This paper draws on Marcia and Porfeli’s identity status models to examine the relationship between adolescent career identity formation and its contextual aspects. Focus group interviews were conducted with 26 students at two Hong Kong senior secondary schools. It was found that most participants exhibited the career identity statuses of achievement, searching moratorium, or moratorium towards the end of school. Influences that were identified from family, school, and social culture varied across individuals with different career identity statuses. By reporting the findings from an East Asian school setting, the paper provides theoretical and practical implications for career development for senior secondary school students.
ChengS.YuenM. (2012). Education and career aspirations among Chinese high school students: Validation of the career aspiration scale. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 21, 394–401.
2.
CrocettiE.MeeusM. (2015). The identity statuses: Strengths of a person-centered approach. In McleanK. C.SyledM. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of identity development (pp. 97–114). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199936564.013.016
3.
CrocettiE.RubiniM.LuyckxK.MeeusW. (2008). Identity formation in early and middle adolescents from various ethnic groups: From three dimensions to five statuses. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37, 983–996. doi:10.1007/s10964-007-9222-2
EriksonE. (1950). Childhood and society. New York, NY: Norton.
6.
EriksonE. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
7.
EryigitS.KerpelmanJ. L. (2011). Cross-cultural investigation of the link between identity processing styles and the actual work of identity in the career domain. Child and Youth Care Forum, 40, 43–64. doi:10.1007/s10566-010-9117-3
8.
FlumH.KaplanA. (2012). Identity formation in educational settings: A contextualized view of theory and research in practice. Contemporary Education Psychology, 37, 240–245. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2012.01.003
9.
GrossL. S. (2004). Creating meaning from intersections of career and cultural identity. New Directions for Student Services, 105, 63–77. doi:10.1002/ss.117
10.
GroveK. J. (1991). Identity development in interracial Asian/White late adolescents: Must it be so problematic?Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 20, 617–628.
11.
HauberK. (2007). Assessing identity as the meaningfulness of meanings: The Flensburg Identity Status Interview (FISI). In WatzlawikM.BornA. (Eds.), Capturing identity: Quantitative and qualitative methods (pp. 15–22). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
12.
HirschiA. (2012). Vocational identity trajectories: Differences in personality and development of well-being. European Journal of Personality, 26, 2–12. doi:10.1002/per.812
13.
HoS. C. (2004). Accomplishment and challenges of Hong Kong education system: What we have learned from PISA. Education Journal, 31/32, 1–30.
14.
HoareC. (2013). Three missing dimensions in contemporary studies of identity: The unconscious, negative attributes, and society. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 33, 51–67. doi:10.1037/a0026546
15.
HouZ. J.LeungS. A. (2011). Vocational aspirations of Chinese high school students and their parents’ expectations. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79, 349–360. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2011.05.008
16.
JosselsonR. (1987). Finding herself. Pathways to identity development in women. San Francisco, CA and London, England: Jossey-Bass Inc.
17.
KrogerJ. (1988). A longitudinal study of identity status interview domains. Journal of Adolescence, 17, 59–79.
KrogerJ.MartinussenM.MarciaJ. E. (2010). Identity status change during adolescence and young adulthood: A meta-analysis. Journal of Adolescence, 33, 683–698. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2009.11.002
20.
LamR. S. Y.TamV. C. W. (2011). Correlates of identity statuses among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health, 23, 51–58. doi:10.1515/IJAMH.2011.009
21.
LeeJ. C. K. (2017). Curriculum reform and supporting structures at schools: Challenges for life skills planning for secondary school students in China (with particular reference to Hong Kong). Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 16, 61–75.
22.
LeeJ. C. K.HoO. N. K. (n.d). Schools’ support for post school planning: A Hong Kong perspective. Unpublished manuscript.
23.
LeeJ. F. (2010). The research on effect of advisor teacher on ego identity of constant violating rules’ students in junior high school. Chinese Journal of Guidance and Counseling, 28, 229–281.
24.
LeeC. T.BeckertT. E.GoodrichT. R. (2010). The relationship between individualistic, collectivistic, and transitional cultural value orientations and adolescents’ autonomy and identity status. Journal of Youth and Adolescent, 39, 882–893. doi:10.1007/s10964-009-9430-z
25.
LeungS. A. (2002). Career counseling in Hong Kong: Meeting the social challenges. The Career Development Quarterly, 50, 237–245. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2002.tb00899.x
26.
LeungS. A.HouZ. J. (2005). The structure of vocational interests among Chinese students. Journal of Career Development, 32, 74–90. doi:10.1177/0894845305277036
27.
LeungS. A.ZhouS. L.HoE. Y. F.LiX. X.HoK. P.TraceyT. J. G. (2014). The use of interest and competence scores to predict educational choices of Chinese high school students. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 84, 385–394. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2014.02.010
28.
