Career goal-related success expectations across two educational transitions: A seven-year longitudinal study

Abstract

The purpose of this seven-year longitudinal study was to examine the trajectories of adolescents' career goal-related success expectations during two educational transitions. Altogether 850 (48% female, M Age = 16) participants reported their success expectations for their career-related goals, first in the last year of comprehensive school and four times during the following seven years. Overall, the success expectations showed a significant increase. However, there was considerable heterogeneity in the development of these expectations. Growth Mixture Modeling showed that four trajectories fitted the data best: high-increasing (78%), low-increasing (9%), decreasing (6%) and U-shaped (7%). The participants in the high-increasing trajectory were likely to be men, have origins in high SES, appraise career goal as highly important and have high levels of career goal-related parental support. Those in the decreasing trajectory were the least adapted in terms of their career situation at age 23.

Keywords::

• Adolescents
• Success expectations
• Career goals
• Educational transitions
• Developmental trajectories

Notes

¹ Altogether 17 (2%) adolescents participated in the study once, 75 (8.7%) twice, 140 (16.3%) three times, 257 (30%) four times and 369 (43%) five times, respectively.

^*Present address: Institution for Educational Science, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Jena, Jena, Germany.