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Work Personality, Core Self-evaluation and Perceived Career Barriers in Young Adult Central Nervous System Cancer Survivors

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between work personality, core self-evaluation (CSE), and perceived internal and external barriers to employment in a group of young adult CNS survivors.

Methods

The participants consisted of 110 young adult survivors of pediatric central nervous system (CNS) tumors aged between 18 and 30 years old (M = 23.05, SD = 3.36). Mediation analysis with structural equational modeling (SEM) technique was used to correlate a number of different measures (Work Personality [WP], Perceived Employment Barriers [PEB], and Core-Self Evaluation [CSE]).

Results

Results revealed an exceptionally well-fitting model to our data with work personality predicting CSE positively: β = 0.34, SE = 0.07, 95% CI (0.18, 0.47) while CSE inversely predicts Perceived Barriers to Employment, β = − 0.60, SE = 0.06, 95% CI (− 0.70, − 0.49). There is a direct pathway from WP to PEB once CSE was accounted for β = − 0.20, SE = 0.07, 95% CI (− 0.33, − 0.06). The presence of both significant direct and indirect effects of WP on PEB implied that there was a partial mediating effect of CSE on the association between WP and PEB.

Conclusions

Work personality is a robust construct that can be applied to young adult CNS survivors in effort to gain more insight into the personality and psychological factors that impact career development and employment in this group. The major finding of this study was that work personality and CSE had a significant direct effect on perceived career barriers and that there was a significant indirect effect with CSE acting as a mediator between developmental work personality and perceived career barriers.

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Funding

This study was funded by an internal grant from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, USA

    David R. Strauser, Sa Shen & Chelsea Greco

  2. Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Boston, USA

    Elizabeth Fine & Cori Liptak

  3. National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan, ROC

    David R. Strauser

  4. Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 213A Huff Hall, 1206 South Fourth Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA

    David R. Strauser

Authors
  1. David R. Strauser
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  2. Sa Shen
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  3. Chelsea Greco
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  4. Elizabeth Fine
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  5. Cori Liptak
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David R. Strauser.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This was also approved by IRB committees.

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Strauser, D.R., Shen, S., Greco, C. et al. Work Personality, Core Self-evaluation and Perceived Career Barriers in Young Adult Central Nervous System Cancer Survivors. J Occup Rehabil 31, 119–128 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-020-09897-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-020-09897-9

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