Journal of Vocational Behavior 94 (2016) 1–10

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Vocational Behavior

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb

Career adaptability as a mediator between personality and

career engagement
Parisa Nilforooshan ⁎, Samaneh Salimi
University of Isfahan, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The current study examined the role of career adaptability as a mediator between personality
Received 13 November 2015 dimensions and career engagement. This investigation was conducted using a sample of
Received in revised form 15 February 2016 university students (N = 201) who completed the Zuckerman–Kuhlman–Aluja Personality
Accepted 16 February 2016
Questionnaire, the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Persian Form, and the Career Engagement
Available online 17 February 2016
Scale. Career adaptability dimensions related positively with activity, negatively with neuroti-
cism, and positively with career engagement. The results indicated that career adaptability
Keywords: dimensions partially mediated the relationships between activity (work compulsion, general
Career adaptability
activity, restlessness, and work energy) and career engagement, whereas they were a full me-
Personality
diator between neuroticism (anxiety, depression, dependency, and low self-esteem) and career
Career engagement
Proactivity engagement. Among career adaptability dimensions, curiosity fully mediated the effect of
sensation seeking on career engagement. These findings suggest that career adaptability is a
dynamic mechanism that helps to regulate the relationship between specific dispositional traits
and career adapting behaviors.
© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The present study explored the role of career adaptability dimensions in the relationship between personality dimensions and
career engagement in an Iranian student sample. Iran is an important country in the Middle East, and its population is estimated
to be 78.5 million. It is the second largest country in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions, after Egypt (World Bank,
2015). Iran's literacy rate is strong; the overall rate of literacy is 85%. For males and females between 15 and 24 years, the literacy
rates are 98.8% and 98.5%, respectively (UNICEF, 2013). Education is very important in Iran. Today, based on this belief that higher
education leads to future success, individuals should go to university (Krumboltz, 2015). It is widely believed that higher educa-
tion makes obtaining a good job easier (Kennet, Reed, & Lam, 2011; Kretovics & Lara, 2015). This assumption is common in Iran.
Currently, many Iranian young adults tend to continue their education in universities. In, during and after graduation, they expect
to obtain an appropriate job in this competitive and unstable world of work. It should be noted that careers in Iran as well as
other counties are going to become non-linear (Rastgar, Ebrahimi, & Hessan, 2014). Therefore, university students need to engage
proactively in managing their careers. Career engagement refers to obvious and specific career behaviors that increase an
individual's career development (Hirschi, Freund, & Herrmann, 2014).
By clarifying the antecedents such as personality traits that promote career engagement, practical strategies could be identified
to help students improve their career development. In vocational psychology, personality traits are used for understanding a
person's life and predicting his or her job positions and future adjustment (McCrae & Costa, 2008). Therefore, it is important to
consider personality dimensions as stable dispositions that shape career development.

⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education & Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
E-mail address: p.nilforooshan@edu.ui.ac.ir (P. Nilforooshan).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.02.010
0001-8791/© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
2 P. Nilforooshan, S. Salimi / Journal of Vocational Behavior 94 (2016) 1–10

In comparison to stable personality traits, career adaptability refers to psychosocial resources for dealing with career transi-
tions (Savickas, 1997). Career counselors can improve their clients' career development by increasing their adaptability for coping
with changeable environments (Savickas, 2005). The present study examined whether career adaptability mediates the relation-
ship between personality traits and engagement in career behaviors. As such, the study also tested the theoretical model of career
adaptation (Savickas, 2013) that hypothesizes certain personality traits that contribute to career adaptive readiness, which fosters
the development of career adaptability resources that in turn condition adapting responses such as engaging in coping behaviors.

1.1. Career engagement

Hirschi et al. (2014) defined “career engagement as the degree to which somebody is proactively developing his or her career
as expressed by diverse career behaviors” (p. 577). It involves exhibiting behaviors such as career planning, career self-
exploration, environmental career exploration, networking, voluntary human capital/skill development, and positioning behavior
(Hirschi et al., 2014). Hirschi et al. (2014) distinguished career engagement from related constructs such as work engagement
(Schaufeli, Salanova, Gonza'lez-roma´, & Bakker, 2002), career adaptability (Savickas, 1997, 2005, 2013), and career management
(Sturges, Guest, Conway, & Davey, 2002). Engagement is behavioral, it does not refer to a state of mind, identity, readiness, atti-
tude, aspirations, and self- management strategies. Career engagement focuses on specific, overt career behaviors that increase an
individual's career development and is not a stable disposition (Hirschi et al., 2014).
Rogers, Creed, and Glendon (2008) showed that personal factors such as neuroticism and career decision-making self-efficacy
affect career engagement. Hirschi and Freund (2014) found that perceived social support and positive emotions related to career
engagement. They believed that, based on the theoretical and practical importance of career engagement, more research needs to
be done to investigate the underlying factors that promote career engagement. To do this, we used the adaptation model from
Career Construction Theory, which positions the self as an agent in regulating vocational behavior (Savickas, 2013). We selected
two sets of predicting variables that may be important in explaining individual differences in career engagement. The first was
personality dimensions, which represent the stable dispositions comprising adaptive readiness, and the second was career adapt-
ability, which represents psychosocial resources (Savickas, 2005, 2013).

