Publicação
Construction and validation of the childhood career exploration inventory
| Resumo: | Childhood is a foundational period for career development, during which children are socialized to work, develop conceptions of career choice and attainment, and an emerging sense of self. The research agenda in this field has called for the identification, assessment and research of core constructs of childhood career development as well as for longitudinal studies. Career exploration is a key dimension of childhood career development, which consists of a relational process including both objective and subjective aspects. Career exploration increasingly differentiates and becomes cognitively oriented over childhood and is related to other career and academic variables. Although career exploration is more differentiated in middle school years, the literature often confounds middle school childhood with adolescence and infuses career exploration in the broader study of career adaptability. The use of self-report measures to assess children’s career exploration also emerges in middle school years. However, the extant self-report measures of middle school children’s career exploration seem not to explicitly refer the career exploration perspective they are grounded in, present curiosity either as an indicator or as a different construct of career exploration, omit the procedures through which they were constructed and validated, as well as lack evidence of temporal and nomological validity. Thus, there is a need to enrich the assessment and scientific knowledge of middle school children’s career exploration. This study presents the construction and validation of a new measure to assess middle school children’s career exploration – the Childhood Career Exploration Inventory (CCEI). The CCEI relies on an integrative perspective of career exploration and considers curiosity, exploratory resources and the self in life roles as main indicators of the construct. An initial 72-item pool was generated and qualitatively evaluated by four career experts and 11 children in a think-aloud tryout. Evidence of items’ judgmental validity based on test content and suggestions to improve the measure’s instructions and items were provided. The time needed for administration was also registered. The improved 72-item CCEI Version 1.0 was administrated to a sample of 312 children (43.6% girls and 56.1% boys, Mage = 10.80, SD = .86) attending fifth- and sixth-grade. Results from item, reliability, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses led to the CCEI length reduction for 12 items. These items presented evidence of judgmental validity, an approximate normal distribution of the responses, loaded on a single factor and did not compromise the measure’s reliability. The CCEI initial Likert-type response scale (1 “Totally unlike me” to 5 “Totally like me”, CCEI Version 2.0) was compared to an alternative one (1 “Strongly disagree” to 5 “Strongly agree”, CCEI Version 2.1) with data from another sample of 478 children (45.6% girls and 54.4% boys, Mage = 10.91, SD = .88) attending fifth- and sixth-grade. Confirmatory multigroup analyses suggested the goodness of fit of a hierarchical measurement model, which was equivalent for the response scales. Evidence also suggested that the CCEI Version 2.1 offered more items presenting an approximately normal distribution of the responses, a better fit and better estimates of internal consistency reliability than the CCEI Version 2.0. Confirmatory multigroup analyses based on the CCEI Version 2.1 suggested the measure’s configural and metric equivalence for genders and school levels, although metric non-invariance of the second-order factor was found for school levels. The CCEI Version 2.1 was administrated to another sample followed across four occurrences of measurement during fifth- and sixth-grades. The final sample included 429 children (48.3% girls and 51.7% boys, Mage at first wave = 10.23, SD = .50). Participants completed the CCEI Version 2.1, the subscales of self-efficacy expectations for academic success, self-regulated learning, leisure and extracurricular activities from the Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Self-Efficacy and the subscales of self-concept, locus of control and career planning from the Portuguese version of the Childhood Career Development Scale. The Questionnaire of Identification was also completed based on school records, to collect social demographic and academic information for each participant. Confirmatory results suggested that a hierarchical measurement model yielded a good fit to the data across the four occurrences of measurement, with low to moderate estimates of internal consistency reliability. Confirmatory and longitudinal stability techniques also suggested the configural and metric equivalence of the CCEI first- and second-order factors across the occurrences of measurement and for genders over time. Evidence also pointed to the CCEI configural and metric equivalence for girls and boys presenting different literacy proficiency levels at each occurrence of measurement. Positive and statistically significant correlations between the CCEI total scores, self-efficacy expectations for academic, leisure and extracurricular activities, self-concept, locus of control and career planning were additionally found at each occurrence of measurement. These results are discussed based on analytical, career and human development literatures. Main conclusions from this dissertation are retrieved and implications from this work to future research and early career practices are presented. |
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| Autores principais: | Oliveira, Íris Martins |
| Assunto: | Career exploration Childhood career development Test construction, Test validity Exploração de carreira Desenvolvimento de carreira na infância Construção de medida Validade de medida |
