Qualitative exploration of career adaptability of Turkish adolescents

Adolescence and career adaptability

Career building is a lifelong process, yet adolescence is associated with intensive progress in career development (Porfeli & Lee, 2012). During this period, young people are expected to set career-related goals, and manage tasks and challenges, such as the development of vocational identity, making initial career decisions, and mastering vocational transitions that develop career adaptability (Erikson, 1968; Skorikov, 2007).

From the framework of career construction theory (Savickas, 1997, 2005), career adaptability refers to psychosocial coping mechanisms that enable individuals to manage vocational developmental tasks, transitions such as from school to university or school to work, and challenges such as job loss or unemployment. Career adaptability is multi-dimensional and hierarchical and has four aspects: concern (looking ahead and preparing for the future), control (governing oneself for career choices), curiosity (exploration of the self through the environment), and confidence (having the confidence to cope with career challenges; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012).

Career adaptability is associated with adaptive responses such as career planning, career exploration, and career decision-making self-efficacy. Adaptivity is reflected in higher levels of self-esteem, hope, optimism, proactive personality, future orientation, while adaptation results in improved perceived employability, promotability, career identity, entrepreneurial outcomes, and life satisfaction (Rudolph, Lavigne, & Zacher, 2017). Hence, adaptability is one of the principal elements for the successful mastery of career development and preparation in adolescence (Hartung, Porfeli, & Vondracek, 2008; Hirschi, 2009). Research (Creed, Muller, & Patton, 2003; Germeijs & Verschueren, 2006; Patton, Creed, & Muller, 2002) has also shown that adolescents with high career adaptability accomplished career transitions successfully. In addition, the previous research supported the link between high career adaptability and academic achievement. For instance, Havenga (2011) reported that high school students with top academic achievement were able to adapt to challenging circumstances thanks to their cognitive ability and confidence in handling difficult situations. Moreover, Negru-Subtirica and Pop (2016) provided longitudinal support for these associations by showing that academic achievement had positive reciprocal relations with career concern and a unidirectional link to career control and career confidence across one academic year. Overall, these results support the usefulness of the career construction approach to career development. More particularly, it can be inferred that career adaptability is a crucial factor for positive youth development.

Assessment of career adaptability: The CCI

The career construction interview (CCI; Savickas, 1989, 2005, 2011) is an assessment and counseling method that is used to reveal crucial aspects of a client’s life by authoring small stories regarding the individual’s career. This structured interview also provides rich content about how clients construct their self, create an identity, and shape their career. Consequently, it is used to assess career adaptability qualitatively (Savickas, 2005).

The CCI includes five stimulus questions. The first question asks about the role models who reflect the client’s initial career preferences thus, describing their vocational identity and ego ideals (Savickas, 2015). The logic underscoring the question is that role models share similar life goals and concerns with the client, and propose viable solutions to core issues (Savickas, 2012). The second question asks about favorite magazines, TV shows, and websites to establish the client’s vocational interests. The rationale is that interests are expressed through engaging in preferred activities and environments that fit the client’s personality (Savickas, 2015). The third question asks about a favorite story from a movie or book. The character in the book or movie is assumed to present problems similar to those held by the client and to offer strategies or outlines for a plan (Savickas, 1989). In particular, these characters reflect acceptable life themes for the client from childhood to retirement. These are important to help the client construct scripts for managing career transitions (Savickas, 2015). The fourth question asks about a favorite saying or motto, which provides insight into the client’s life story. The purpose is to reveal higher-order constructs that the client draws upon to manage problems encountered (Taber, Hartung, Briddick, Briddick, & Rehfuss, 2011). The last question asks for three early recollections (ERs) that represent specific events that occurred before the age of 10 years. After stating ERs, the client is asked to provide a headline to the individual’s story. The reason for exploring ERs is to highlight the client’s preoccupations, pains, and life themes, as these can lead the client to specific career paths (Savickas, 2005). Overall, these questions can reveal how the client engages with the world (Taber et al., 2011).