1.2. Personality

Personality dimensions are expressed through characteristic adaptations in such a way that career adaptability contributes to
regulating the expression of personality dispositions (Rossier, Zecca, Stauffer, Maggiori & Dauwalder, 2012. Personality models
usually include five dimensions of traits (Rossier, Meyer de Stadelhofen, & Berthoud, 2004). The Five-Factor Model (FFM)
(McCrae & Costa, 2008) is one of the best known models for describing personality traits (Schmitz, Hartkamp, Baldini, Rollnik,
& Tress, 2001). FFM consists of five main dimensions: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness
(McCrae & Costa, 1999, 2004). McCrae and Costa (1999) considered personality traits as relatively stable dispositions. Recently,
Aluja, Kuhlman, and Zuckerman (2010) developed an alternative five-factor model (AFFM), which consists of aggressiveness,
activity, extraversion, neuroticism, and sensation seeking; each dimension includes four facets. The generalizability of this
model was confirmed across cultures (Rossier, Hansenne, Baudin & Merizot, 2012; Rossier et al., 2007).
Some studies have shown the relationship among personality dimensions and career or work constructs such as career plan-
ning and exploration (Rogers et al., 2008), career adapt-abilities work engagement (Rossier, Zecca et al., 2012), career optimism,
academic major satisfaction, and career satisfaction (McIlveen & Perera, 2015).
Zecca et al. (2015) suggested that more activity, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and extraversion are related to more
work engagement. Rossier, Zecca, et al. (2012), using AFFM, showed that higher neuroticism related negatively to career adapt-
ability and work engagement while higher activity, extraversion, and conscientiousness related positively to career adaptability
and work engagement. In the present study, the AFFM was selected to investigate the relationship between personality dimen-
sions with career adaptability and career engagement. As abundant evidence for the reliability and validity of AFFM shows,
AFFM is used as an alternate to FFM (Rossier, Hansenne et al., 2012; Rossier et al., 2007).

1.3. Career adaptability

Career adaptability is one of the central components of Career Construction Theory (Savickas, 2005, 2013) and refers to
psychosocial resources that individuals use to cope with changeable and unpredictable environments and solve the problems pre-
sented by vocational development tasks, occupational transitions, and work traumas (Savickas, 1997, 2005, 2013). Savickas (2013)
defined career adaptability as the attitudes and competencies that individuals use in fitting themselves to work that suits them.
Career adaptability was defined as a psychosocial construct (Savickas, 1997, 2013) that is more unstable than personality traits, is
closer to psychological capital, helps in shaping strategies for directing adaptive behaviors, and represents the self as agent
(Savickas, 2013). Career adaptability consists of four dimensions: concern, control, curiosity, and confidence (Savickas, 2005,
2013; Savickas et al., 2009). As Savickas (2005) described, career concern, the first and most important dimension, is the extent
to which an individual is oriented to and inclined to plan future career moves. Career control denotes the extent to which an
individual feels a responsibility for building a career taking and negotiating occupational transitions. Career curiosity is extent
to which an individual favors exploring the work world and seeking information about occupations and their requirements.
 P. Nilforooshan, S. Salimi / Journal of Vocational Behavior 94 (2016) 1–10 3

Career confidence refers to the extent to which an individual has faith in her or his ability to make and carry out wise career
decisions and realistic occupation choices.
Career adaptability is related to career and work outcomes such as job satisfaction (Coetzee & Stoltz, 2015; Fiori, Bollmann, &
Rossier, 2015), work engagement (Rossier, Zecca et al., 2012), proactive personality, career optimism (Tolentino et al., 2014),
subjective career success (Zacher, 2014), well-being (Maggiori, Johnston, Krings, Massoudi, & Rossier, 2013), teamwork employ-
ability skills (de Guzman & Choi, 2013), sense of control (Duffy, 2010), and job-search strategies (Koen, Van Vianen, Zikic, &
Nauta, 2010). It also has a mediating role in predicting career planning, proactive skill development, career networking (Taber
& Blankemeyer, 2015), career exploration (Li et al., 2015), career competencies (Dumulescu, Balazsi, & Opre, 2015), and strategic
competence (Guan, Yang, Zhou, Tian, & Eves, 2016). A number of studies have demonstrated the relationships among personality
dimensions and career adaptability (Rossier, Zecca et al., 2012; Taber & Blankemeyer, 2015; Zacher, 2014).

1.4. Aims of the present study

As mentioned above, previous research revealed the mediating role of career adaptability in predicting career adapting behav-
iors. Therefore, the present study investigated whether career adaptability dimensions, fully or partially, mediate the relationships
between personality dimensions and career engagement. This mediation model is shown in Fig. 1. To answer this question, the
relationships among personality dimensions, career adaptability dimensions, and career engagement was studied. Before
conducting this study, the researchers had to produce a Persian-language form of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale. Thus, another
purpose of the present study was to investigate the construct validity of the Persian-version of the CAAS through investigating its
fit to the theory's hierarchical model.

2. Method

2.1. Participants

The participants included 201 university students at the University of Isfahan, which is a large university in Iran. They were
selected by convenience sampling. Of this group, 101 were female (50.2%) and 100 were male (49.8%). The mean age was
23.87 (SD = 3.84, Min = 18, Max = 40); 64.2% were Bachelor's students, 29.9% were Master's students, and 5% were Ph.D.
students (1% did not identified their level of education); 18.7% were employed, and from the others, 32.9% had work experience.
They were from the faculties of Administrative and Economics (19.9%), the Sciences (22.9%), Engineering (23.9%), Foreign
Language (4%), Physical Education (4%), Literature and the Humanities (14.4%), and Psychology and Education (10.9%). The nature
of university students in Iran is homogenous. All participants gave their permission to use their data for research, and their
responses were made anonymous.

