Abstract
Career development literature that tested the career construction model of adaptation has, thus far, examined adaptability resource as a mediator in the relationship between adaptive readiness and adaptation results; however, there remains a need to elaborate the links between adaptive resources, adapting response, and adaptation results. This research tested a path model among 331 Filipino senior high school students using hope, career adaptability, career engagement, and life satisfaction as measures of adaptive readiness, adaptability resources, adaptive response, and adaptation results, respectively. Analyses revealed a significant serial relationship from hope to life satisfaction through career adaptability and career engagement. Findings suggest that having career-related abilities may not be enough to promote well-being; rather proactive career behaviors may be taken as a route to a satisfying life. Implications on theory, research, and practice are discussed.
Keywords
To experience well-being or happiness in many aspects of one’s life is indisputably the fundamental goal for many individuals (Hartung & Taber, 2008). However, there is a substantial number of children and adolescents expressing dissatisfaction with their lives as psychological distress has become prevalent among youth (Proctor et al., 2009). In the Philippines, for example, the feelings of sadness as well as the thoughts of committing suicide are some of the common mental health issues among adolescents (World Health Organization, 2011). The adolescence stage has often been recognized as a crucial period marked by several developmental changes and psychosocial transitions, including preparation for adult roles and responsibilities (Alampay et al., 2003). In particular, adolescents at senior high school (SHS) experience various demands such as academic pressure and career-related decisions and activities that may negatively affect their well-being (Creed et al., 2003). It becomes imperative, therefore, to discover how students perceive the quality of their lives in order to help them promote present and future positive development.
Measuring life satisfaction has traditionally been done to gain an indication of one’s happiness or positive mental health. Life satisfaction refers to “cognitive judgment made by individuals about the quality of their lives as a whole” (Huebner et al., 2014, p. 193). Accumulating evidence suggests that the construct of hope or goal-directed thinking is one of the most robust predictors of life satisfaction (Marques et al., 2013; Wong & Lim, 2009), yet the mechanism involved in this relationship appears to be unclear. Diener and colleagues (1999) noted that by merely having goals and motivation to pursue those goals is not enough to assure a satisfying life, and being able to adapt to life events and circumstances is unquestionably an important factor in understanding life satisfaction. Using the lens of career construction model of adaptation (CCMA; Savickas, 2013; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012; see also Rudolph et al., 2017), literature has positioned career adaptability as a mediating variable in the relationship between hope and life satisfaction among adolescents (Wilkins et al., 2014). However, scholars have called for the need to further explore the translation of career adaptability into substantial and concrete career-related behaviors (Johnston, 2016). As clarified by Hirschi et al. (2015), career adaptability is understood as psychosocial resources rather than actual career behaviors. This assumption has received less empirical attention and support (Johnston, 2016; Rudolph et al., 2017) as researchers commonly presented career adaptability as a direct predictor of adaptation results such as positive outcome (e.g., Hirschi, 2009; Konstam et al., 2015), or the relationship between career adaptability and life satisfaction was mediated by noncareer-related behaviors (e.g., Cabras & Mondo, 2018). These lines of research generally implied that career adaptability endorses degree of engagement in different career-related tasks.
This study aimed to contribute to existing literature in two ways. First, this study responded to the call of consistently applying CCMA by including a measure of adapting response (i.e., career behaviors) in the mediation model as it is theoretically and empirically distinct from career adaptability (Hirschi et al., 2015; Rudolph et al., 2017). To the researchers’ knowledge, only a few empirical studies explicitly applied and tested CCMA using select indicators of adaptive readiness, adapting response, and adaptation result (viz., Merino-Tejedor et al., 2016; Nilforooshan, 2020; Sverko & Babarovic, 2018). While a number of studies empirically tested the associations among the variables (e.g., hope and career adaptability, career adaptability, and career engagement), none of them, at least to our knowledge, tested them altogether in a mediation model. The interplay between hope, career adaptability, career engagement, and life satisfaction among adolescents has yet to be explored and represents a gap in career and vocational psychology literature. Hence, this study sought to examine the indirect relationship of hope and life satisfaction through the serial mediation of career adaptability and career engagement. Second, this study sought to test the model among Filipino adolescents, particularly SHS students. The study of Tolentino and colleagues (2013) tested the model of career adaptation among Filipino college students and employees using different indicators of adaptive readiness and adaptation result; however, they noted that research is also needed across various career development stages where career adaptation is also essential (e.g., those who are facing and anticipating career developmental tasks). Furthermore, research has already provided insights on the relevance of career adaptation among those who are in school-to-work transitions (Duffy, 2010) and those who experience nonnormative life events (Barto et al., 2015). The succeeding section, therefore, presents how adolescents in general and Filipino SHS students in particular start to engage in preparing for, participating in, and coping with the present and future career developmental tasks and transitions where adaptation to these situations appears to be crucial.