The rationale for the study

The latest statistics show that the world youth population between the ages of 15 and 24 is 1.2 billion (Population Reference Bureau, 2017); 13.1% are expected to remain unemployed (International Labour Organization, ILO, 2016). According to the Report from the Expert Panel on Youth Employment (2017), young people face vulnerabilities in the working world; they have fewer opportunities to enter the labor market and are more likely to be dismissed first. Accordingly, most youth, even in developed economies, remain in a transitional period, either from school to entry-level jobs or to stable or satisfactory employment (ILO, 2015). Accordingly, young people must tackle complex transitions or experience work-related traumas, such as remaining unemployed or being in low-quality jobs after graduation. These experiences call for career adaptability; thus, promoting career adaptability could serve as a protective factor as young people prepare for the future.

In order to foster career adaptability in young people, it is crucial to have a deep understanding of the different aspects of career adaptability. In particular, examining the differences between adolescents with low and high career adaptability should improve our understanding of this issue, as it will reveal the strengths or adaptive strategies of adolescents with high career adaptability as well as highlight the challenges or needs of low career adaptability youth. Both will point to ways for fostering career adaptability. Thus, this study aimed to examine how students with high scores on the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) (Porfeli & Savickas, 2012) differed from those with low career adaptability scores. For this, the CCI was used as this can be successfully used with adolescents in the early stage of career exploration (Rehfuss, Del Corso, Galvin, & Wykes, 2011).

Method

A phenomenological, qualitative research method was used to explore the career adaptabilities of adolescents to obtain an in-depth understanding of this complex issue (Creswell, 2007).

Sampling and data-gathering procedure

The sample consisted of 20 students recruited from Ankara, Turkey using purposive sampling. Table 1 shows the characteristics of the sample. As shown in Table 1, participants consisted of 12 male (60%) and 8 female (40%) students from grades 10 and 11, with 10 students in the high CAAS group and 10 in the low group.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Table 1.

Characteristics of participants by group.

Group		Participants
Group name	CAAS level	Pseudonym	Gender	Grade level	CAAS score	Total
G1	HighCAAS	S1	F	10th	111	10
		S2	M	10th	103
		S3	M	10th	116
		S4	M	10th	115
		S5	F	11th	95
		S6	M	11th	104
		S7	M	11th	106
		S8	F	11th	103
		S9	F	11th	105
		S10	F	11th	103
G2	LowCAAS	S11	M	10th	73	10
		S12	F	10th	72
		S13	M	10th	56
		S14	M	10th	74
		S15	F	11th	61
		S16	M	11th	72
		S17	M	11th	76
		S18	M	11th	74
		S1	F	10th	111
		S2	M	10th	103
N						20

CAAS: Career Adapt-Abilities Scale.

Based on previous research that integrated quantitative and qualitative methods to promote quality of career assessment (Maree & Morgan, 2012; Savickas, 2002), the present study used a multi-method, data-gathering procedure. Hence, the following steps were adopted: (a) the approval of the author’ university Human Subjects Ethics Committee and the permission from the Ministry of National Education were obtained; (b) the CAAS was administered to 325 10th (50.8%) and 11th (49.2%) grade students from Ankara, Turkey; (c) based on these scores, low and high career adaptability groups were determined, considering those who scored in the bottom (⩽25%) and top percentile (⩾75%; this formula was suggested by Savickas (personal communication, May 9, 2013) as a cut-off point to determine low and high career adaptability levels); (d) 10 participants from each group were randomly selected to represent the low and high career adaptability groups; (e) dates and times were scheduled for the interviews according to the school programs by collaborating with the school counselors; (f) informed consent forms were obtained from each student prior to the interviews; and (g) interviews of 15–20 minutes were conducted in an individual setting provided at the schools.