2.2. Measures

2.2.1. Career Engagement Scale (Hirschi et al., 2014)

To measure career engagement, the nine-item Persian-version of the Career Engagement Scale was used. The first three items
measure general career engagement behaviors; the remaining items assess career planning, career self-exploration, environmental
career exploration, networking, human capital/skill development, and positioning behavior. The respondents used a 5-point
Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (almost never) to 5 (very often) to indicate the extent to which they had been engaged in
each behavior during the last six months. Hirschi et al. (2014) supported a one-factor structure for this scale. They reported pos-
itive relationships between vocational identity clarity, career self-efficacy beliefs, and career engagement, as construct validity of

Fig. 1. The proposed model.

4 P. Nilforooshan, S. Salimi / Journal of Vocational Behavior 94 (2016) 1–10

this scale among university students. They showed that this scale is invariant across gender and time. Hirschi et al. (2014) report-
ed the Cronbach's alpha for this scale as .87. In the present study, the Cronbach's alpha obtained was .88.

2.2.2. Zuckerman–Kuhlman–Aluja personality questionnaire (Aluja et al., 2010)

The Persian-version of ZKA-PQ was used to measure the five dimensions of personality traits: aggressiveness (AG), activity
(AC), extraversion (EX), neuroticism (NE) and sensation seeking (SS). Each dimension includes four facets. Aggressiveness consists
of physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility. Activity consists of work compulsion, general activity, restlessness,
and work energy. Extraversion (EX) consists of positive emotions, social warmth, exhibitionism, and sociability. Neuroticism
consists of anxiety, depression, dependency, and low self-esteem. Sensation seeking consists of thrill and adventure seeking,
experience seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility/impulsivity. The questionnaire contained 200 statements. Respon-
dents used a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree) to respond to the items. The
factorial structure of this questionnaire was confirmed by Aluja et al. (2010) and Rossier, Hansenne, et al. (2012). Aluja et al.
(2010) reported correlations between the facets and dimensions of ZKA-PQ and the dimensions of NEO FFI-R (McCrae & Costa,
2004). Aluja et al. (2010) reported Cronbach's alpha values for AG, EX, AC, NE, and SS as .81, .73, .75, .79, and .72 for the English
version and .78, .76, .75, .74, and .70 for the Spanish version of ZKA-PQ, respectively. In addition, Rossier, Hansenne, et al. (2012)
reported Cronbach's alpha values for these five main dimensions as .92, .91, .89, .93, and .89 for the French version, respectively. In
the present study, for the Persian version, the internal consistencies using Cronbach's alpha were .90, .87, .83, .89, and .81 for
these dimensions, respectively.

2.2.3. Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012)

To measure career adaptability, the Persian Form of the CAAS-International version 2.0, which includes 24 items, was used. The
CAAS consists of 4 subscales: concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. Each subscale includes 6 items with a 5-point Likert-type
scale ranging from 1 = not strong to 5 = strongest. The higher are the scores, the higher the career adaptabilities are. Savickas
and Porfeli (2012) reported that the CAAS is a reliable scale across 13 countries. The measurement model of the CAAS, which was
designed based on the theoretical model, was confirmed in many studies (Rossier, Zecca et al., 2012; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012;
Tolentino, Garcia, Restubog, Bordia, & Tang, 2013; Urbanaviciute, Kairys, Pociute, & Liniauskaite, 2014). The studies revealed
that the CAAS was significantly related to career aspirations, career exploration behaviors, career decidedness (Urbanaviciute
et al., 2014), and career satisfaction (Tolentino et al., 2013). Cronbach's α was reported as .92 for total score, .83 for concern,
.74 for control, .79 for curiosity, and .85 for confidence (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). In the present study, for the Persian version,
the Cronbach's α obtained was .92 for the total score and .71 for concern, .79 for control, .84 for curiosity, and .86 for confidence.

Fig. 2. The hierarchical structure of CAAS and the standardized factor loadings of the items and constructs.
 P. Nilforooshan, S. Salimi / Journal of Vocational Behavior 94 (2016) 1–10 5

2.3. Procedure

All scales were first translated into Persian and back-translated into English. Two. Persian-speaking career-counseling special-
ists translated the items into Persian. Then, these translations were back-translated to English by an expert in the English lan-
guage. Finally, these translations were reviewed and amended by a native English-speaker. The respondents completed the
questionnaires at two time points. Each participant completed the Persian-version of the Career Engagement Scale and CAAS at
the first point of time. For the second time, one week later, the participants were reminded to participate in taking the other ques-
tionnaire by sending mobile phone messages. At this time, participants completed the ZKA-PQ. The questionnaires that were in-
completely filled out were omitted from the analysis.

