Identifying and Validating Career Indecision Types Among Undergraduate Students in Türkiye: A Person-Centered Investigation

Abstract

Identifying distinct career indecision profiles allows for the tailoring of counseling interventions to address each client’s specific needs. While Levin, Lipshits-Braziler, and Gati (2024) established a general seven-profile typology across 16 countries, cultural and socioeconomic variations necessitate replicating this model while exploring potential context-specific profiles within a specific country. Accordingly, this study explored career indecision types among Turkish undergraduate students (N = 1,377) and examined profile differences in relation to background characteristics and career-related outcomes. Latent profile analysis replicated six profiles from the general typology with some nuances: Unrealistic–Indecisive, Generally Uninformed, Uninformed–Conflicted, Internally Conflicted, Externally Conflicted, and Unmotivated. Additionally, a context-specific seventh profile—Generally Conflicted—emerged. Results indicated that gender and socioeconomic status were significant predictors of profile membership, whereas age had a minimal impact. Furthermore, profiles differed significantly in career decidedness, self-efficacy, locus of control, and ambiguity intolerance. These findings are discussed within the Turkish socioeconomic and cultural framework, as well as the broader international literature. The findings provide a basis for implementing targeted counseling strategies and outline key directions for future research.

Keywords

career indecision career decision-making difficulties person-centered research latent profile analysis career counseling Türkiye undergraduate students

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Akos

Konold

Niles

S. G.

(2004). A career readiness typology and typal membership in middle school. The Career Development Quarterly, 53(1), 53–66. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2004.tb00655.x

American Psychological Association Task Force on Socioeconomic Status . (2007). Of APA task force on socioeconomic status. https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/task-force-2006.pdf

Archer

R. P.

(1979). Relationships between locus of control and anxiety. Journal of Personality Assessment, 43(6), 617–626. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4306_10

Asparouhov

Muthén

(2014). Auxiliary variables in mixture modeling: Three-step approaches using Mplus. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 21(3), 329–341. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2014.915181

Bacanli

(2016). Career decision-making difficulties of Turkish adolescents. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 16(2), 233–250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10775-015-9304-8

Bacanlı

Öztemel

(2017). Kariyer karar verme güçlükleri ölçeğinin genç yetişkin örnekleminde faktör yapısının ve güvenirliğinin incelenmesi [Investigation of factor structure and reliability of career decision-making difficulties scale in young adult sample] [Conference presentation]. 26th international conference on educational sciences, Antalya, Türkiye.

Bakk

Vermunt

J. K.

(2016). Robustness of stepwise latent class modeling with continuous distal outcomes. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 23(1), 20–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2014.955104

Bandura

(1988). Self-efficacy conception of anxiety. Anxiety Research, 1(2), 77–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615808808248222

Betz

N. E.

Klein

K. L.

Taylor

K. M.

(1996). Evaluation of a short form of the career decision-making self-efficacy scale. Journal of Career Assessment, 4(1), 47–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/106907279600400103

10.

Blustein

D. L.

(2011). A relational theory of working. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.10.004

11.

Blustein

D. L.

Chaves

A. P.

Diemer

M. A.

Gallagher

L. A.

Marshall

K. G.

Sirin

Bhati

K. S.

(2002). Voices of the forgotten half: The role of social class in the school-to-work transition. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49(3), 311–323. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.49.3.311

12.

Blustein

D. L.

Ellis

M. V.

Devenis

L. E.

(1989). The development and validation of a two-dimensional model of the commitment to career choices process. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 35(3), 342–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(89)90034-1

13.

Brown

S. D.

Rector

C. C.

(2008). Conceptualizing and diagnosing problems in career decision-making. In Brown

S. D.

Lent

R. W.

(Eds.), Handbook of counseling psychology (4th ed., pp. 392–407). Wiley.

14.

Buyukgoze-Kavas

(2014). A psychometric evaluation of the career decision self-efficacy scale–short form with Turkish university students. Journal of Career Assessment, 22(2), 386–397. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072713484561

15.