Adolescent Career Development and SHS in the Philippines
Career development refers to a person’s experience over time that ordinarily begins in childhood and adolescence where one’s interests, values, talents, and awareness of the workplace were first realized (Lent & Brown, 2013). Adolescents do not only begin to answer the question, “who am I?” but they also begin to generate answers to the question, “who can I become?” (Porfeli & Lee, 2012). Adolescents deal with their present and anticipated career developmental tasks and transitions by developing readiness and adaptability skills and engaging in more self-directed career planning and awareness activities (Lapan, 2004). Examples of these activities include collecting information about college courses, post-SHS careers and its nature, potential job growth, and job trends (Witko et al., 2005). Due to globalization, urbanization, and technological advances, Filipino adolescents face wide-ranging changes in sociocultural conditions (Alampay et al., 2003) including the most ambitious move in revolutionizing the country’s basic educational system. In the new system (i.e., K to 12), students are enjoined to dedicate additional yet specialized 2 years in basic education to develop essential competencies, skills, and values they need in preparation for their future. Prior to and during SHS, students go through different career-related activities such as awareness campaigns, career and labor market fairs, and career guidance programs where they examine career tracks and develop decision-making skills (e.g., choosing SHS career track). Students also get to explore and identify future careers as they undergo work immersion directly related to their career goals. In this way, students gain pertinent and practical industrial skills, grasp good work habits and attitudes, and prepare to meet the needs and challenges of higher education or employment. Ultimately, students are expected to actively contemplate on the four possible SHS exits, namely, employment, entrepreneurship, middle skills development, and higher education. If the students intend to pursue tertiary education, they are expected to actively engage in designing their careers as they need to envision the possible college degree programs and higher education institutions that can provide them better career opportunities. In essence, SHS students are presented with career developmental tasks and transitions where adaptation to these situations appears to be crucial as the kind of experience at this stage of students’ life will reflect the direction of their adult life (Creed et al., 2003).
CCMA
CCMA (Savickas, 2013; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) addresses how individuals construct their careers and adjust to their career developmental tasks, transitions, and traumas. CCMA proposes that adapting to changing conditions begins with the willingness to meet the career tasks (i.e., adaptive readiness), then proceeds to the development of adaptability skills (i.e., adaptability resources), and advances to the enactment of proactive behaviors (i.e., adapting response). In turn, adaptation results demonstrate success, well-being, and satisfaction (Rudolph et al., 2017; Savickas, 2013).
Adaptive readiness refers to the trait-like psychological characteristic that encompasses readiness and willingness to adapt to career-related challenges (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). In order to develop strategies for adjustment, one must develop or enhance certain traits including strengths and values. Adaptive traits can be operationalized using several indicators that display who individuals are at their core (Savickas, 2013). In this study, hope was chosen as a measure of adaptive readiness as hope theory (Snyder et al., 2005) provides an explanation on how it can facilitate adjustment. Furthermore, the assertion of hope theory that goals are the targets of cognitive processes is akin to CCMA’s notion that adaptation is enabled by a person’s goals (Savickas, 2013). Hopeful thoughts reflect goal-directed thinking where one holds the belief in coming up with particular strategies to reach those goals (i.e., pathway thinking) and sustaining motivation in using those strategies (i.e., agency thinking). “I can do it!” and “I will figure out a way to do this!” are the examples of agentic and pathway thinking, respectively (Magyar-Moe et al., 2015). Positive outcomes can be achieved if one develops positive thinking and is able to strive toward whatever goals they have in their lives (Snyder et al., 2002). In this manner, hope as goal-directed thinking can function as adaptive readiness as it characterizes the willingness and readiness of SHS students to adjust to their career developmental tasks and transition. However, psychological traits are inadequate in endorsing adapting behaviors and outcomes. Hence, understanding adaptability resources otherwise known as career adaptability is warranted (Savickas, 2013; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012).