3. Results

3.1. Confirmatory factor analysis

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to test the measurement model of the CAAS-Persian Form using the AMOS
18 statistical package. Based on the theory's hierarchical model, items were considered as observed variables. Concern, control,
curiosity, and confidence were considered as first-order factors, and career adaptability was considered as a single latent variable.
This hierarchical structure is shown in Fig. 2. The χ2 per degree of freedom (χ2/df), the comparative fit index (CFI), and the
root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) were used to assess the model fit. If the χ2/df is less than 2, the TLI and CFI
values are more than .97, and the RMSEA is below .05, the model will have a good fit. A model is considered to have an acceptable
fit if the χ2/df is less than 3, the CFI value are more than .90, and the RMSEA is between .05 and .08 (Schermelleh-Engel1,
Moosbrugger, & Müller, 2003). The results indicated that the hierarchical model of the CAAS fitted the data acceptably (χ2/
df = 1.78, CFI = .91, RMSEA = .062). The descriptive statistic indices of the items and constructs are shown in Table 1. All of
the standardized factor loadings were significant (p b .01) (Table 1; Fig. 2).
A single measurement model that includes personality dimensions, career adaptability, and career engagement was tested by
confirmatory factor analysis. In this model, these constructs were specified as distinct but correlated latent variables. This model
showed acceptable fit to the data (χ2/df = 1.85, CFI = .81, RMSEA = .067). All standardized factor loadings of indicators on their

Table 1
Career Adapt-Abilities Scale: items, descriptive statistics, and standardized factor loadings.

Construct Item (first-order indicators) Mean SD Standardized factor loadings

Concern Item 1 4.27 .78 .45

Item 2 4.33 .74 .41
Item 3 3.27 .94 .72
Item 4 3.62 .91 .61
Item 5 3.31 .99 .71
Item 6 3.79 1.05 .33

Control Item 7 3.48 .98 .54

Item 8 3.86 .85 .41
Item 9 4.09 .79 .57
Item 10 3.90 .93 .71
Item 11 3.95 .84 .78
Item 12 3.61 .98 .65

Curiosity Item 13 3.37 .96 .73

Item 14 3.72 .97 .67
Item 15 3.56 .92 .74
Item 16 3.45 1.06 .71
Item 17 3.37 .94 .61
Item 18 3.56 .99 .64

Control Item 19 3.57 .91 .63

Item 20 3.84 .90 .59
Item 21 3.52 .99 .69
Item 22 3.59 .97 .67
Item 23 3.33 .94 .80
Item 24 3.29 .91 .75

Construct Construct (second-order indicators) Mean SD Standardized factor loadings

Career adaptability Concern 3.50 .711 .93

Control 3.77 .788 .91
Curiosity 4.36 .837 .87
Confidence 4.35 .864 .79

Note: All of the factor loadings are significant at p b .001.

6 P. Nilforooshan, S. Salimi / Journal of Vocational Behavior 94 (2016) 1–10

respective constructs were significantly moderate to high (.36–.94, p b .001), which confirmed the scale's convergent validity. The
estimated correlations between latent factors were low to moderate in size (.05–.65), which indicated discriminant validity.

3.2. Bivariate relations

The means, standard deviations, Cronbach alpha estimates, and correlations between measures are presented in Table 2.
Aggression was negatively correlated −.22 (p b .01) with career adaptability and each of its dimensions except curiosity. Sensa-
tion seeking had only a significant positive correlation with curiosity (r = .18, p b .01). The relationship of activity to career
adaptability was .39 (p b .01). It correlated with four dimensions ranging from .29 to .43. Extraversion correlated .37 (p b .01)
to adaptability. It correlated with four dimensions ranging from .26 to .36. Neuroticism correlated −.40 (p b .01) to adaptability.
It correlated to the four dimensions ranging from −.29 to −.41. In addition, career engagement had a significantly negative
correlation with aggression (r = −16, p b .05) and neuroticism (r = −.28, p b .01). It related positively to activity (r = .39,
p b .01) and to extraversion (r = .28, p b .01). The correlation between career engagement and sensation seeking was not signif-
icant. In addition, the results revealed a significant positive correlation of .66 between career adaptability and career engagement
(p b .01).

3.3. Mediation model

In the mediation model, it was hypothesized that career adaptability dimensions (concern, control, curiosity, and confidence)
mediated the relationships between the five main personality dimensions and career engagement (Fig. 3). Based on the bivariate
relationships among the five personality dimensions (see Table 2), four correlations, which were relatively strong and significant,
were considered. These correlations were reported by Aluja et al. (2010) and Rossier, Zecca, et al. (2012), too. Structural equation
modeling (SEM) analysis, using a bootstrapping approach, was conducted with Amos 18. The results indicated that the model
fitted well to the data (χ2/df = .88, CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = .000). This model explained 23% of the career engagement variance.
The path coefficients are presented in Table 3. None of the path coefficients of aggression to career adaptability dimensions
were significant, but all of the path coefficients of activity and neuroticism to career adaptability dimensions were significant
(p b .05) in such a way that the increase in activity and decrease in neuroticism were related to the increase in career adaptability
dimensions. Furthermore, only the path coefficient of sensation seeking to curiosity and the path coefficient of extraversion to
control were significant (p b .05). Among all of the personality dimensions, only the path coefficient of activity to career engage-
ment was significant (p b .001). In addition, path coefficients of career adaptability dimensions to career engagement were strong-
ly positive (p b .001).
As Shrout and Bolger (2002) argued, a full mediational relationship exists when three conditions are met simultaneously:

1. The independent variable has a significant total effect upon the dependent variable;
2. The indirect effect of the independent variable upon the dependent variable through a mediator is significant; and
3. The direct effect of the independent variable upon the dependent variable is not significant.