Data analysis

A content analysis of the interview responses was conducted to obtain a qualitative understanding of career adaptability for the two groups. All audio recorded CCIs were transcribed verbatim. A coding scheme was used to analyze the data (see Table 2). As seen in Table 2, the coding scheme included the main themes, their descriptors, and source of data. Accounting for the CAAS-International Form 2.0 (Porfeli & Savickas, 2012), the concern, control, curiosity, and confidence subscales were retained as the main themes. The qualitative descriptors for each component of career adaptability was drawn from the career construction theory (cf. Hartung, 2007; Hartung et al., 2008; Koen, Klehe, & Van Vianen, 2012; Porfeli & Savickas, 2012; Savickas, 1997, 2002, 2005; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). The sources of data were the questions from the CCI. Although all of the content gathered from the CCI interviews was considered, the existing guidelines for interpretation of the questions linked with the main themes and their descriptors, the researcher coded the transcripts of the high and low career adaptability groups separately using the same coding scheme.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Table 2.

Coding scheme.

Main themes	Descriptors	Source of data
Concern	Optimism, future orientation, planning abilities, preparing for the future, hope	Q1 (role models), Q4 (motto)
Control	Autonomy, independence, decision making, persistence, sense of responsibility	Q1 (role models), Q3 (favorite story), Q4 (motto), Q5 (ERs)
Curiosity	Inquisitiveness, acquisition of information, exploration, risk-taking	Q1 (role models), Q2 (magazines, TV shows, and websites), Q3 (favorite story)
Confidence	Self-confidence, efficaciousness, problem-solving	Q3 (favorite story), Q4 (motto), Q5 (ERs)

Results

The analysis of the low and high career adaptability groups each focused on the four main themes of concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. The summary of findings is presented in Table 3.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Table 3.

Qualitative markers of adolescents' career adaptability.

Main themes	High career adaptability group		Low career adaptability group
	Subthemes	F	Subthemes	F
Concern	Pessimism	10	(Lack of) hope	7
Total		10		7
Control	Persistence	19	(Lack of) persistence	11
	Sense of responsibility	5	(Lack of) responsibility	4
	Autonomy	2	Indecisiveness	5
Total		26		16
Curiosity	Exploration (self and environment)	25	Exploration (self and environment)	7
	Inquisitiveness	14	Inquisitiveness	2
Total		39		9
Confidence	Self-confident	10	(Lack of) confidence	12
			Problem solving	6
Total		10		18

F: frequencies.

As shown in Table 3, a set of subthemes was identified under each main theme across the participants' stories.

In terms of the four career adaptability components, concern was illustrated by pessimism (8.5%) in the responses of the high career adaptability group. Most participants with the high career adaptability scores responded in a negative way. For instance, S5 stated, “I am not so positive. I have a negative worldview like my pessimistic mother”. S4: “What if I do not study architecture … In that case, it would be an obstacle in my life…”. S7: “The world is not fair; especially, there is not justice in our country…”. These findings implied overly negative viewpoints for the future.

In the low adaptability group, on the other hand, (lack of) hope was the only subtheme illustrated in concern (14% of coded responses). For instance, S13 said, “I liked that character as he didn’t lose his hope at all. If I were him, I would lose my hope. It is too hard for me to keep my hope under those circumstances”. S15 said, “She didn’t get discouraged; I know I would give up if I faced this difficulty”. S17 said, “Can I do this profession? Can I become as successful as he is? I don’t know. This is the biggest issue for me”. S20 said, “When I choose an occupation according to my interests, I know there is no future for those occupations in my country. The people who are incapable can take these jobs”.

Control was evidenced by 30.59% of coded responses in the high career adaptability group, constituting the subthemes persistence, sense of responsibility, and autonomy. Persistence (73.08%) was a prominent subtheme, which referred to firmness and perseverance, such as “I have learned not to give up” (S1). Other examples included “Pokémon … is a determined character. I look like it” (S3). “I consider that I am a determined person” (S4). “Determination, effort, and practice … I appreciate them to achieve success…” (S5). “All her life she has been rowing against the tide. I could do that as well” (S6). “Like the character of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, I never give up” (S7).

The sense of responsibility (19.23%) was the second most frequently reported issue in participants’ narratives, followed by an interest in taking responsibility and being aware of duties. S5 said, “If I take responsibility, I try my best”. S10 responded: “I couldn’t go anywhere right now; I can’t give up my responsibilities”. Autonomy (7.69%), a subtheme under control, was least reported, as indicated by statements wanting to do something on their own. For instance, S5 said, “You should do things by yourself, you do not need anybody”.