Adaptability resources are “self-regulatory, psychosocial competencies that shape adaptive strategies and actions aimed at achieving adaptation goals” (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012, p. 663). These self-regulation strengths and capacities (i.e., concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) are being drawn upon when facing career-related developmental tasks and transitions. Concern for the future means having a career vision while taking into account the career-related tasks and challenges. Control over career reflects having intrapersonal self-discipline in taking responsibility in advancing one’s career and persistence in enhancing oneself. Curiosity about prospective vocational roles gives emphasis to the ability to imagine oneself in various future situations. Lastly, confidence in one’s abilities indicates trust in oneself to solve problems, overcome challenges, and turn goals into reality. Career adaptability subsumes all these four resources. As such, career adaptability underscores “abilities” (e.g., planning how to achieve goals, thinking about the future, becoming curious, and learning new skills). Contrariwise, individuals who lack these resources demonstrate one or more career-related problems such as career indecision and inhibition (Savickas, 2013). While few studies claimed that career adaptability precedes hope (e.g., Santilli et al., 2017), the relationship of hope (as character strengths) in facilitating career adaptability (as psychosocial resource) could be further explained by the concept of strengths as discussed in the broader perspective of positive psychology. Character strengths, such as hope, are positive traits that enable individuals to act, think, and feel when realizing positive outcomes (Park et al., 2004). Psychosocial resources, on the other hand, are from another category of strengths or entities that are being tapped in order to obtain value-ends in times of stress, coping, and adaptation (Hobfoll, 2002). According to Kaufman (2011), character strengths direct and reinforce other categories of strengths (e.g., psychosocial resources) and make the best use of it. According to Tolentino and colleagues (2013), students who can define, enact, and adjust goals (an indicator of readiness) are expected to cultivate career adaptability resources. As Savickas (2003) explicitly stated, hope is also incorporated and is particularly relevant in the discussion of career adaptability. The convergence and theoretical parallels between the human strengths and well-being as focal points of positive psychology, career development, and vocational psychology theories have been studied extensively in the past decade (Dik et al., 2019). Individuals with high levels of hope can envision and articulate clear goals whereas individuals with low level of hope create imprecise and unsure goals (Snyder et al., 1997). Moreover, in order to withstand the challenges of goal pursuit, high hope (goal-directed thinking) individuals are also inclined to develop alternate strategies. It has been reported in empirical research that hope is an essential element in endorsing positive outcomes in the career domain (Hirschi, 2014; Hirschi et al., 2015; Valero et al., 2015). Hope has been suggested not only in its capacity to foster career adaptability in university students but also regarded as the strongest predictor among other positive traits (Buyukgoze-Kavas, 2016). Among high school students, hope appeared to be a critical factor in developing career adaptability resources amid significant changes in the job market (Wilkins et al., 2014).
Individuals use adaptability resources to develop strategies in order to enact adapting response. Adapting response constitutes real career-related behaviors such as career exploration and career planning (Hirschi et al., 2015; Rudolph et al., 2017). Whereas adaptability resources highlight attitudes, beliefs, and competencies; adapting response reflects mastering of career developmental tasks and transitions by actual enactment of behaviors such as career exploration and experimentation (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). In this study, career engagement was measured to operationalize adapting response. Conceptually defined by Hirschi et al. (2014), career engagement refers to the extent to which individuals actively participate in developing their career through proactive career management activities. Examples of these behaviors include developing career plans and goals, seeking career information, and participating voluntarily in career-related trainings and events. A fair amount of research has investigated the relationship between career adaptability and career-related behaviors. Chong and Leong (2015) have found out that career adaptability significantly predicted strategic career management or the degree to which undergraduate students with work experience engaged in career self-management behaviors. For job-seekers, high career adaptability predicted high engagement in different job search strategies, which led to more job offers (Koen et al., 2010). The cross-sectional investigation conducted by Hirschi and colleagues (2015) found that having concern and curiosity about their future and control over career choices significantly predicted career-related behaviors (e.g., career planning and career exploration). In other words, career adaptability has a wide-ranging influence on career management behaviors (i.e., career engagement) and the awareness of being career adaptable endorses students’ engagement in proactive handling of careers.