A partial mediational relationship exists when conditions 2 and 3 are met simultaneously.
The total, indirect and direct effects of personality dimensions, as independent variables, upon career engagement, as the
dependent variable, were examined. As shown in Table 4, the total relationship between activity and career engagement was sig-
nificant (p b .001). The indirect effects of activity upon career engagement through all of the career adaptability dimensions, as
mediators, were significant (p b .01). The direct effects of activity upon career engagement were significant (p b .05) as well.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the career adaptability dimensions partially mediated the relationship between activity and
career engagement. However, the total relationship between neuroticism and career engagement was significant (p b .01). The
indirect effects of neuroticism upon career engagement through all of the career adaptability dimensions, as mediators, were

Table 2
Summary of correlations, means, standard deviations, and Cronbach's alphas for the personality dimensions, career adaptability, and career engagement.

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 2. 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3. Mean SD α

1.1 Aggression – 92.66 15.78 .899

1.2 Sensation seeking .25⁎⁎ – 91.04 12.31 .812
1.3 Activity −.09 −.005 – 108.08 12.74 .831
1.4 Extraversion −.16⁎ −.02 .45⁎⁎ – 110.81 13.77 .869
1.5 Neuroticism .50⁎⁎ −.02 −.06 .31⁎⁎ – 98.53 14.49 .886
2. Adaptability −.22⁎⁎ .12 .39⁎⁎ .37⁎⁎ −.40⁎⁎ – 87.67 13.46 .923
2.1 Concern −.20⁎⁎ .06 .43⁎⁎ .36⁎⁎ −.29⁎⁎ .83⁎⁎ – 22.59 3.50 .711
2.2 Control −.26⁎⁎ .08 .32⁎⁎ .35⁎⁎ −.41⁎⁎ .86⁎⁎ .67⁎⁎ – 22.90 3.77 .788
2.3 Curiosity .13 .18⁎⁎ .29⁎⁎ .29⁎⁎ −.35⁎⁎ .86⁎⁎ .65⁎⁎ .63⁎⁎ – 21.02 4.36 .837
2.4 Confidence −.17⁎ .08 .30⁎⁎ .26⁎⁎ −.30⁎⁎ .82⁎⁎ .53⁎⁎ .61⁎⁎ .59⁎⁎ 21.15 4.35 .864
3. Career engagement −.16⁎ .13 .39⁎⁎ .28⁎⁎ −.28⁎⁎ .66⁎⁎ .67⁎⁎ .47⁎⁎ .60⁎⁎ .44⁎⁎ – 29.42 6.84 .876
⁎ p b .05.
⁎⁎ p b .01.
 P. Nilforooshan, S. Salimi / Journal of Vocational Behavior 94 (2016) 1–10 7

Fig. 3. The hypothesized direct and indirect relationships between personality dimensions and career engagement through career adaptability dimensions.

Table 3
Standardized estimates of relationships between the five main personality dimensions, career adaptability dimensions, and career engagement.

Paths Standardized Estimates Critical Ratio

Aggression → Concern −.08 1.07

Sensation seeking → Concern .08 1.30
Activity → Concern .36 5.23⁎⁎⁎
Extraversion → Concern .14 1.91
Neuroticism → Concern −.18 −2.46⁎

Aggression → Control −.08 −1.11

Sensation seeking → Control .09 1.47
Activity → Control .23 3.37⁎⁎⁎
Extraversion → Control .14 2.01⁎
Neuroticism → Control −.31 −4.25⁎⁎⁎

Aggression → Curiosity .01 .15

Sensation seeking → Curiosity .18 2.73⁎⁎
Activity → Curiosity .23 3.34⁎⁎⁎
Extraversion → Curiosity .09 1.31
Neuroticism → Curiosity −.31 −4.12⁎⁎⁎

Aggression → Confidence −.03 −.41

Sensation seeking → Confidence .08 1.20
Activity → Confidence .25 3.41⁎⁎⁎
Extraversion → Confidence .07 .94
Neuroticism → Confidence −.24 −3.09⁎⁎

Aggression → Career engagement −.04 −.59

Sensation seeking → Career Engagement .11 1.85
Activity → Career engagement .27 4.03⁎⁎⁎
Extraversion → Career engagement .03 .39
Neuroticism → Career engagement −.13 −1.81

Concern → Career engagement .58 9.74⁎⁎⁎

Control → Career engagement .31 4.51⁎⁎⁎
Curiosity → Career engagement .49 8.01⁎⁎⁎
Confidence → Career engagement .35 5.49⁎⁎⁎
⁎ p b .05.
⁎⁎ p b .01.
⁎⁎⁎ p b .001.
8 P. Nilforooshan, S. Salimi / Journal of Vocational Behavior 94 (2016) 1–10

Table 4
Total, indirect, and direct relationships between the five main personality dimensions and career engagement through career adaptability dimensions.

