In the study reported on here we explored the influence of life-design counselling intervention on high school learners with career indecision who hail from resource-poor contexts in rural South Africa. Purposeful sampling was used to select 17 participants from a resource-constrained area. A mixed-methods group-based intervention embedded in…

Background: Understanding the parental influences on the career development of non-engaged youth (NEY) has been an underdeveloped research area. Furthermore, psychometrically valid and reliable tools for assessing how parents of NEY support their children in dealing with career issues remain largely unavailable in academia. Objective: This…

Since the 1970s, schools in Ireland have offered an optional programme known as 'Transition Year' midway through secondary education, when students are typically 15 years old. It lasts one academic year and aims to promote maturity, social development and vocational exploration, and to give students a chance to develop personal and intellectual…

While the transition to adulthood has generally been prolonged, not all young people are able to afford further study and delayed entry into paid work. This research examines the diversity in transitions (the different pathways/life choices young people can/may take) in a comparative perspective.

Drawing from career construction and positive youth development perspectives, this study explores, among 254 Italian high school students, the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and support from friends and teachers with indices of adaptive career development. Results from the full canonical correlational model revealed that…

What predicts a person's venture creation success over the course of the career, such as making progress in the venture creation process and multiple successful venture creations? Applying a life span approach of human development, this study examined the effect of early entrepreneurial competence in adolescence, which was gathered retrospectively…

This research examines the relationship between career related self-concept and dimensions of informal learning of science. The overlapping dimensions of career interest development and informal learning suggest that self-directed informal learning of science can advance individual self-concept for "possible scientific self." Possible…

This study tested the developmental trajectories of career maturity (CM) and parental attachment (PA), the longitudinal influence of both, and gender as a moderator. Findings showed developmental progressions in adolescents' PA and CM over 4 years. The change in PA was positively related to the developmental change in CM. For gender, there was a…

Chronic illnesses and disabilities may impair the attainment of age-typical developmental tasks, such as forming relationships with peers and gaining autonomy. Based on a systematic search in electronic databases and cross-referencing, 447 quantitative empirical studies were included which compared the attainment of developmental tasks of…

The aim of this study is to assess the impact of sudden parental bereavement on subsequent attainment of developmental competencies. This longitudinal study reports on 126 youth bereaved by sudden parental death (suicide, accident, or natural death) and 116 demographically similar nonbereaved controls assessed at 9, 21, 33, and 62 months after…

Developing a sense of purpose is both salient and desirable for adolescents, and purpose in people's lives and careers is associated with both general and work-related well-being. However, little is known about whether purpose can be encouraged through school-based interventions. This article reports the results of a quasi-experimental pilot study…

A qualitative, longitudinal, phenomenological case study explored how a gifted female experienced various life events and aspects of development during adolescence and young adulthood (ages 15-30 years), particularly as related to multiple traumatic experiences, which were revealed late in the first year of the study. Additional experiences, well…

This report, which presents the results of a study of the effect on young people's lives by early family formation and especially entry into parenthood, is based on the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, a large national survey that has tracked over 22,000 young people who are now in their mid-twenties. Following a…

This study compared the timing of early vocational preferences in young adolescents from former East Germany and West Germany. Results suggested that as the memory of the Communist system fades and as younger adolescents have had less exposure to it, East-West differences tend to disappear. The formation of early vocational preferences was…

Career preparation represents a major developmental task of adolescence, which has not received sufficient attention in empirical research on career development. Thus, this study was designed to examine the structure, continuity, and change in adolescent career preparation and its relationships with adjustment. The data were collected from a…