to which an individual endorses personal responsibility, self-reliance, and an independent spirit (e.g., “making decisions by myself” and “taking responsibility for my actions”). Individuals with high levels of control are not driven by others’ expectations of them; they are self-focused and “do what’s right” for them, in contrast to what others may be thinking or imposing on them in terms of expectations. The descriptors defining high levels of control suggest self-differentiated individuals who know who they are and act on their self-knowledge. In contrast to the emerging adults described by Bynner, Ferri, and Shepherd (1997) and Konstam (2014), they are not “lost” and without anchor; they assume a stance associated with high levels of positive affect and low levels of negative affect.

The degree of self-focus and self-responsibility endorsed by individuals high in control is salient in terms of the current economic context emerging adults are navigating. Control is regarded as a contextual construct rather than a trait within the individual; perceived control tends to change depending on life circumstances (Lachman & Weaver, 1998). As a result, the present contextual factors (e.g., economic crisis, high levels of unemployment) may compromise the individual’s perceived level of control. Given that supports for career development have also decreased significantly, a take-charge, self-focused approach that emphasizes personal responsibility can be adaptive in a postindustrial, ever-changing, information-based economy. With little external direction and guidance to assist emerging adults in shaping themselves and their environment, self-focus and self-reliance can situate emerging adults to be better prepared to negotiate unpredictability in the workplace. Moreover, high level of control is related to factors such as social support, self-esteem, and optimism; without a strong sense of control, individuals are prone to lower levels of career adaptability (Duffy, 2010). Given the uncertainty associated with both the developmental period of emerging adulthood and the current marketplace, high level of control may temper feelings of vulnerability.

The results indicated that confidence was positively related to life satisfaction but was not related to positive affect and negative affect. Confidence measures one’s ability to perform tasks well and efficiently, learn new skills, solve problems, and overcome obstacles as they reveal themselves (Porfeli & Savickas, 2012; Savickas, 2002). In the context of navigating emerging adulthood, a developmental period characterized by a range of tensions and insecurities related to career identification and consolidation (Arnett, 2003; Konstam, 2007, 2013), unemployed emerging adults who report high levels of confidence can transform “tensions into intentions” (Savickas, 2002, p. 162) and execute plans that increase likelihood of higher levels of life satisfaction. Despite unemployment and its negative sequelae, emerging adults with high scores in confidence judged their life satisfaction in accordance with their own unique set of criteria (Pavot & Diener, 1993) and were more likely to report higher levels of life satisfaction. Qualitative and quantitative research designs are needed to expand and refine our current understanding of the linkages between these two constructs, specifically with respect to unemployed emerging adults.

Concern and curiosity did not predict any of the three aspects of subjective well-being among emerging adults. These results are worth noting. It can be argued that the influence of concern and curiosity may have been tempered by the greater influence of control on the participants as demonstrated in Duffy’s work (2010). Duffy et al. found that control substantially reduced the strength of the relationships among social support, self-esteem, optimism, and career adaptability. Finally, it is worth noting that the findings related to control and confidence, while promising, call for caution, as discussed subsequently in implications for practice.

Implications for Practice

This study expands the existing literature by examining the relationship between career adaptability and subjective well-being among emerging adults of age 21 and 29 years. The findings have practical implications for vocational counselors and related professionals in terms of highlighting career adaptability skills, specifically control and confidence, when working with unemployed emerging adults. The study contributes to the career adaptability literature by relying on the theoretical, unifying work of Savickas (1997, 2002, 2005, 2013b) including (a) the use of the CAAS, a measurement tool that provides opportunities for comparison of research findings across a diversity of cultural contexts and (b) the emerging empirical evidence regarding the significant role of career adaptability with respect to subjective well-being in unemployed emerging adults.

It is important to note that Savickas (2013a) in an address titled “Constructing Careers-Actors, Agents, and Authors” identifies three career intervention discourses, namely, vocational guidance, career education, and career counseling. Each of these paradigms have “distinct discourse that engages clients using a standard rhetoric, reasoning and repertoire” (Savickas, 2013, p. 659); they do not replace each other but rather enhance each other. The results of our study do not negate the significance of complementary paradigms that can be useful in working with emerging adults. Since the findings provide preliminary empirical support for the importance of career construction counseling (Hartung & Taber, 2008) by highlighting the significant role of career adaptability in subjective well-being among unemployed emerging adults, the study contributes to a developing evidence-based counseling literature in the vocational domain.