Independent variable Mediator variable Standardized total effect standardized indirect effect Standardized direct effect Result

Aggression −.05 −.05 −.007 No effect

Sensation Seeking .14⁎ .05 .09 Very weak total effect
Activity Concern .36⁎⁎⁎ .21⁎⁎ .15⁎ Partial mediation
Extraversion .05 .08 −.03 No effect
Neuroticism −.21⁎⁎ −.10⁎⁎ −.11 Full mediation

Aggression −.05 −.02 −.03 No effect

Sensation Seeking .14⁎ .03 .11 Very weak total effect
Activity Control .36⁎⁎⁎ .07⁎⁎ .29⁎ Partial mediation
Extraversion .05 .04 −.01 No effect
Neuroticism −.21⁎⁎ −.10⁎⁎ −.11 Full mediation

Aggression −.05 .005 −.06 No effect

Sensation Seeking .14⁎ .09⁎ .05 Full mediation
Activity Curiosity .36⁎⁎⁎ .12⁎ .24⁎ Partial mediation
Extraversion .05 .05 −.004 No effect
Neuroticism −.21⁎⁎ −.15⁎⁎ −.06 Full mediation

Aggression −.05 −.01 −.04 No Effect

Sensation Seeking .14* −.03 .11 Very weak total effect
Activity Confidence .36⁎⁎⁎ .09⁎⁎ .27⁎ Partial mediation
Extraversion .05 .02 .03 No effect
Neuroticism −.21** −.08** −.13 Full mediation
⁎ p b .05.
⁎⁎ p b .01.
⁎⁎⁎ p b .001.

significant (p b .01), whereas the direct effect of neuroticism upon career engagement was not significant. Therefore, it can be
concluded that the career adaptability dimensions had a full mediational role in the relationship between neuroticism and career
engagement. The total effect of sensation seeking upon career engagement was significant (p b .05). Its indirect effects through
concern, control, and confidence were not significant, whereas its indirect effect through curiosity was significant (p b .05). The
direct effect of sensation seeking on career engagement was not significant. Therefore, it can be concluded that only curiosity
fully mediated the effect of sensation seeking on career engagement. The meditational conditions were not met for the relation-
ships of aggressiveness and extraversion to career engagement.

4. Discussion

The present study examined the role of career adaptability dimensions in the relationships among the main personality
dimensions and career engagement among students. In general, the results revealed the mediational role of career adaptability
dimensions in the relationship between specific personality dimensions (i.e., activity, neuroticism, and sensation seeking) and ca-
reer engagement. The results showed that career adaptability dimensions partially mediated the relationship between activity and
career engagement in such a way that the increase in activity, directly and indirectly through career adaptability dimensions, was
related to an increase in career engagement. This finding is in line with Zecca et al. (2015). The activity dimension, which includes
work compulsion, general activity, restlessness, and work energy, assesses “the level of relative activity in working contexts and
the level of implication” (Aluja et al., 2010, p. 424). Therefore, it could engage people in career behaviors that lead to their career
development. However, the results showed that activity positively affects career adaptability dimensions. This finding suggests
that individuals who are more active are more likely to have psychosocial resources for coping with changes (Savickas, 2005). Ac-
tivity is related to increasing individuals' concern about their vocational future because it contains patterns of work-related
thoughts (Rossier, Zecca et al., 2012). In addition, work compulsion and work energy may relate to realistic thinking for decision
making, information-seeking behaviors, and the degree of future potential success when facing challenges.
Moreover, career adaptability dimensions fully mediated the relationship between neuroticism and career engagement in such
a way that the increase in neuroticism, through career adaptability dimensions, was related to the decrease in career engagement.
In other words, the more neuroticism there is, the less is the ability to adapt to changes and the less engagement there is in career
behaviors. A negative relationship between neuroticism and career outcomes was found in previous research (Rogers et al., 2008;
Rossier, Zecca et al., 2012). Neuroticism consists of anxiety, depression, dependency, and low self-esteem (Aluja et al., 2010), so it
might reduce the individual's control and confidence. Moreover, because neurotic individuals have a tendency for pessimism and
rumination of negative thoughts, they may be less concerned about their vocational future, be less prepared for tomorrow, and be
less willful to learn about their self and new experiences.
However, the results showed that although the total effect of sensation seeking on career engagement was very low, curiosity
fully mediated the effect of sensation seeking on career engagement. Experience seeking may lead to a tendency for exploration
and information-seeking behaviors. Seeking is the shared behavior between sensation seeking and curiosity.
 P. Nilforooshan, S. Salimi / Journal of Vocational Behavior 94 (2016) 1–10 9

In general, the results indicated that career adaptability dimensions were mediators between specific personality dimensions
(i.e., activity, neuroticism, and sensation seeking) and career engagement. This finding, which is in line with Rossier, Zecca, et al.
(2012) and Taber and Blankemeyer (2015), suggests that these dispositional traits lead to the development of an internal sense of
agency (Savickas, 2013) that helps people proactively engage in career development behaviors. According to the FFM model
(McCrae & Costa, 1999), personality traits primarily affect an individual's characteristic adaptations, and these process variables
regulate the behavioral expressions (Rossier, Zecca et al., 2012). Furthermore, Rottinghaus and Miller (2013) introduced an inte-
grative theoretical model of personality that can be applied to explain career behaviors. Based on this model, characteristic adap-
tations, such as career adaptability, are dynamic mechanisms that are needed for connecting dispositional traits and states (affect
and mood) to career narratives. Therefore, it could be concluded that specific personality dimensions affect career outcomes
through dynamic adaptations such as career adaptability. Career adaptability, as a set of attitudes, beliefs, and competences,
shapes specific behaviors to confront developmental tasks, transitions, and trauma (Savickas, 2013). Concern, which involves
hope and optimism, shapes planning and preparing behaviors; curiosity about one's self and the work world increases inquiring
behaviors. Control, as a core belief about responsibility for constructing a career, increases using self-regulation strategies to adapt
to and change and changeable situations. Confidence includes striving and persistence for achieving goals (Savickas, 2005;
Savickas et al., 2009). Career adaptability thus helps individuals to regulate their vocational behavior (Savickas, 2013). The consid-
erable point is that although in Iran the collectivist perspective is more dominant than the individualist perspective, the findings
emphasized the role of career adaptability. These findings are similar to those in other countries.

