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Who seeks career counselling? A prospective study of personality and career variables among Swiss adolescents

  • Elif Balin
  • Andreas Hirschi
Article
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Abstract

This study investigated whether career adaptability, personality, attitude towards career counselling and some demographic variables predict the help seeking behaviour in career counselling among 330 Swiss adolescents in eighth grade. The results indicated that boys were less likely to seek help and that career related variables and attitude but not personality significantly predicted help-seeking. Specifically, help seeking related positively to undecidedness and positive perception of career counselling. Implications for school and career counsellors and suggestions for future research are presented.

Keywords

Help seeking in career counselling Career adaptability Adolescent career development 

Résumé

Qui fait appel à l’orientation professionnelle? Une étude prospective de la personnalité et de variables vocationnelles chez des adolescents suisses. Cette étude investigue si l’adaptabilité, la personnalité, les attitudes face au conseil en orientation et quelques variables démographiques prédisent le comportement de recherche d’aide à l’orientation parmi 330 adolescents suisses de huitième année. Les résultats indiquent que les garçons recherchent moins d’aide et que les variables vocationnelles et les attitudes, mais pas la personnalité, prédisent de manière significative la recherche d’aide à l’orientation. Plus spécifiquement, la recherche d’aide est positivement reliée à l’indécision et à une perception positive de l’orientation professionnelle. Les implications pour les conseillers en orientation, ainsi que des suggestions pour de futures recherches sont présentées.

Zusammenfassung

Wer benutzt die Berufsberatung? Eine prospektive Studie von Persönlichkeit- und Laufbahnvariablen bei Schweizer Jugendlichen. Diese Studie untersuchte, ob Laufbahnadaptabilität, Persönlichkeit, Einstellungen gegenüber Berufsberatung sowie einige demographische Variablen das Aufsuchen der Berufsberatung bei einer Gruppe von 330 Schweizer Jugendlichen in der achten Klasse vorhersagen würden. Die Resultate zeigen, dass Knaben weniger häufig Hilfe aufsuchen und dass Variablen der Laufbahnentwicklung und Einstellungen aber nicht Persönlichkeit signifikant Verhalten zur Hilfesuche beeinflussen. Im Speziellen war das Aufsuchen der Berufsberatung positiv mit Unschlüssigkeit und einer positiven Wahrnehmung der Berufsberatung verbunden. Implikationen für Bildungs- und Berufsberater sowie Vorschläge für zukünftige Forschung werden präsentiert.

Resumen

¿Quién busca recibir Orientación para la Carrera? Un Estudio Prospectivo de variables de personalidad y profesionales entre adolescentes suizos. En este estudio se investigó si la adaptabilidad, personalidad y actitud hacia la orientación para la carrera, así como algunas variables demográficas predicen el comportamiento de búsqueda de orientación profesional entre 330 adolescentes suizos en grado octavo (N.T. edad media en este curso- 13 años). Los resultados indicaron que los chicos muestran menos tendencia a buscar ayuda y que las variables profesionales y la actitud, pero no las de personalidad, predicen significativamente la búsqueda de ayuda. En concreto, la búsqueda de ayuda se relacionó de forma positiva con la indecisión y con una percepción positiva de la orientación para la carrera. Se presentan las implicaciones para los orientadores escolares y profesionales, así como unas sugerencias para investigaciones futuras.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Pennsylvania State UniversityPAUSA
  2. 2.Leuphana Universität LüneburgLüneburgGermany

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