Buyukgoze-Kavas

Allan

B. A.

Turan

Kirazci

(2021). Context and validation of the subjective underemployment scale among Turkish employees. Journal of Career Assessment, 29(2), 283–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072720961542

16.

Campbell

R. E.

Cellini

J. V.

(1981). A diagnostic taxonomy of adult career problems. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 19(2), 175–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(81)90057-9

17.

Cheung

M. W.-L.

Chan

(2002). Reducing uniform response bias with ipsative measurement in multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(1), 55–77. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0901_4

18.

Correll

S. J.

(2004). Constraints into preferences: Gender, status, and emerging career aspirations. American Sociological Review, 69(1), 93–113. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240406900106

19.

Costa

P. T.

Jr. McCrae

R. R.

(2008). The revised NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI-R). In Boyle

G. J.

Matthews

Saklofske

D. H.

(Eds.), The SAGE handbook of personality theory and assessment, Vol. 2. Personality measurement and testing (pp. 179–198). Sage Publications.

20.

Dawis

R. V.

(2005). The Minnesota theory of work adjustment. In Brown

S. D.

Lent

R. W.

(Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp. 3–23). John Wiley & Sons.

21.

Fitch

(1970). Effects of self-esteem, perceived performance, and choice on causal attributions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16(2), 311–315. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0029847

22.

Gati

Krausz

Osipow

S. H.

(1996). A taxonomy of difficulties in career decision making. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43(4), 510–526. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.43.4.510

23.

Gati

Saka

(2001). High school students' career‐related decision‐making difficulties. Journal of Counseling and Development, 79(3), 331–340. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2001.tb01978.x

24.

Gelibolu

(2022). Yetişkinlerin kariyer uyumunu paradigma değişimi bağlamında kişisel ve kültürel değişkenlerle inceleyen bir model sınaması [A model testing examining adults’ career adaptability with personal and cultural variables in the context of paradigm shift]. Thesis No. 772408 [Doctoral dissertation, Ankara University]. Council of Higher Education Thesis Center.

25.

Higgins

E. T.

(1989). Self-discrepancy theory: What patterns of self-beliefs cause people to suffer? Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 22, 93–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60306-8

26.

Holland

J. L.

(1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3rd ed.). Psychological Assessment Resources.

27.

Hooley

Hertzberg

Mariager-Anderson

Saur

Sundelin

Å.

Varjo

Valdimarsdóttir

Author (2024). A systematic review of research into career guidance policy in the nordic countries (2008-2022). Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 10(2), 126–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2024.2352004

28.

Howard

M. C.

Hoffman

M. E.

(2018). Variable-centered, person-centered, and person-specific approaches: Where theory meets the method. Organizational Research Methods, 21(4), 846–876. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428117744021

29.

Kağıtçıbaşı

Ç.

(2017). Family, self, and human development across cultures: Theory and applications. Routledge.

30.

Kelly

K. R.

Pulver

C. A.

(2003). Refining measurement of career indecision types: A validity study. Journal of Counseling and Development, 81(4), 445–453. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2003.tb00271.x

31.

Kirazcı

Öztemel

(2021). Üniversite öğrencilerinin kariyer karar verme belirsizliklerine toleranslarının çeşitli değişkenlerle ilişkilerinin incelenmesi [An examination of university students’ career decision ambiguity tolerance with several variables]. Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Education Faculty, 58, 442–477. https://izlik.org/JA66AA74FY

32.

Krumboltz

J. D.

(1994). The career beliefs inventory. Journal of Counseling and Development, 72(4), 424–428. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1994.tb00962.x

33.

Lee

B. H.

Lee

S. M.

Lee

J. H.

(2025). Unrealistic career optimism among Korean adolescents: A discrepancy between career aspirations and career preparation behaviors. Journal of Career Development, 52(3), 354–368. https://doi.org/10.1177/08948453251322444

34.

Lent

R. W.

Brown

S. D.

(2020). Career decision making, fast and slow: Toward an integrative model of intervention for sustainable career choice. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 120, 103448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103448

35.

