Career adaptability among college students in Macao

Abstract

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) is a widely used measure to assess an individual’s ability to respond to the changes and challenges faced along a career path. The initial scale covered four areas— concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. Some researchers later constructed the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale plus Cooperation Scale (CAAS+C) to measure cooperation in addition to career adaptability. Motivated by a recent study that validated a 12-item brief version of the CAAS (CAAS-SF), two studies were conducted in Macao with the aims of i) developing and validating a brief version of CAAS+C (CAAS+C-SF) and ii) exploring relationships among variables of career adaptability, cooperation, social capital, career success, and career engagement. In Study One, CAAS-SF and Cooperation Scale Short Form (C-SF) were validated using a sample of 326 university graduates who had gained employment. The composite Chinese CAAS+C-SF was found to have good psychometric properties. Significant correlations between CAAS+C-SF and subjective career success, as well as between cooperation and social capital, provided evidence for convergent validity of CAAS+C-SF. In addition, C-SF and the Cooperation Scale were strongly associated. Taken together, results suggested that CAAS+C-SF is a valid, reliable, and economical measure of career adaptability and cooperation for Chinese speakers. Results also revealed that postgraduate degree holders had higher adaptability resources and cooperation than their undergraduate counterparts and that males scored higher on all adaptability resources, except for confidence, and cooperation than their female counterparts. In addition, hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that i) all career adaptability resources and cooperation significantly predicted career success and the effect of cooperation was the strongest; and ii) social capital also significantly predicted career success. Results suggested that career adaptability, cooperation, and social capital are essential in the school-to-work transition among college graduates. In Study Two, using structural equation modeling (SEM) from a sample of 610 university students in Macao, relationships among career adaptability, cooperation, social capital, and career engagement were examined. Results showed that CAAS+C-SF has good psychometric properties and is suitable for use with college students as well. In addition, social capital was found to be positively correlated with career engagement and cooperation, and the relationships were partially mediated by career adaptability. The findings provided additional evidence for the convergent validity of CAAS+C-SF and suggested that social capital has a positive effect on the development of career adaptability, cooperation, and career engagement. Overall, the studies validated an economical instrument for measuring career adaptability and cooperation among Chinese university students and graduates in Macao, and the brevity of the scale makes it efficient for use in research and practice. The findings also added new insights to career construction theory and supported the importance of cooperation in career adaptation. In addition, social capital was found to have a positive effect on career adaptability, cooperation, career engagement, and career success. Implications for research and practice were discussed.