A note of caution is warranted. Findings are not causal but do indicate that a high level of control is associated with subjective well-being in unemployed emerging adults. Endorsing a stance of control and confidence is adaptive and likely to increase possibilities for employment. A belief in one’s abilities to control a transient, fluid, and unpredictable work environment that places the onus of responsibility on the individual may serve to protect against feelings of disabling anxiety and depression. Similarly, one’s belief in his or her ability to problem solve and overcome obstacles may be critical to surviving and thriving in the current marketplace. Nonetheless, advocating for high levels of control and confidence, at the expense of lack of recognition of the significance of social context, specifically the lack of availability of systemic structures and supports, raises concerns that warrant a note of caution (Blustein, 2006; Blustein et al., 2008).

The downside of high levels of control is vulnerability to self-blame and feelings of powerlessness in the face of significant systemic obstacles and dearth of safety nets (Brewin & Shapiro, 1984; Konstam, 2014). In response to systemic obstacles that are out of their control, emerging adults may blame themselves for not reaching their goals and respond by cutting ties with others and limiting themselves in their emotional responses. Further research is needed to determine whether in the face of overwhelming obstacles that are informed by and attributable to systemic barriers (Putnam, 2013) and whether and how striving toward high levels of control may be maladaptive for some emerging adults, particularly if high levels of control do not coexist with a more nuanced recognition of systemic barriers.

Vocational counselors working with emerging adults need to straddle a delicate balance between acknowledging the importance of assuming a stance that reflects the significant and positive adaptive aspects of control and confidence, in tandem with being mindful of the possible nonadaptive features of not acknowledging the importance of the social and economic context, particularly for those emerging adults with limited social capital and economic resources. It is imperative for vocational counselors to be aware of hampering effects of these barriers to refrain from inadvertently blaming individuals who are drawn into oppression (Blustein, 2006, 2011). Vocational counselors and related professionals need to work proactively and relentlessly to reinforce the need for overcoming systemic barriers that place the onus on individual emerging adults who are in the throes of building their careers.

Limitations and Future Research

This study is informed by several limitations. First, our study measured overall subjective well-being; it is recommended that the measurement of domain-specific satisfaction also be assessed (i.e., satisfaction with family, work, social relationships, and self), as suggested by Diener, Suh, Lucas, and Smith (1999). Moreover, self-report measures were used in this study, which may risk the validity of the findings. The findings do not indicate a causal relationship between career adaptability and subjective well-being; future longitudinal research can provide clarity with respect to causality between career adaptability and subjective well-being among unemployed emerging adults.

Finally, the data were collected via a crowdsourcing marketplace platform, MTurk. Some concerns have been raised in the literature with respect to MTurk. Kahan (2013), for example, suggests that data collected via MTurk are prone to low validity due to selection bias, participant’s repeated exposure to the study measures, and misrepresentation of U.S. residents. In order to reduce the potential risks to validity of the findings, we used two quality control questions to confirm that participants were reading the items closely and blocked repeated IP addresses to prevent any one person from completing the survey multiple times under different aliases. The data received from participants who answered the validity check questions incorrectly were eliminated (n = 12) and the survey was open to U.S. residents only. Buhrmester, Kwang, and Gosling (2011) reported that the data collected via MTurk are as reliable as those obtained from traditional methods; participants are slightly more diverse demographically than standard Internet samples and are significantly more diverse than American college samples. Yet, further research that eliminates or reduces the inherent limitations of Internet-based data collection is needed to increase the validity and reliability of the findings.

Conclusion

Our study advances both the career adaptability and the subjective well-being literature by examining the link between these two constructs. Moreover, the findings of this study sets the stage for further studies examining these two constructs among emerging adults. The findings shed light on the significance of control in terms of subjective well-being with important implications for career-related counseling that considers systematic barriers while working with unemployed emerging adults.

	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	β-1	SE (β)	β-2	SE (β)	β-3	SE (β)
1. Positive affect	27.50	8.49	1
2. Negative affect	23.10	9.34	−.02	1
3. Life satisfaction	17.22	7.42	.43**	−.34**	1
4. Career Adaptability-Concern	18.68	4.94	.48**	−.08	.24**	1				2.289*	0.903	1.105	1.105	−0.142	0.868
5. Career Adaptability-Control	19.54	5.04	.50**	−.21**	.34**	.68**	1			2.034*	0.988	−3.570*	1.257	1.886*	0.949
6. Career Adaptability-Curiosity	20.05	4.57	.42**	−.03	.21**	.53**	.61**	1		0.838	1.002	2.409	1.275	−1.432	0.963
7. Career Adaptability-Confidence	20.65	5.07	.46**	−.14	.37**	.57**	.67**	.69**	1	1.461	0.961	−1.306	1.224	2.939**	0.924

Footnotes

Authors’ Note

None of the authors have interests or activities that be seen as influencing the research.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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