Adaptation result is a state reached by an individual as an outcome of effectively handling career developmental tasks and coping with transitions. Adaptation result is characterized not only by positive career outcomes (e.g., promotability) but also by subjective well-being (Rudolph et al., 2017; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). In general, adaptation to life events provides implications to one’s subjective well-being (Diener et al., 1999). In this study, life satisfaction, a measure of subjective well-being, was used to represent adaptation result. It has been stressed that examining global judgment about an individual’s own life requires understanding of the psychological process of construction (Diener et al., 2005). Life satisfaction is based on subjective experiences (Huebner et al., 2014) as individuals use meta-strategies to search for information and to pinpoint what is striking at the moment. Essentially, engaging in career self-management behaviors can lead to positive outcomes such as the general sense of well-being (King, 2004). More so, in order to sustain well-being, one must also exercise a healthy engagement with a career such as actively designing one’s future (Hartung & Taber, 2008; Robertson, 2015). Findings suggest that behaviors related to career preparation and career exploration tend to increase students’ life satisfaction (e.g., Hirschi, 2009). Moreover, Hirschi et al. (2014) have found out that engaging in career proactive behaviors predicted job and career satisfaction among university students. Other studies offer empirical hints as domain-specific engagement across life span predicted satisfaction in life in general as well as other domain-specific satisfaction. For example, previous studies revealed that the civic engagement of emerging adults predicted life satisfaction (Choudhary & Gupta, 2017), and college students’ occupational engagement predicted academic major satisfaction (Cox et al., 2016). These recent findings give emphasis to a common theme, that is, being immersed or fully present in certain undertakings promotes well-being. Along this thought, it indicates that the relationship of engagement in the career domain and satisfaction in life can be anticipated as SHS students face present and anticipate career-related tasks and transitions.
The Present Study
As shown earlier, both hope and career variables served as vital elements in enhancing students’ life satisfaction (e.g., Hirschi, 2009). Moreover, recent research revealed that adaptability resources including attitudes and beliefs (i.e., career adaptability) mediated the relationship between hope and life satisfaction (Hirschi, 2014; Wilkins et al., 2014). However, it appeared that these empirical investigations have omitted the role of adapting response (e.g., career engagement) by which hope is associated with life satisfaction. This study aimed to test a model that is faithful to CCMA that encompasses two mediators being linked together whereby career adaptability emphasizes the competencies or skills to face the present and anticipated career tasks and transitions and the willingness and abilities to address career developmental tasks appear to require some actions (Savickas, 2013). Those who are “ready” (i.e., high hope students) and “able” (i.e., career adaptive students) tend to feel satisfied with their lives because they effectively execute behaviors related to career planning and preparation (Hirschi, 2014; Savickas, 2013). Overall, it is plausible to assume that hope is positively related to students’ life satisfaction as they manifest, through career behaviors, the ability to adjust, cope, and prepare for present and future career developmental career challenges. Given the theoretical and contextual considerations and compendium of findings discussed earlier, we present the following hypotheses:
Method
Participants and Procedures
Participants who were recruited through purposive sampling were composed of 340 Grade 12 SHS students in Metro Manila, Philippines. To be eligible for the study, participants were required to be 18 years old or above at the moment of data collection. After obtaining approval from a university-based research ethics committee, a paper-and-pen format of survey administration was conducted inside the classrooms identified by the principals or school representatives. The detailed explanation and documentation of obtaining written consent ensured that the participation was voluntary, and no forms of coercion, undue inducement, and penalty for nonparticipation were offered. Moreover, the participants were guaranteed that confidentiality and anonymity will be maintained as personal information will not appear on any part of the instruments. A licensed psychologist was present to monitor the data collection process and was ready to provide individual counseling for cases of discomfort. Participants were encouraged to contact the researcher should they wish to know the results of their respective survey. A replacement career-related worksheet was offered for students who did not participate in the survey. Survey forms that appeared invalid (i.e., uncompleted questionnaires, outliers detected during initial analysis) were excluded. The responses of 331 Grade 12 SHS students were included in the final analyses and report.
