The present study tracked a group of Year 12 students 9 months after leaving high school and sought to identify whether age, gender, data on career maturity, psychological wellbeing, and school achievement reported while still at school could be identified as predictors of occupational status. Data on these variables were able to identify broad postschool occupational groupings of school leavers at Time 2 (T2), whether they were in full-time study, full-time employment, or unemployed/part-time employed. Findings support the assertion that career maturity is a predictor of a successful postschool transition. Discussion focuses on the need to explore movements between the occupational groupings and implications for school-based interventions.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Australian Bureau of Statistics
. (1996). Participation in education—Australia 1995 (Catalog No. 4221.0). Canberra, ACT: Author.
2.
Australian Bureau of Statistics
. (1997). Transition from education to work survey. Canberra, ACT: Author.
3.
Bloor, D.
, & Brook, J. (1993). Career development of students pursuing higher education. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 28(1), 57-68.
4.
Broomhall, H. S.
, & Winefield, A. H. (1990). A comparison of the affective well-being of young and middle-aged unemployed men matched for length of unemployment. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 63, 43-52.
5.
Brusoki, G. C.
, Gollin, A. K., Gallagher, R. P., & Moore, M. (1993). Career groupeffects on career indecision, career maturity, and locus of control of undergraduate clients. Journal of Career Assessment, 1, 309-320.
6.
Creed, P. A.
(1999). Predisposing factors and consequences of occupational status for long-term unemployed youth: A longitudinal study. Journal of Adolescence, 22(1), 81-93.
7.
Dooley, D.
, Catalano, R., & Hough, R. (1992). Unemployment and alcohol disorder in 1910 and 1990: Drift versus social causation. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 65, 277-290.
8.
Gianakos, I.
(1999). Patterns of career choice and career decision-making self-efficacy. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 54(2), 244-258.
9.
Goldberg, D. P.
(1972). The detection of psychiatric illness by questionnaire. London: Oxford University Press.
10.
Goldberg, D.
, & Williams, P. (1988). A user’s guide to the General Health Questionnaire. Windsor, UK: NFER-Nelson Publishing.
11.
Hammarstrom, A.
, & Janlert, U. (1997). Nervous and depressive symptoms in a longitudinal study of youth unemployment—Selection or exposure?Journal of Adolescence, 20(3), 293-305.
12.
Lokan, J.
(1984). Manual of the Career Development Inventory—Australian edition. Melbourne, Australia: ACER.
13.
Luzzo, D. A.
(1993). Predicting the career maturity of undergraduates: A comparison of personal, educational, and psychological factors. Journal of College Student Development, 34, 271-275.
14.
Luzzo, D. A.
(1995). The relationship between career aspiration-current occupation congruence and the career maturity of undergraduates. Journal of Employment Counseling, 32, 132-140.
15.
Luzzo, D. A.
, Funk, D. P., & Strang, J. (1996). Attributional retraining increases career decisionmaking self-efficacy. Career Development Quarterly, 44, 378-386.
16.
Morrell, S.
, Taylor, R., Quine, S., Kerr, C., & Western, J. (1994). A cohort study of unemployment as a cause of psychological disturbance in Australian youth. Social Science and Medicine, 38(11), 1553-1564.
17.
Patton, W.
(2000). The nexus between vocational education and career education in schools: In competition or each defining a place for the other?Australian Journal of Career Development, 9(3), 34-39.
18.
Patton, W.
, & Creed, P. A. (2001). Developmental issues in career maturity and career decision status. The Career Development Quarterly, 49, 336-351.
19.
Patton, W.
, & Lokan, J. (2001). Perspectives on Donald Super’s construct of career maturity. International Journal of Educational and Vocational Guidance, 1, 31-48.
20.
Rogers, W. B.
, & Westbrook, B. W. (1983). Measuring career indecision among college students: Towards a valid approach for counseling practitioners and researchers. Measurement and Guidance in Evaluation, 16, 78-85.
21.
Schaufeli, W. B.
(1997). Youth unemployment and mental health: Some Dutch findings. Journal of Adolescence, 20(3), 281-292.
22.
Sweet, R.
(1999). Youth: The rhetoric and the reality of the ’90s. In Dusseldorp Skills Forum, Australia’s youth: From risk to opportunity. Sydney, Australia: Author.
23.
Tabachnick, B.
, & Fidell, L. (1996). Using multivariate statistics (3rd ed.). Northridge, CA: HarperCollins.
24.
Winefield, A. H.
(1993). Employment history and psychological well-being in the young unemployed. Psychological Reports, 72, 14-14.
