Maria Célia Lassance

Marúcia Bardagi
Marco Teixeira
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do
Sul, Brasil
AIOSP – sep 2008
 The transition from high school to university
is a common expectation among Brazilian
adolescents, specially those with higher
socieconomic status. (Arteche, 2003; Bardagi & Hutz, 2006;
Bastos, 2005; Pizzinato, Boeckel, Dellazzana, Coral & Sarriera, 2001;
Sparta & Gomes, 2005).

 Getting a university diploma is seen as an

important source of personal, social and
economic development.
INTRODUCTION

 Career: a personal course in life, with an

extension to the others roles that one enact in
the life span (Super, Savickas & Super, 1996).

 Career development is characterized by

expected and unexpected transitions, and
individuals must adapt themselves (Savickas,
1997) to this changing and multilevel context.
INTRODUCTION

 Career counseling programs have positive

impact on clients, such as improved cognitive
functioning among students from different areas,
greater course satisfaction, and more adherence
to the institution.

 Many outcome studies show that career

counseling produces gains in vocational identity,
in self-knowledge, and in career decision-
making (Almeida & Melo-Silva, 2006; Folsom & Reardom, 2003; Hirschi
& Läge, 2008; Melo-Silva, 2001; Moura, Sampaio & Gemelli, 2005).
 The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy
of a career counseling program offered to
adolescent clients at the Centro de Avaliação
Psicológica, Seleção e Orientação Profissional
(CAP-SOP), from Federal University of Rio
Grande do Sul (Brazil), between august/2005 and
december/2007.
 PHASE OBJECTIVES
Identify the characteristics of indecision, as well as choice barriers
Identify decision-making resources (exploratory behavior, autonomy, and
vocational maturity)
Identify beliefs and stereotypes related to the career choice (expectations
Diagnostic
about the process)
Identify beliefs and stereotypes about occupations and the world of work

Themes: work, occupations, labour market, family issues, choice and world
of work stereotypes, self-knowledge (skills, interests, and work values)
Improve cognitive flexibility: relaxing the stereotyped notion that
Elaboration personality characteristics determine occupational choice (rigid person-
environment matching)

To increase knowledge about educational and occupational possibilities

Identify different educational trajectories which lead to the chosen
Information professional project.

Evaluate the intervention and its impact on clients’ vocational situation.

Closure Help client to identify ways to implement the chosen professional project.
Identify possible barriers and coping strategies.
Create alternative pathways to the chosen objective.
 Career indecision: it is an expected experience in adolescence,
specially during the transition from high school to higher education
(in Brasil) (Gómez, 1995; Krumboltz, 1992; Osipow, 1999). It is not
considered pathological, but a normal reaction when someone is
faced with the need to make a decision (Savickas, 1995).
 Exploration: a process with adaptive functions for the individual, not
only in the vocational realm. It encompasses specific behaviors that
allow individuals to get information about themselves and the world
of work, as well as a motivational component responsible for these
behaviors.
 Vocational maturity (Super e cols, 1996) and career adaptability
(Savickas, 1997): these concepts are related to the tasks of planning
(knowing the necessary actions that have to be taken to reach
desired outcomes), exploration (involvement in a variety of activities
that enhance self-knowledge and world-of-work knowledge), and
decision-making (establishing a course of action after considering
different alternatives; also involves commitment to the chosen
alternative).
 176 clients from CAP-SOP

 66,3% women

 Age range: 14-22 (mean: 17,2; SD: 1,34)

 All attended career counseling (group modality) in:

◦ 2005: 39,7%
◦ 2006: 38,1%
◦ 2007: 22,2%
Vocational Indecision Scale (Teixeira & Magalhães, 2001)
 7-item self-report scale (Likert format – 5 points)
 items tap feelings of uncertainty about the career choice, as well
as fear of making a “wrong” choice.
 Alpha (this study, before - after): .71 - .85.