The sample consisted of 66.2% women and had a mean age of 18.1 (standard deviation [SD] = .40). Majority of the participants came from public school (61%) and enrolled in academic track (73.7%), reflecting a report where academic track was the most preferred career track by the first batch of Filipino Grade 12 students and majority of SHS population was in the public school system (Department of Education, 2017). Moreover, the majority of the sample reported that their parents were college graduates, fairly indicating that they were in the middle class socioeconomic stratum. Talking to family about the career that interests them (75.8%) and researching career paths via the Internet (71.3%) were the most performed self-initiated career-related activities. Most of the participants reported that their mother (71.0%), father (52.9%), and friend (52.6%) were the individuals who guide them in their career decision-making process. In terms of plan after SHS, the majority of the participants intend to proceed to college full time (80.4%).
Measures
Together with the original items in English, items were presented with Filipino language translation for the participants’ ease of understanding. The instruments underwent forward and backward translation by a qualified language specialist and a psychologist. SHS teachers were also consulted regarding the clarity and suitability of the Filipino items.
Hope
This was measured using Dispositional Hope Scale (DHS; Snyder et al., 1991) which assesses the degree to which the participants perceived their will and determination to discernibly envision goals, to find ways in achieving those goals, and to sustain the motivation in utilizing those ways. According to Snyder and colleagues (2003), DHS can be administered even to adolescents to measure the trait aspect of hope. With an 8-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (definitely false) to 8 (definitely true), participants were asked to respond to four items each for agency thinking (e.g., “I energetically pursue my goals”), pathway thinking (e.g., “Even when others get discouraged, I know I can find a way to solve the problem”), and fillers. Adding the scores for both agency and pathways items produces total hope scale scores in which high scores indicate high global levels of hope. The internal consistency coefficients for the total scale ranged from .74 to .84 (Snyder et al., 1991). In the present study, the internal consistency of DHS was found to be .80.
Career adaptability
This was measured using Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS-International Version 2.0; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) which assesses the degree to which the participants perceived their strengths and capacities in coping with current and anticipated vocational tasks. Using a five-option continuum (1 = not strong; 5 = strongest), participants were asked to rate 24 items (e.g., “Thinking about what my future will be like”) based on how strongly they have developed certain abilities. Total career adaptability score is derived by combining all subscale scores. Higher scores represent higher general adaptability resources and strategies in constructing one’s career. Psychometric evaluations of CAAS have been conducted across different contexts and age groups (e.g., Ambiel et al., 2016; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012), suggesting a good to excellent reliability for the total scores (α = .87–.96). Tolentino et al. (2013) found out that CAAS demonstrated good psychometric properties for both Filipino students and employees samples in terms of its factor structure, construct validity, and high internal consistency for the overall scale (α = .97). The internal consistency of CAAS based on the present sample was .93.
Career engagement
This was measured using Career Engagement Scale (CES; Hirschi et al., 2014) which assesses the degree to which the participants engaged in proactive career management behaviors in developing their career. With a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not much) to 5 (a great deal), participants were asked to examine nine statements (e.g., “Voluntarily participated in further education, training, or other events to support your career”) based on the extent they have acted out the tasks during the past 6 months. Higher CES scores indicate higher engagement in different career management behaviors. Hirschi et al. (2014) provided evidence on CES’s psychometric properties including adequate internal consistency (α = .87). The internal consistency of CES based on the present sample was .86.
Life satisfaction
This was measured using Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al., 1985) which assesses the degree to which the participants cognitively evaluate their overall life satisfaction. According to Proctor et al. (2009), SWLS has been successively used with adolescent samples even though it was originally developed for adult’s use. With a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), participants were required to respond to five statements (e.g., “If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing”). Summing up the answers to the five items yields total life satisfaction (LS) scores where higher scores reflect higher satisfaction with one’s life. The coefficient αs for the total score ranged from .78 to .87 (Diener et al., 1985; Silva et al., 2014). In the present study, the internal consistency was found to be .84.
Results
Table 1 presents the calculated mean, SD, skewness, kurtosis, and correlations among study variables. Descriptive analysis revealed that all variables were skewed (>|3.00|). Participants were found to have high levels of hope, career adaptability, and career engagement and very satisfied with their lives. This was somehow expected because most participants were surveyed toward the end of the school year preparing for the completion of their final requirements to graduate and preparing for entering higher education (e.g., admission procedures). Bivariate analyses using Pearson’s r revealed significant positive association, with varying strengths from weak to moderate, indicating that all variables were related but independent from each other.