LiX.HouZ. J.JiaY. (2015). The influence of social comparison on career decision-making: Vocational identity as a moderator and regret as a mediator. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 86, 10–19. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2014.10.003
29.
LopezE. M. (2001). Guidance of Latino high school students in Mathematics and career identity development. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 23, 189–207. doi:10.1177/0739986301232005
30.
LuyckxK.GoossensL.SoenensB.BeyersW.VansteenkisteM. (2005). Identity statuses based on 4 rather than 2 identity dimensions: Extending and refining Marcia’s paradigm. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 34, 605–618. doi:10.1007/s10964-005-8949-x
31.
MarciaJ. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551–558.
32.
MarciaJ. E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. In AdelsonJ. (Ed.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (pp. 159–187). New York, NY: John Wiley.
33.
MeijersF. (1998). The development of a career identity. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 20, 191–207. doi:10.1023/A:1005399417256
34.
MelgosaJ. (1987). Development and validation of the occupational identity scale. Journal of Adolescence, 10, 385–397.
35.
MontgomeryM. J.HernandezL.Ferrer-WrederL. (2008). Identity development and intervention studies: The right time for a marriage?Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 8, 173–182. doi:10.1080/15283480801940115
36.
MorrisP. (1996). Asia’s four little tigers: A comparison of the role of education in their development. Comparative Education, 32, 95–109.
37.
OnwuegbuzieA. J.DickinsonW. B.LeechN. L.ZoranA. G. (2009). A qualitative framework for collecting and analyzing data in focus group research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8, 1–21. doi:10.1177/160940690900800301
38.
PhinneyJ. S. (1989). Stages of Ethnic identity development in minority group adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 34–49.
39.
PhinneyJ. S.BaldelomarO. A. (2010). Identity development in multiple cultural contexts. In JensenL. A. (Ed.), Bridging cultural and developmental approaches to psychology: New syntheses in theory, research, and policy (pp. 161–186). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
40.
PorfeliE. J.LeeB. (2012). Career development during childhood and adolescence. New Directions for Youth Development, 134, 11–22. doi:10.1002/yd.20011
41.
PorfeliE. J.LeeB.VondracekF. W.WeigoldI. K. (2011). A multi-dimensional measure of vocational identity status. Journal of Adolescence, 34, 853–871. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.02.001
42.
PorfeliE. J.SavickasM. L. (2012). Career adapt-abilities scale-USA form: Psychometric properties and relation to vocational identity. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80, 748–753. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.009
43.
RheeE.LeeB. H.KimB.HaG.LeeS. M. (2016). The relationship among the six vocational identity statuses and five dimensions of planned happenstance career skills. Journal of Career Development, 43, 368–378. doi:10.1177/0894845315602120
44.
RogersM. E.CreedP. A.PraskovaA. (2016). Parent and adolescent perceptions of adolescent career development tasks and vocational identity. Journal of Career Development, 1–16. doi:10.1177/0894845316667483
45.
SchwartzS. J.KurtinesW. M.MontgomeryM. J. (2005). A comparison of two approaches for facilitating identity exploration processes in emerging adults: An exploratory study. Journal of Adolescent Research, 20, 309–345. doi:10.1177/0743558404273119
46.
SimJ. (1998). Collecting and analysing qualitative data: Issues raised by the focus group. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 28, 345–352. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2648.1998.00692.x
47.
SkorikovV. B.VondracekF. W. (2011). Occupational identity. In SchwartzS. J.LuyckxK.VignolesV. L. (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research (pp. 671–693). New York, NY: Springer Science+Business Media.
48.
Solomontos-KountouriO.HurryJ. (2007). Political, religious and occupational identities in context: Placing identity status paradigm in context. Journal of Adolescence, 31, 241–258. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2007.11.006
49.
SongJ. (2012). A study on key high school students’ identity formation. Mental Health Education in Primary and Secondary School, 14, 13–16. (in Chinese)
50.
StewartD. W.ShamdasaniP. N. (1990). Focus groups: Theory and practice. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
51.
StringerK.KerpelmanJ.SkorikovV. (2012). A longitudinal examination of career preparation and adjustment during the transition from high school. Developmental Psychology, 48, 1343–1354.
52.
WangS. Q.ChenH. C.ShiM. (2008). Adolescent ego identity status development and its relations with parenting authoritativeness and identity style. Psychological Development and Education, 2, 65–72.
53.
XuH.YangM. (2017). Development of adolescent moral and civic identity through community service: A qualitative study in Hong Kong. Journal of Adolescent Research, Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/0743558417698570
54.
YangC. S.LinS. H. (1998). A study on the relationship between career development and ego identity status for college students in Taiwan. Bulletin of Educational Psychology, 30, 1–16.
55.
ZhouS. L.LeungS. A.LiX. (2012). The meaning of work among Chinese university students: Findings from prototype research methodology. Journal of Counselling Psychology, 59, 408–423. doi:10.1037/a0028374