Vocational Exploration Scale (Teixeira, 2001)

 30-item self-report scale (Likert format – 5 points)
 with two subscales: self-exploration (SE) and environmental
exploration (EE)
 Alpha – SE (this study, before - after): .83 - .84.
 Alpha – EE (this study, before - after): .88 - .88.
Maturity for Professional Choice Scale (EMEP – Neiva,
1999)
 45-item self-report scale (Likert format – 5 points)
 with five subscales (alphas for this study, before – after):
◦ Responsability: .69 - .76
◦ Determination: .79 - .84
◦ Independence: .79 - .81
◦ Self-knowledge: .71 - .71
◦ Knowledge of occupational reality: .77 - .79
 Data were collected before and after the career
counseling program (interval: more or less 8 weeks)

 Informed consent was obtained from adolescents and

their parents before data collection.
Measures Mean (SD) p Effect (r) r2
Before After

Indecision 3,33 (0,81) 2,24 (0,82) <0,001 0,76 0,58

Maturity
Responsability 3,75 (0,55) 4,04 (0,54) <0,001 0,45 0,20
Determination 2,87 (0,64) 3,88 (0,67) <0,001 0,80 0,64
Knowledge – occupational reality 2,87 (0,59) 3,34 (0,57) <0,001 0,66 0,44
Self-knowledge 3,34 (0,63) 3,69 (0,57) <0,001 0,52 0,27
Independence 3,52 (0,69) 3,68 (0,71) =0,002 0,23 0,05
Total 3,27 (0,38) 3,72 (0,40) <0,001 0,76 0,58

Exploration
Environmental exploration 2,81 (0,61) 3,32 (0,56) <0,001 0,66 0,44
Self-exploration 3,43 (0,68) 3,68 (0,69) <0,001 0,34 0,12
Total 3,02 (0,54) 3,44 (0,54) <0,001 0,63 0,40
Possible gender differences were investigated using t-tests for
independent groups. Statistically significant (p<0.05) differences
were observed for the following variables (women scored higher than
men in all measures):

• Indecision – after (p=0,047)

• Responsability – before (p=0,045)
• Responsability – after (p=0,014)
• Self-exploration – before (p=0,026)
• Self-exploration – after (p=0,002)
• Total exploration – before (p=0,017)
• Total exploration – after (p=0,019)
• Comparing the scores observed before the intervention with
those observed after, we noted:
• a decrease in career indecision scores
• an increase in vocational explorations scores
• an increase in career maturity scores

• Thus, these results suggest that the career intervention was

effective, and that the clients progressed in their decision-
making process (they felt more certain about their choice after
the intervention).
• Self-knowledge scores were high (mean greater than 3) before the
intervention. This suggests that these adolescents came to career
intervention with some ideia about their interests and personality
characteristics (that is, they were not lacking self-knowledge).
• However, middle class Brazilian adolescents usually do not have work
experiences that foster vocational development (e.g., Bardagi, 2007).
This means that although they may have a reasonably clear self-
concept, they possibly fail to establish a relationship between this self-
concept and the occupational possibilities, since the work role identity is
not salient (Ng & Feldman, 2007).
• The career intervention offered in CAP-SOP aims to promote a
sistematic reflection about the work role identity as the clients explore the
world of work.
• Presumably, the exploration of the world of work helps clients to better
discriminate their generic self-concepts and translate them in vocational
terms. This may have contributed to the increase in determination
scores.
• Concerning gender differences, we observed that
women were more concerned about making a career
decision (greater responsability scores).
• They were also more prone to use self-reflection to
reach a decision, as suggested by their higher self-
exploration scores.
• This tendency to be more self-reflexive, on the other
hand, may explain why they also perceived
themselves more undecided than men after the
intervention (they are probably more self-
questioning).
Limitations of this study and recomendations:

No control group and no random selection of subjects: as this study was

conducted with clients that were looking for career counseling at CAP-
SOP, no comparision group was used, nor participants were randomly
selected (the design was not experimental). So, the effects observed in
this study may have been influenced by other variables that were not
controlled. However, the size of the effects detected were quite
pronounced, which make us think that the intervention was in fact
effective. Future studies, however, should try to control for confounding
variables.

No follow-up: since the after-measures were collected just a week after

the last group encounter, we do not know if the gains observed lasted in
time, nor if the decision skills learned were transferred to other situations.
Other studies, possibly using qualitative methodologies, are needed to
address these issues.
In conclusion, these results showed that the career
counseling program evaluated was effective, thus
suggesting the existence of consistency among
theory, goals and techniques employed.
We expect, with this study, to provide new
elements to further expand the discussion about
evaluation of career intervention programs.
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