Mean, Standard Deviations (SDs), Skewness, Kurtosis, and Correlations for Study Variables.
Note. N = 331.
*p < .01 level, one-tailed.
Statistical assumptions were first examined and log transformation was performed in all the study variables in order to improve linearity, normality, and reduce skewness of the data. The hypothesized and alternative models were then assessed by performing path analyses in AMOS IBM Version 23 (maximum likelihood estimation). The following fit indices were evaluated to determine how well fit the structural models and the data are: the χ2 goodness-of-fit statistic, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR), the comparative fit index (CFI), the normed fit index (NFI), and the Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI). Using the cutoff values recommended by Kline (2005), the model indicates excellent fit to the data when χ2 test is nonsignificant, p > .05, RMSEA ≤ .06, SRMR ≤ .08, and when CFI, NFI, and TLI values are ≥ 0.95. The structural paths between the variables were initially specified and assessed in accordance with the hypothesized relationships. In the hypothesized model, hope predicted life satisfaction, hope predicted career adaptability, career adaptability predicted career engagement, and career engagement predicted life satisfaction. While this model did not denote excellent fit, fit statistics indicated adequate fit to the data, χ2(2) = 13.04, p < .05, RMSEA = .13, SRMR = .04, CFI = 0.98, NFI = 0.98, and TLI = 0.94. A second model was tested to assess the improvement of structural model fit where the direct path from hope to career adaptability was added. χ2 test was not significant, χ2(1) = .01, p = .93, suggesting the model did not differ significantly from the sample data. In a similar vein, all other fit indices suggested demonstrated excellent fit (RMSEA = .00, SRMR = .01, CFI = 1.10, NFI = 1.0, and TLI = 1.0) and thereby were used to test hypotheses and in the discussion of final results.
Analyses revealed that hope was moderately related with life satisfaction (β = .43, p < .05), supporting Hypothesis 1. This suggests that higher levels of goal-directed thinking were related to higher satisfaction with life. Moreover, hope was found to be strongly related to career adaptability (β = .64, p < .05) and accounted for 41% of the variance in career adaptability. Thus, Hypothesis 2 was supported. This suggests that the greater hopeful thinking, the stronger the ability to face career-related developmental tasks and transitions. In turn, career adaptability was strongly related to career engagement (β = .61, p < .05), confirming Hypothesis 3. This suggests that coping with career challenges was related to greater proactive career-related behaviors. Even though it was not expressly hypothesized, hope was found to be weakly related to career engagement (β = .18, p < .05), suggesting that greater hopeful thinking was related to higher level of career engagement; 54% of the variance in career engagement is explained by both hope and career adaptability. Lastly, Hypothesis 4 was supported as career engagement was also found to be weakly associated with life satisfaction (β = .16, p < .05). This suggests that SHS students’ high engagement in career-related behaviors is associated with higher life satisfaction. Together with hope, career engagement accounted for 29% of the variance in life satisfaction.
Ninety-five percent bias-corrected confidence intervals based on 5,000 bootstrap samples was performed to test the significance of indirect relationships. Indirect effect can be interpreted as significant if the resulting confidence interval does not overlap zero. The final model contains one simple mediation and a serial mediation. First, the indirect relation between hope and life satisfaction through career engagement was found to have an estimate of .038 (bootstrap SE = .020). This indirect relation was significantly positive as the bootstrap confidence interval was above zero ([.007, .089], p < .05). Lastly, the indirect relation between hope and life satisfaction through the serial mediation of career adaptability and career engagement was found to have a point estimate of .082 (bootstrap SE = .033). This indirect relation was significantly positive as the bootstrap confidence interval did not include zero ([.016, .148], p < .05). As a result, serial mediation analysis confirmed Hypothesis 5, suggesting that the greater the goal-directed thinking was, the more it would associate to a perception of stronger career-related abilities and a greater level of career engagement, which in turn linked to higher life satisfaction.