| Ano: | 2016 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | tese de doutoramento |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade do Minho |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho |
| Resumo: | Childhood is a foundational period for career development, during which children are socialized to work, develop conceptions of career choice and attainment, and an emerging sense of self. The research agenda in this field has called for the identification, assessment and research of core constructs of childhood career development as well as for longitudinal studies. Career exploration is a key dimension of childhood career development, which consists of a relational process including both objective and subjective aspects. Career exploration increasingly differentiates and becomes cognitively oriented over childhood and is related to other career and academic variables. Although career exploration is more differentiated in middle school years, the literature often confounds middle school childhood with adolescence and infuses career exploration in the broader study of career adaptability. The use of self-report measures to assess children’s career exploration also emerges in middle school years. However, the extant self-report measures of middle school children’s career exploration seem not to explicitly refer the career exploration perspective they are grounded in, present curiosity either as an indicator or as a different construct of career exploration, omit the procedures through which they were constructed and validated, as well as lack evidence of temporal and nomological validity. Thus, there is a need to enrich the assessment and scientific knowledge of middle school children’s career exploration. This study presents the construction and validation of a new measure to assess middle school children’s career exploration – the Childhood Career Exploration Inventory (CCEI). The CCEI relies on an integrative perspective of career exploration and considers curiosity, exploratory resources and the self in life roles as main indicators of the construct. An initial 72-item pool was generated and qualitatively evaluated by four career experts and 11 children in a think-aloud tryout. Evidence of items’ judgmental validity based on test content and suggestions to improve the measure’s instructions and items were provided. The time needed for administration was also registered. The improved 72-item CCEI Version 1.0 was administrated to a sample of 312 children (43.6% girls and 56.1% boys, Mage = 10.80, SD = .86) attending fifth- and sixth-grade. Results from item, reliability, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses led to the CCEI length reduction for 12 items. These items presented evidence of judgmental validity, an approximate normal distribution of the responses, loaded on a single factor and did not compromise the measure’s reliability. The CCEI initial Likert-type response scale (1 “Totally unlike me” to 5 “Totally like me”, CCEI Version 2.0) was compared to an alternative one (1 “Strongly disagree” to 5 “Strongly agree”, CCEI Version 2.1) with data from another sample of 478 children (45.6% girls and 54.4% boys, Mage = 10.91, SD = .88) attending fifth- and sixth-grade. Confirmatory multigroup analyses suggested the goodness of fit of a hierarchical measurement model, which was equivalent for the response scales. Evidence also suggested that the CCEI Version 2.1 offered more items presenting an approximately normal distribution of the responses, a better fit and better estimates of internal consistency reliability than the CCEI Version 2.0. Confirmatory multigroup analyses based on the CCEI Version 2.1 suggested the measure’s configural and metric equivalence for genders and school levels, although metric non-invariance of the second-order factor was found for school levels. The CCEI Version 2.1 was administrated to another sample followed across four occurrences of measurement during fifth- and sixth-grades. The final sample included 429 children (48.3% girls and 51.7% boys, Mage at first wave = 10.23, SD = .50). Participants completed the CCEI Version 2.1, the subscales of self-efficacy expectations for academic success, self-regulated learning, leisure and extracurricular activities from the Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Self-Efficacy and the subscales of self-concept, locus of control and career planning from the Portuguese version of the Childhood Career Development Scale. The Questionnaire of Identification was also completed based on school records, to collect social demographic and academic information for each participant. Confirmatory results suggested that a hierarchical measurement model yielded a good fit to the data across the four occurrences of measurement, with low to moderate estimates of internal consistency reliability. Confirmatory and longitudinal stability techniques also suggested the configural and metric equivalence of the CCEI first- and second-order factors across the occurrences of measurement and for genders over time. Evidence also pointed to the CCEI configural and metric equivalence for girls and boys presenting different literacy proficiency levels at each occurrence of measurement. Positive and statistically significant correlations between the CCEI total scores, self-efficacy expectations for academic, leisure and extracurricular activities, self-concept, locus of control and career planning were additionally found at each occurrence of measurement. These results are discussed based on analytical, career and human development literatures. Main conclusions from this dissertation are retrieved and implications from this work to future research and early career practices are presented. |
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