In the low career adaptability group, control was reflected by 32% of coded responses. (Lack of) persistence (22%) was salient among three subthemes, such as “I would like to be like Stephan Hawking who pursues his aims, constantly conducts his studies. I am not insisting on something” (S12). “I prefer to binge watch, simply because I don’t like waiting for the next episode” (S14). “I’m not patient enough like him; I can’t wait…” (S16). “I’m not patient” (S17). “If you don't feel like doing anything, I'd say it's pretty hard to pursue” (S18). “I need to stop postponing studying” (S19).

(Lack of) the sense of responsibility (8%) was determined by participants’ statements and past experiences. For instance, S12 said, “I failed two exams last year. What am I doing right now for this? Nothing”. S14 said,

I would say the guy who played Harry Potter. I mean, he started as an actor just at my age, earned lots of money, and became a rich person. So, I thought that’s why I am sitting here and have to study.

Curiosity was illustrated by 45.88% of coded responses in the high career adaptability group. Exploration (self and environment; 64.10%) and inquisitiveness (35.89%) were revealed as its subthemes. Exploration (self and environment) was reinforced by responses such as S2: “I think that I am a helpful and voluntary person like Messi; I want to help people in need and make the world a better place”. S3: “After I watched The Devil’s Advocate, I realized that I don’t want to be an arrogant person”. S7: “I have been watching Star Wars and The Lord of Rings since my childhood. I admire the visual effects, the fiction used in the movies. That’s why I have an interest in becoming a film director”. S8: “I liked that story as I like the horses. I would like to help autistic children by using pet therapy”. S10: “I don’t want to be a journalist like him. I would like to have a regular life”.

Inquisitiveness was revealed by participants’ expression-linked inquiries. For instance, S1 said, “I like reading about anything, learning new things, increasing my general knowledge …I like to investigate different topics”. S2 and S5 stated that they enjoyed a TV show called Who Wants to be a Millionaire to gain more information. S3 said, “I like to examine some web pages where the people record their strategies for a computer game, so I can improve my strategy by combining some of them”. S6 said, “I like reading detective novels that help me learn interesting things. I also read literature about the Tanzimat reform era”. S10 said, “I like reading this magazine because it criticizes the system and feeds me intellectually”.

In the low career adaptability group, curiosity (18%) was represented by the same subthemes. Exploration (self and environment) was reflected by responses such as “I like watching Survivor as it includes action. I like action” (S11). Similarly, S12 said, “I like to watch Survivor. I like competition”. S13 said, “I was watching Sherlock Holmes last year because it was exciting. Interesting characters, fiction, etc. It was exciting and attracted my attention”. S14: “There is a magazine named PC Magazine. They write about computer games. I am jealous of their office environment. I wish I worked there”. S17 said, “I watch Breakout Kings. Crime, guns, soldiers … I have an interest in this kind of topics”. S15 said, “I like to watch Beyaz Show. I have super fun every Friday night”. Similarly, S19 said, “I like to watch Avrupa Yakası just because it is fun”. Inquisitiveness was coded through statements such as “I like to investigate topics related to space, especially black holes” (S12). “They are trying to solve a crime on the Fargo and Supernatural television series. I like to investigate the clues and details like these fictional shows” (S19).