Discussion
While a definitive causal model cannot be derived from cross-sectional data, the study did still support CCMA’s assumptions on career adaptation. SHS students who possessed will and determination to set and pursue goals (i.e., high hope) utilized greater career-related abilities in coping with present and anticipated tasks, confirming the findings of Buyukgoze-Kavas (2016). Higher career-related abilities were subsequently related to greater performance of career behaviors, lending support to the notion that career adaptability is understood as psychosocial resources rather than actual career behaviors (Johnston, 2016; Rudolph et al., 2017). Moreover, SHS students who were highly engaged in career behaviors reported higher levels of life satisfaction, supporting the findings found in literature (Hirschi, 2009; Hirschi et al., 2014). While this direct association appeared to be statistically weak, it supports the claim that proactive career behaviors are crucial in achieving a good life. Savickas (2003) noted that disengaging from imagining the future (an indicator of lack of engagement) results in developing helpless feeling, or worse, showing no care at all about preparing for the future. This study confirmed that career variables as mediators are linked, emphasizing that positive attributes and abilities in facing the challenges of career developmental tasks necessitate actual manifestation of career behaviors in order to arrive at a successful adaptation. Findings support the theoretical and empirical claims that adaptability resources and adapting response are distinct from one another (Hirschi et al., 2015; Rudolph et al., 2017; Savickas, 2013; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). Career adaptability is regarded as attitudes, beliefs, and competencies in facing career-related tasks and transitions distinct from career engagement that refers to definite behaviors (Hirschi et al., 2015). In particular, the competence of preparedness—a facet of career adaptability—may fuel coping behaviors such as thinking about personal values, interests, and weakness, as well as developing plans and goals for future career. Likewise, curiosity about opportunities—another dimension of career adaptability—may foster proactive behaviors such as assuming student organization’s positions and responsibilities. The capacity to make decisions—another facet of career adaptability—, on the other hand, may lead to actual implementation of career choices such as participating voluntarily in further education and training to advance career development. Lastly, beliefs in one’s ability to perform educational and vocational choices—another dimension of career adaptability—may shape productive behaviors such as collecting information about job market, trends, and future employers and opportunities in the career that interest them.
Further supporting the serial mediation model were the following: (a) Findings indicated that there was neither an observed path from career adaptability to life satisfaction nor was there a simple mediation between hope and life satisfaction through career adaptability and (b) analysis indicated that there was a significant indirect path from hope to life satisfaction through career engagement. Even though the simple mediation of career engagement was not hypothesized, these results appeared noteworthy as it further strengthened the serial mediation relation tested; thus implying that career adaptability does not alone account for the hope–life satisfaction relationship contrary to previous claims that career adaptability directly predicted dimensions of life satisfaction (e.g., Wilkins et al., 2014). Additionally, the path from hope to career engagement suggested that the predictive power of hope goes beyond enabling other strengths and positive outcomes. This finding also contributes to the growing evidence for how hope is able to bring about positive behavioral outcomes such as positive classroom behaviors (Wagner & Ruch, 2015) and organizational behaviors (Youssef & Luthans, 2007). The larger perspectives of positive psychology (hope) and constructionism (CCMA) somehow provide explanation to the relationship found whereby hopeful individuals are viewed as agentic—actively creating and participating in their own life realities (Mahoney, 2005). Given these assertions, this study suggested that hope plays an important role in career engagement as SHS students pursue vocational goals. Indeed, having a sense of hope pushes individuals to take career-related actions such as reflecting on suitable careers and exploring career opportunities (Hirschi, 2014).
The serial mediating role of career variables in the hope and life satisfaction relationship may also be attributed to students’ voyage of self-discovery in SHS. Through enactment of self-initiated activities (e.g., researching career paths that interest them) and accomplishing school-based undertakings (e.g., work immersion), they tend to cultivate not only understanding about future work and occupations but also to integrate these information to a more crystallized knowledge about themselves in terms of strengths, talents, skills, and educational and career goals. These activities may serve as an important consideration to them to form vocational identity (Hirschi, 2010) while simultaneously developing other domains of identity such as moral, political, religious, and ethnic identities (Schwartz et al., 2010). As Turner and Lapan (2013) emphasized, vocational identity formation plays a significant role in adolescent identity formation which can produce a more satisfying and fulfilling present and future adult lives. The formation of vocational identity through career exploration (e.g., reflection of goals, personal interests, abilities, values), in turn, contributes to positive youth development and well-being (Hirschi, 2009, 2010). The successful adaptation to these developmental tasks and transitions underscores the ability to adapt to a more demanding and competitive career tasks, transitions, and even career trauma in the future (Argon et al., 2016; Savickas, 2013; Tolentino et al., 2013).
