Elsevier

Journal of Vocational Behavior

Volume 93, April 2016, Pages 120-128
Journal of Vocational Behavior

Variations of career decision ambiguity tolerance between China and the United States and between high school and college

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.01.007Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Structural invariance of preference and aversion was supported between Chinese and U.S. college students.

  • Structural invariance of preference and aversion was supported between Chinese high school and college students.

  • In comparison to Chinese college students, U.S. college students had a higher level of preference.

  • In comparison to Chinese high school students, Chinese college students had a higher level of aversion.

  • Preference and aversion were associated with career exploration and career indecision in China.

Abstract

The variation of career decision ambiguity tolerance (CDAT) by cultures and development stages was examined in a sample of Chinese high school students (n = 339), a sample of Chinese college students (n = 356), along with U.S. college students (n = 328). It was hypothesized that career decision ambiguity tolerance decreases when individuals experience more societal/cultural pressure on decidedness and responsibility for their career decision making. Based on the three-factor structure of CDAT (i.e., preference, tolerance, and aversion), measurement invariance was examined between Chinese and U.S. college students and between Chinese high school and college students. While the factor of tolerance was not upheld in both Chinese samples, the factors of preference and aversion were found to be structurally invariant across cultures and developmental stages. The analyses comparing means of preference and aversion found that U.S. college students had a higher level of preference relative to Chinese college students. It was also found that in comparison to Chinese high school students, Chinese college students had a higher level of aversion. The criterion validity of CDAT in Chinese culture was supported in the findings of preference and aversion being associated with career exploration and career indecision. The implication of this study was discussed along with its limitations and suggestions for future research.

Section snippets

Ambiguity tolerance in career decision making

Career decision making has been conceived, in part, as an information collecting and processing process, which can be widely seen in primary career theories (e.g., Holland, 1997, Sampson et al., 1999). Parsons (1909) long ago proposed a model of collecting information about the self and the vocational world and then using the information to identify a vocational and educational match. While this model continues to serve the field as a guiding model (e.g., Blustein, 1997, Flum and Blustein, 2000

Cross-cultural measurement of career decision ambiguity tolerance

While career decision ambiguity tolerance has been demonstrated to play a salient role in career decision making among U.S. students (Xu and Tracey, 2014, Xu and Tracey, 2015a, Xu and Tracey, 2015b), it remains unclear as to the measurement and role of this construct in international backgrounds, particularly in a collectivistic context (Triandis, 1989). It is plausible that handling ambiguity in career decision making is a pan-cultural process as individuals hardly ever have complete and

Measurement of career decision ambiguity tolerance across developmental stages

While career decision ambiguity tolerance has been demonstrated to play a salient role in career decision making (Xu and Tracey, 2014, Xu and Tracey, 2015a, Xu and Tracey, 2015b), the development of this construct remains unexamined. We focused this study on two important development periods: the high school and college years. During high school, individuals begin to realize the importance of career/major decision making and begin to engage in initial career exploration (Super, 1980). During

Overview of the present study

While ambiguity tolerance has been portrayed as a salient factor in career decision making among U.S. college students (Xu and Tracey, 2014, Xu and Tracey, 2015a, Xu and Tracey, 2015b), it becomes imperative to investigate the variations of career decision ambiguity tolerance across cultures and developmental stages. The focus of the current study was thus to examine measurement invariance of career decision ambiguity tolerance between China and the U.S. and between high school and college

Sample

The Chinese sample consisted of 695 high school and college students. High school students (n = 339) were recruited from three high schools that are located in the urban areas of mainland China. College students (n = 356) were recruited from five universities that are located in the urban areas of mainland China. The high school students in the current study ranged in age from 12 to 19 (M = 15.92, SD = 1.08). Of this sample, 45.1% were male (n = 153) and 54.6% were female (n = 185). The college students in

Configural invariance

We first examined the configural invariance of CDAT structures between China and the U.S (see Table 1 for summarized results). As can been seen by the value of RMSEA (.071 and .084), SRMR (.08 and .09), and CFI (.77 and .77), the three-factor structure derived from U.S. data was not a good representation of the CDAT structure in Chinese high school and college students. It was found that the factor of tolerance in the original structure had poor loadings on the last three items in both Chinese

Discussion

The current study examined the variance of career decision ambiguity tolerance (CDAT) cross-culturally (i.e., between Chinese and U.S. college students) and across developmental stages (i.e., between Chinese high school and college students). While CDAT was found to have equivalent structures between Chinese and U.S. college students and between Chinese high school and college students on the subscales of preference and aversion, the mean levels of preference and aversion showed differential

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