Adolescents’ Perceived Collective Contributions to Their Career Efficacy From Parents, Teachers, and Peers: Reciprocal and Transactional Associations Over Time With Adolescents’ Career Adaptability and Ambivalence

Abstract

The concept of “collective contributions to career efficacy” (CCCE) has been long proposed to conceptualize the effects of influences from various significant others on individuals’ career efficacy and development. However, the longitudinal and dynamic implications of CCCE for individuals’ career development, especially the relative unique contributions of different parties above and beyond each other, have been rarely tested. Based on three-annual-wave survey data from 3196 Chinese adolescents across their senior high middle school years (Grades 10–12; Mean age = 15.55 years old, SD age =.44; 52.8% girls at Wave 1), this study sought to fill this key void by examining the associations between CCCE from parents, teachers, as well as peers and adolescents’ career adaptability and ambivalence over time. Results of structural equation modeling analyses indicate a series of reciprocal and transactional associations over time between CCCE from parents as well as teachers and adolescents’ career adaptability. In contrast, adolescents’ earlier career ambivalence was found to be unidirectionally associated with subsequent CCCE from parents, teachers, and peers over time but not vice versa. Such findings provide a more nuanced and dynamic delineation of the links between CCCE from different relational sources and adolescent career adaptation, which highlights the practical potential of promoting adolescents’ career development through enhancing their efficacy in receiving career-related support from various significant others in their proximal social networks. More implications for theories, future research and practice were also discussed.