Implications
By revealing that the four paths were significant, findings supported the meta-analysis of Rudolph and colleagues (2017) and longitudinal study of Sverko and Babarovic (2018) and further strengthened CCMA’s empirical base by suggesting that distal adaptive readiness indicators (e.g., hope) can go beyond predicting adaptability resources (career adaptability). This study extended CCMA by discovering the role of adaptability resources and adapting responses as serial mediators in the distal relationship between adaptive readiness and adaptation result. Moreover, this study extended the findings of Merino-Tejedor and colleagues (2016) by including a more appropriate indicator of adaptation result (i.e., life satisfaction), thus revealing a significant four-step model (i.e., adaptive readiness to adaptability resources to adapting response to adaptation result). It can be noted that they only confirmed a three-step sequence model (i.e., adaptive readiness to adaptability resources to adapting response) as the link between adapting response and adaptation result was found to be nonsignificant and correspondingly argued that the nonsignificant finding may have been a result of utilizing a process variable (i.e., academic engagement) instead of true outcome variable.
The results of this study have practical implications especially for career counselors and vocational psychologists in terms of highlighting career adaptation when working with SHS students. While this study does not provide an exhaustive framework (i.e., only one indicator per adaptation process) and does acknowledge that literature provides a variety of ways to increase adolescents’ optimal functioning, this study emphasizes the relevance of creating a trajectory to increase well-being endowed with positive personal potential, individual resources, and positive behaviors. Understanding the association of indicators of career adaptation would contribute to meaningful information toward intervention that enhances optimal functioning. For example, the ability and willingness to engage in career planning begins with enhancing hopeful thinking. Rather than jumping straight into collecting information about college courses or encouraging students to participate in further training to support their career choice, practitioners can encourage students in visualizing different paths to career and educational goals and breaking these goals into small steps. Assisting students to elicit and nurture goal-directed thinking first then link to their implementation of goals by preparing for the future may also address well-being and positive affect (Valero et al., 2015). The findings of this study contribute to the emerging view of career counseling as mental health counseling (Stoltz & Haas, 2016) as addressing career concerns has been increasingly regarded as one route to promote well-being (Robertson, 2015). Reflections about personal and career goals and strengths would engage SHS students in proactive career behaviors and may lead to positive functioning. Since initial career decisions are influenced by parental involvement especially in Filipino context (Salazar-Clemena, 2002), parents, as a hope buddy (Lopez et al., 2004), may help enhance their children’s skills to recognize and utilize ways to achieve goals by being supportive rather than controlling, guiding them in goal planning, assisting them in overcoming barriers, and reveling their achievements along the way.
Limitations and Future Directions
There are limitations that should be considered when evaluating the results and its contributions. First limitation is related to the cross-sectional nature of the data collected. Even though mediation model is methodically reputable (Hayes, 2013), results should not be treated for causal inferences since the variables were assessed according to relationships instead of its ability as predictors. In addition, the cross-sectional survey design of the study impedes inferences about the temporal relations observed. Even though CCMA denotes sequential steps of career adaptation, reverse causality among variables may still be possible. Longitudinal and cross-lagged designs may be undertaken to provide additional contribution and valuable insights in confirming a more conclusive causality. Moreover, the results of this research must be treated with caution since generalizability could be an issue due to limited sample. Future research that reduces these inherent limitations is crucial to increase the reliability and validity of the results. Another limitation is the potential sources of common method bias (Podsakoff et al., 2003). This study solely relied on self-report measures from each student, who answered all the measures for the four variables. Future studies may utilize different sources of data as well as separate measurement of variables. Lastly, this research focused only on global levels of study variables. Future studies may include examination of subscale levels in career adaptability (e.g., career concern) and life satisfaction (e.g., satisfaction with school). Another future line of research could be the inclusion of external agents (i.e., locus-of-hope) as they contribute in generating hope-laden thoughts (Bernardo, 2010) and recognizing this factor, especially for a collectivist culture, may also be helpful for SHS students’ career and educational goal-attainment and well-being.
Standardized path estimates between hope, career variables, and life satisfaction. *p < .05.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