4.1. Limitations and future research

This study had some limitations. The data were gathered in a short period of time. A longitudinal design could define how
changes in career adaptability could change students' career engagement through their course of study. Another limitation was
the sample size and use of convenience sampling for selecting participants. More representative and larger samples could improve
the generalizability of the role of career adaptability in predicting career engagement. In this study, only career adaptability
dimensions were considered as mediators. Multiple meditation models in which other mediation variables, such as career atti-
tudes (Hirschi, 2014), are considered might investigate the relationship between career adaptability and career preparation
(Skorikov, 2007) for confronting the world of work among students. In addition, culture and other environmental features
could be considered as moderator variables in future studies.

4.2. Conclusion and practical implications

To conclude, this research clearly indicated that career adaptability dimensions mediate the relationship between specific
personality dimensions and career engagement in students. The results of this study contribute to the literature on career engage-
ment among students (Hirschi, 2014; Hirschi & Freund, 2014) and also confirm the role of career adaptability in predicting and
understanding career adapting responses (Savickas, 1997, 2005, 2013). These results suggest that the cognitive processes that
have been defined in CAAS would enlist as self- regulation processes which could be developed in individuals. Therefore, career
education courses and career counseling sessions designed to improve students' career adaptability might enhance their career
engagement.

References

Aluja, A., Kuhlman, M., & Zuckerman, M. (2010). Development of the Zuckerman–Kuhlman–Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ): A factor/facet version of the
Zuckerman–Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ). Journal of Personality Assessment, 92, 416–431. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2010.497406.
Coetzee, M., & Stoltz, E. (2015). Employees' satisfaction with retention factors: Exploring the role of career adaptability. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 89, 83–91. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.04.012.
Duffy, R.D. (2010). Sense of control and career adaptability among undergraduate students. Journal of Career Assessment, 18, 420–430. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/
1069072710374587.
Dumulescu, D., Balazsi, R., & Opre, A. (2015). Calling and career competencies among Romanian students: The mediating role of career adaptability. Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 209, 25–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.11.223.
Fiori, M., Bollmann, G., & Rossier, J. (2015). Exploring the path through which career adaptability increases job satisfaction and lowers job stress: The role of affect.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 91, 113–121. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.08.010.
Guan, Y., Yang, W., Zhou, X., Tian, Z., & Eves, A. (2016). Predicting Chinese human resource managers' strategic competence: Roles of identity, career variety, organi-
zational support and career adaptability. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 99, 116–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.11.012.
de Guzman, A.B., & Choi, K.O. (2013). The relations of employability skills to career adaptability among technical school students. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 82,
199–207.
Hirschi, A. (2014). Hope as a resource for self-directed career management: Investigating mediating effects on proactive career behaviors and life and job satisfaction.
Journal of Happiness Studies, 15, 1495–1512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10902–013-9488-x.
Hirschi, A., & Freund, P.A. (2014). Career engagement: Investigating intraindividual predictors of weekly fluctuations in proactive career behaviors. Career Development
Quarterly, 62, 5–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2014.00066.x.
Hirschi, A., Freund, P.A., & Herrmann, A. (2014). The career engagement scale: Development and validation of a measure of proactive career behaviors. Journal of Career
Assessment, 22, 575–594. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072713514813.
Kennet, D.J., Reed, M.J., & Lam, D. (2011). The importance of directly asking students their reasons for attending higher education. Issues in Educational Research, 21,
65–74.
Koen, J., Van Vianen, A.E.M., Zikic, J., & Nauta, A. (2010). Job-search strategies and reemployment quality: The impact of career adaptability. Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 77, 126–139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.02.004.
Kretovics, M.A., & Lara, T.M. (2015). Understanding postsecondary options: Guiding the decision- making process. In P.J. Hartung, M.L. Savickas, & W.B. Walsh (Eds.),
American psychological association handbook of career intervention (pp. 365–379). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
10 P. Nilforooshan, S. Salimi / Journal of Vocational Behavior 94 (2016) 1–10