Confidence was represented by 11.76% of coded responses among the high career adaptability group. Self-confident was identified as a subtheme by participants’ narratives about their experiences or future directions. For instance, S1 said, “I don’t see any obstacle to achieving my goals. I think that I can do what I want”. S4 said, “There is nothing we cannot overcome in the world”. S5: “There is no obstacle. I can do that…”. S6 said, “I believe that I can reach my goals”. S7 said, “I motivate myself saying that if somebody can do, then you can do it”. In the low career adaptability group, confidence was represented by 36% of coded responses, revealing the two subthemes of lack of confidence (66.67%) and problem-solving (33.33%). Lack of confidence was exemplified by participants’ responses such as “He had a strong personality; he was self-confident and assertive. I’m not such a person” (S11). “I want to achieve something in my life” (S12). “Can I succeed at this work? This question makes me so anxious” (S17). “It is exhaustive to worry too much what others think about me” (S20). Problem-solving was represented by participants’ coping strategies for dealing with problems. For instance, S11 said, “Whenever I am confronted about my faults I thought that I deserved that”. S12 said, “No pain, no gain! I mean flat-out hitting rock bottom to recover”. S20 said, “If you don’t have higher expectations you don’t ever feel disappointed”.

Overall, the results indicated that within the high career adaptability group, curiosity was the most frequent main theme, followed by control. Within the low career adaptability group, lack of confidence and control were the most frequent main themes. Regarding subthemes, the high group showed pessimism; the low group yielded (lack of) hope under concern. Persistence was a salient subtheme of control in the high group, and was viewed as (lack of) persistence in the low group. In addition, autonomy was revealed in the first group, while indecisiveness was coded frequently in the low group. Curiosity produced the same subthemes, but showed differences in terms of their frequencies in the high group. Finally, there were differences between the two groups in terms of the subthemes of confidence; the high group yielded self-confidence, while the low group revealed lack of confidence and problem-solving. The summary of the main findings can be seen in Table 3.

Discussion

This study aimed to qualitatively explore differences in career adaptability in adolescents across high and low career adaptability groups. The findings indicated that there were differences between the two groups, which are discussed in more detail below.

Concern was the first main theme. In the career adaptability literature, career concern is related to the future and necessitates optimism (Savickas, 2005). However, the high career adaptability group revealed pessimistic states as a subtheme of concern. This could be explained by the Turkish educational system; it is based on competitive exams to build one’s future, which also means high pressure. Not surprisingly, previous studies have shown that depressive symptoms are prevalent in Turkish youth (Eskin, Ertekin, Harlak, & Dereboy, 2008), and that they are worried about their future, compared to Norwegian youth (Türken, Nafstad, Phelps, & Blakar, 2016). In addition, another study reported that Turkish youth perceived having employment security, good social networks, and luck as the most important factors for their vocational future (Dawes & Bozkurt, 2010).

On the other hand, the low career adaptability group showed a lack of hope, consistent with previous findings that revealed associations between career adaptability and hope (Büyükgöze-Kavas, 2016; Hirschi, 2014). Optimism is considered a cognitive process, which evaluates the role of outside factors in outcomes; whereas hope is considered a situational emotional state and involves expectations regarding the outcomes obtained by oneself (Bruininks & Malle, 2005; Magaletta & Oliver, 1999; Snyder, 2002). This could potentially explain why the high career adaptability group had a lack of optimism and the low career adaptability group had a lack of hope. Notwithstanding, concern featured less than the other three resources of career adaptability in both groups.

Under control, persistence was the salient subtheme in both groups, with the low career adaptability group revealing a lack of it. In addition, while the high career adaptability group reported a sense of responsibility and autonomy, the low group indicated a (lack of) responsibility and indecisiveness. These results could be explained within the framework of career construction theory, in which career control involves taking responsibility for one’s vocational future via persistence, effort, self-discipline, autonomy, and decisiveness (Savickas, 1997, 2005; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). Therefore, high career adaptability predicts an individual’s control levels in life (Hirschi, 2009), which is consistent with the findings in the high group. Accordingly, the low career adaptability group revealed a deficit in these competencies. This examination revealed that control produced the second highest frequency of the content in both groups, consistent with previous studies (Büyükgöze-Kavas, 2014; Karacan-Ozdemir, 2016b). This might be explained by the fact that students are expected to be determined and persistent to pass the national university entrance exam (Büyükgöze-Kavas, 2014). This exam requires students to be academically successful, which is consistent with previous evidence that GPA is associated with career adaptability (Öncel, 2014), academic satisfaction, and greater feelings of control (Duffy, Douglass, & Autin, 2015).

