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To be prepared for one´s own career is a major task during career development. However, existing research has primarily focused on adolescence in the transition from school to work while research on career preparation among university students, that are challenged by successfully transiting from university to work, are lacking so far. Thus, this cumulative dissertation studies career preparation in terms of career decidedness, planning, confidence, and career engagement using large samples of German university students and alumni as well as a variety of quantitative methods like latent state-trait analysis, cross-lagged analysis, and mediation analysis with multiple mediators. In the first paper, the stable component of career indecision is investigated with longitudinal data stemming from two samples with different time lags (Sample 1: N = 363, 7 weeks; Sample 2: N = 591, 6 months). Furthermore, the combined and unique effects of career indecisiveness and generalized indecisiveness on life satisfaction are examined using a sample consisting of 469 university students. Results indicate that career indecision is determined by a stable component (i.e., trait career indecisiveness) that is associated with lower core self-evaluations, lower occupational self-efficacy, and higher perception of career barriers. Additionally, results indicate that the stable career indecision component explains 5% of the variance in student life satisfaction beyond self-evaluated generalized indecisiveness. The second paper deals with the relationships of vocational interest characteristics - interest congruence, interest differentiation, and general interest level (elevation) - with several indicators of career preparedness (i.e., career planning, occupational self-efficacy beliefs, career decidedness, and career engagement) among a sample of 239 university students. Controlling for sociodemographic variables, multiple regression analyses revealed that differentiation is positively associated with career decidedness and career engagement and elevation is positively related to occupational self-efficacy beliefs and career engagement. The third paper investigates how protean career orientation (PCO) is related to vocational identity clarity and occupational self-efficacy. Study 1 reports a 1-year, three-wave cross-lagged study among 563 university students and established that PCO preceded changes in identity and self-efficacy - but not the other way around. Based on a 6-month longitudinal study of 202 employees, Study 2 shows that identity clarity and self-efficacy mediated the effects of PCO on career satisfaction and proactive career behaviors. PCO only possessed incremental predictive validity regarding proactive career behaviors. However, specific direct or mediated effects of PCO on job satisfaction could not be confirmed. The fourth paper explores the relationships between narcissism and two indicators of career success (i.e., salary and career satisfaction) among a group of young professionals (N = 314). A model proposing that the effect of narcissism on career success is mediated by increased occupational self-efficacy beliefs and career engagement was assessed. While correlations between narcissism and the two indicators of career success were minimal, the results show a significant indirect effect on salary via occupational self-efficacy and indirect effects on career satisfaction via self-efficacy and career engagement. Overall, the different studies corroborate the crucial role of career preparation for a successful start into working life. In sum, this dissertation contributes to literature on vocational psychology by providing novel insights in terms of facilitators and outcomes of career preparation among university students and graduates. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and promising directions for future research are identified.
Research in work and organizational psychology frequently conducts studies based on self-report questionnaires. Evidence of the reliability and validity of these measures has to be provided based on thorough research in order to be certain that meaningful conclusions can be reached. Recently, latent variable approaches have been introduced that provide new opportunities to examine the instruments and determine if they are suitable to obtain meaningful results. They also offer new approaches to investigate the relationships between constructs, particularly when assessed over time. The research conducted in this PhD thesis and reported in three papers aims at utilizing these opportunities to examine the measurement properties of a selection of self-report questionnaires and to address conceptual questions regarding the validity of these instruments. In the first paper, the structure of two five-factor personality inventories was examined using Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM). Both methods were applied to construct better-fitting, though more complex models based on data from two questionnaires (NEO PI-R and 16PF) completed by 620 respondents. The impact on the construct validity of the inventories was assessed. Generally, scores derived from either method did not differ substantially. When applying ESEM, convergent validity declined but discriminant validity improved. When applying CFA, convergent and discriminant validity decreased. We conclude that using current personality questionnaires that utilize a simple structure is appropriate. In the second paper, the nature of and reason for the relationship between a presence of a calling and three aspects of career preparation (career planning, decidedness, and self-efficacy) were investigated. Data were collected in three waves of a diverse sample of German university students (N = 846) over one year. Latent growth analyses revealed that calling was positively related with all career preparation measures. The slope of calling was positively related to those of decidedness and self-efficacy but not to planning. Cross-lagged analyses showed that calling predicted a subsequent increase in planning and self-efficacy. Planning and decidedness predicted an increase in the presence of a calling. In the third paper, the measurement properties of an adapted protean career orientation scale were examined. We present a series of studies that (1) establish the scale’s unidimensionality and measurement invariance across gender within separate samples of students and working professionals as well as measurement invariance between both samples; (2) demonstrate measurement invariance and differential stability over six months among students and professionals; (3) show that a protean career orientation partially mediates the relationship between personality dispositions (i.e., proactive personality, core self-evaluations) and proactive career behaviors and career satisfaction among students and employees; (4) demonstrate that a protean career orientation possesses incremental predictive validity regarding proactive career behaviors and career satisfaction beyond personality dispositions among students and employees; and (5) based on a cross-lagged study among employees, we show that career satisfaction predicts a protean career orientation but not vice versa. In summary, the research presented here provides researchers in the field of work and organizational psychology with a thorough assessment of the measurement properties and aspects of validity of these self-report questionnaires. The findings demonstrate their suitability for future research studies conducted in work and organizational psychology as well as for practical applications.