Krumboltz, J. D. (2015). Practical career counseling applications of the happenstance learning theory. In P. J. Hartung, M. L. Savickas, & W. B. Walsh (Eds.), American
psychological association handbook of career intervention (pp. 283–292). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Li, Y., Guan, Y., Wang, F., Zhou, X., Guo, K., Jiang, P., ... Fang, F. (2015). Big-five personality and BIS/BAS traits as predictors of career exploration: The mediation role of
career adaptability. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 89, 39–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.04.006.
Maggiori, C., Johnston, C.S., Krings, F., Massoudi, K., & Rossier, J. (2013). The role of career adaptability and work conditions on general and professional well-being.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(2013), 437–449. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.07.001.
McCrae, R.R., & Costa, P.T. (1999). A five-factor theory of personality. In L.A. Pervin, & P.P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality, theory and research (pp. 139–153). New
York: The Guilford Press.
McCrae, R.R., & Costa, P.T. (2004). A contemplated revision of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 36, 587–596.
McCrae, R.R., & Costa, P.T. (2008). The five-factor theory of personality. In O.P. John, R.W. Robins, & L.A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality, theory and research
(pp. 159–181) (3th ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.
McIlveen, P., & Perera, H.N. (2015). Career optimism mediates the effect of personality on teachers' career engagement. Journal of Career Assessment. http://dx.doi.org/
10.1177/1069072715616059.
Rastgar, A.A., Ebrahimi, E., & Hessan, M. (2014). The effects of personality on protean and boundaryless career attitudes. International Journal of Business Management
and Economics, 1(1), 1–5.
Rogers, M.E., Creed, P.A., & Glendon, I. (2008). The role of personality in adolescent career planning and exploration: A social cognitive perspective. Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 73, 132–142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2008.02.002.
Rossier, J., Aluja, A., García, L.F., Angleitner, A., De Pascalis, V., Wang, W., et al. (2007). The cross-cultural generalizability of Zuckerman's Alternative Five-Factor Model
of Personality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 89, 188–196.
Rossier, J., Hansenne, M., Baudin, N., & Merizot, J. (2012a). a). Zuckerman's revised alternative five-factor model: Validation of the Zuckerman–Kuhlman–Aluja Person-
ality Questionnaire in four French speaking countries. Journal of Personality Assessment, 94, 358–365. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2012.657024.
Rossier, J., Meyer de Stadelhofen, F., & Berthoud, S. (2004). The hierarchical structures of the NEO PI-R and the 16 PF 5. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 20,
27–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027//1015-5759.20.1.27.
Rossier, J., Zecca, G., Stauffer, S.D., Maggiori, C., & Dauwalder, L. Jean-Pierre (2012b). Career adapt-abilities scale in a French-speaking Swiss sample: Psychometric prop-
erties and relationships to personality and work engagement. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80, 734–743. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.004.
Rottinghaus, P.J., & Miller, A.D. (2013). Convergence of personality frameworks within vocational psychology. In W.B. Walsh, M.L. Savickas, & P.J. Hartung (Eds.), Hand-
book of vocational psychology (pp. 105–131) (4th ed.). New York: Routledge Press.
Savickas, M.L. (1997). Adaptability: An integrative construct for life-span, life-space theory. Career Development Quarterly, 45, 247–259.
Savickas, M.L. (2005). The theory and practice of career construction. In S.D. Brown, & R.W. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research
to work (pp. 42–70). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Savickas, M.L. (2013). Career construction theory and practice. In S.D. Brown, & R.W. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work
(pp. 147–183). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Savickas, M.L., & Porfeli, E.J. (2012). Career Adapt-Abilities Scale: Construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 80, 661–673. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.011.
Savickas, M.L., Nota, L., Rossier, J., Dauwalder, J.P., Duarte, M.E., Guichard, J., et al. (2009). Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. Journal
of Vocational Behavior, 75, 239–250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004.
Schaufeli, W.B., Salanova, M., Gonza'lez-roma´, V., & Bakker, A.B. (2002). The measurement of engagement and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic
approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 71–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1015630930326.
Schermelleh-Engel1, K., Moosbrugger, H., & Müller, H. (2003). Evaluating the fit of structural equation models: Tests of significance and descriptive goodness-of-fit
measures. Methods of Psychological Research Online, 8, 23–74.
Schmitz, N., Hartkamp, N., Baldini, C., Rollnik, J., & Tress, W. (2001). Psychometric properties of the German version of the NEO-FFI in psychosomatic outpatients.
Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 713–722.
Shrout, P.E., & Bolger, N. (2002). Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7, 422–445.
Skorikov, V.B. (2007). Continuity in adolescent career preparation and its effects on adjustment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 70(1), 8–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
jvb.2006.04.007.
Sturges, J., Guest, D., Conway, N., & Davey, K.M. (2002). A longitudinal study of the relationship between career management and organizational commitment among
graduates in the first ten years at work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23, 731–748. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/Job.164.
Taber, B.J., & Blankemeyer, M. (2015). Future work self and career adaptability in the prediction of proactive career behaviors. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 86, 20–27.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb. 2014.10.005.
Tolentino, L.R., Garcia, P.R.J.M., Lu, V.N., Restubog, S.L.D., Bordia, P., & Plewa, C. (2014). Career adaptation: The relation of adaptability to goal orientation, proactive per-
sonality, and career optimism. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 84, 39–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.11.004.
Tolentino, L.R., Garcia, P.R.J.M., Restubog, S.L.D., Bordia, P., & Tang, R.L. (2013). Validation of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale and an examination of a model of career
adaptation in the Philippine context. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83, 410–418. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.06.013.
UNICEF (2013). Islamic Republic of Iran. Retrieved 27 January, 2015, from http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/iran_statistics.html
Urbanaviciute, I., Kairys, A., Pociute, B., & Liniauskaite, A. (2014). Career adaptability in Lithuania: A test of psychometric properties and a theoretical model. Journal of
Vocational Behavior, 85, 433–442. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.09.005.
World Bank (2015). Iran. Retrieved 27 January, 2015, from http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/iran/overview
Zacher, H. (2014). Career adaptability predicts subjective career success above and beyond personality traits and core self-evaluations. Journal of Vocational Behavior,
84, 21–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.10.002.
Zecca, G., Györkös, C., Becker, J., Massoudi, K., de Bruin, G.P., & Rossier, J. (2015). Validation of the French Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and its relationship with
personality traits and impulsivity. Revue Européenne de Psychologie Appliqué, 65, 19–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2014.10.003.