Curiosity was the third main theme; it produced the congruent subthemes of exploration (self and environment) and inquisitiveness in both groups. Career curiosity involves activities and initiatives for thinking about the self and possible roles within alternative scenarios. It also means being curious about occupations and the self. In this study, the high career adaptability group had the highest frequency of curiosity. This could be explained by the fact that high school students are expected to make future career plans and their first career-related choices within the age-graded, career development and preparation process (Skorikov, 2007). In addition, the focus of career guidance in Turkey is mainly to enter higher education (Akkök & Watts, 2003). Therefore, a fundamental approach is necessary to help individuals choose an occupation based on their interests and talents (Yesilyaprak, 2017), which might involve a matching approach by counselors who can foster self-exploration through various tests and information for relevant occupations and alternatives.

The last main theme was confidence, which refers to efficacious beliefs in making career choices and overcoming problems encountered in their career path (Savickas, 2005). The results showed that while the high career adaptability group reported self-confidence, the low group had lack of confidence as a subtheme. This is supported by previous research that found associations between self-efficacy beliefs and career adaptability (Karacan-Ozdemir & Yerin Guneri, 2017). When individuals have career confidence, they see themselves as competent to effectively solve career-related problems (Koen et al., 2012). Subsequently, problem-solving was another subtheme in the low adaptability group. When examining their statements, the problem-solving strategies were largely emotion-focused coping strategies. Emotion-focused types tend to control discomfort stemming from a problem (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) due to a lack of problem-focused strategies (Oppenheimer, 2008).

While contributing to the literature on career adaptability, this study has several limitations. First, the most important one is that the researcher alone coded the interviews. To reduce the effects of this limitation, several precautions were taken, such as providing a detailed description of the methodology of the study, using a theory-based coding schema, and presenting direct quotes from the interviews. Second, the study used a small sample size drawn from a larger group of 325 10th- and 11th-grade students. However, this is characteristic of qualitative research, which seeks to generate rich and nuanced information. Third, this study excluded 9th and 12th graders, which could be a limitation in terms of interpreting the results. On the other hand, these grade levels include new academic responsibilities and requirements for the students, as they are the first and last years of high school, respectively. Last, this study used Savickas’ model for career construction for the coding system, which might have resulted in oversight of other important insights or interesting findings not included in this model.

Conclusions

This study contributes to a rich understanding of career adaptability in adolescents. Thus, it has implications for theory, research, practice, and directions for future research. The first main theoretical contribution of the present study is that it qualitatively supports that career adaptability is multidimensional (Savickas, 2005). The findings also identified qualitative descriptors of career adaptability for high and low career adaptability. This will allow a better understanding of the structure of career adaptability, especially for those who want to explore the individual factors that might have an influence. Another implication derives from the findings regarding the societal influences on career adaptability, as noted by Hirschi (2009). It is important to examine and evaluate career adaptability from an ecological perspective, which focuses on the influences of the interrelations among subsystems within a larger ecosystem: that is, from the individual to the community (Bronfenbrenner, 1977).

This study was novel as it explored career adaptability by quantitatively determining low and high career adaptability groups, according to CAAS scores. The study also indicated the usefulness of the CCI as an assessment method, and confirmed its efficiency to explore adolescents’ career adaptability. This study could be extended longitudinally, for instance, to explore career adaptability changes in groups through high school and transitions, such as from high school to university. Further research could also take an interpretative perspective and investigate life designs and success formulas of participants from each group.

Finally, the practical contribution of the research is that it provides much needed empirical data on adolescents with low career adaptability. The findings will be useful for career practitioners in Turkey to generate strategies and consider where emphases should be best placed to help students. This will be important for career guidance services as well as for career education and counseling at schools, career centers, etc., using individual-centered and context-sensitive approaches. Career education programs might focus on interventions to increase career adaptability, as suggested by Hartung et al. (2008), especially career confidence, control, and future orientation, by fostering optimism and hope. Career counseling could be conducted to help students discover themselves and construct their lives and careers. The outcomes could also be tested further for relevance in other countries and cultures.