Levin

Braunstein-Bercovitz

Lipshits-Braziler

Gati

Rossier

(2020). Testing the structure of the career decision-making difficulties questionnaire across country, gender, age, and decision status. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 116, 103365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.103365

36.

Levin

Lipshits-Braziler

Gati

(2024). Patterns of career decision-making difficulties in 16 countries: A person-centered investigation. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 71(1), 34–47. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000704

37.

Levin

Lipshits-Braziler

Gati

(2022). The identification and validation of five types of career indecision: A latent profile analysis of career decision-making difficulties. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 69(4), 452–462. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000603

38.

Levin

Masdonati

Castella

Grassi

(2024). Associations of career decision-making strategies with career decision-making self-efficacy and difficulties among French-speaking Swiss adolescents and young adults. Journal of Career Assessment, 32(4), 698–720. https://doi.org/10.1177/10690727241232439

39.

Levin

Udayar

Lipshits-Braziler

Gati

Rossier

(2023). The structure of the career decision-making difficulties questionnaire across 13 countries. Journal of Career Assessment, 31(1), 129–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/10690727221099226

40.

Lillevoll

K. R.

Kroger

Martinussen

(2013). Identity status and locus of control: A meta-analysis. Identity, 13(3), 253–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2013.799471

41.

Masyn

K. E.

(2013). Latent class analysis and finite mixture modeling. In Little

T. D.

(Ed.), The Oxford handbook of quantitative methods (2, pp. 551–611). Oxford University Press. Statistical analysis. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199934898.013.0025

42.

Millar

Shevlin

(2007). The development and factor structure of a career locus of control scale for use with school pupils. Journal of Career Development, 33(3), 224–249. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845306296643

43.

Morin

A. J. S.

Meyer

J. P.

Creusier

Biétry

(2016). Multiple-group analysis of similarity in latent profile solutions. Organizational Research Methods, 19(2), 231–254. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428115621148

44.

Murry

R. T.

Pujar

L. A. T. A.

(2017). Influence of socioeconomic status on career decision making of undergraduate emerging adults. International Journal of Educational Research, 7, 55–62.

45.

Muthén

L. K.

Muthén

B. O.

(1998-2017). Mplus user’s guide (8th ed.). Muthén & Muthén.

46.

Nylund-Gibson

Choi

A. Y.

(2018). Ten frequently asked questions about latent class analysis. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 4(4), 440–461. https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000176

47.

Nylund-Gibson

K. L.

Grimm

Quirk

Furlong

(2014). A latent transition mixture model using the three-step specification. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 21(3), 439–454. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2014.915375

48.

OECD . (2025). OECD Economic surveys: Türkiye 2025. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/d01c660f-en

49.

Okorie

C. O.

Okolie

U. C.

Awotoye

Y. F.

Mezieobi

K. C.

(2025). Exploring the impact of family financial support withdrawal on graduates’ school-to-work transition. Career Development International, 31(1), 54–74. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-12-2024-0546

50.

Patton

McMahon

(2014). Career development and systems theory: Connecting theory and practice (3rd ed.). Sense.

51.

R Core Team . (2025). R: A Language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org

52.

Rochat

(2022). Mapping career counseling interventions: A guide for career practitioners. Routledge.

53.

Saka

Gati

(2007). Emotional and personality-related aspects of persistent career decision-making difficulties. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 71(3), 340–358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2007.08.003

54.

Salman

Kan

(2021). Predicting career decision-making difficulties: The role of barriers, self-efficacy, and decision status. Turkish Psychological Counseling and Guidance Journal, 11(60), 49–66. https://izlik.org/JA55NE33CR

55.

Sampson

J. P.

Lenz

J. G.

Bullock-Yowell

Osborn

D. S.

Hayden

S. C. W.

(Eds.). (2023). Cognitive information processing: Career theory, research, and practice. Florida state open publishing. https://doi.org/10.33009/fsop_sampson1123

56.

Savickas

M. L.

Nota

Rossier

Dauwalder

J.-P.

Duarte

M. E.

Guichard

Soresi

Van Esbroeck

van Vianen

A. E. M.

(2009). Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75(3), 239–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004

57.

Savickas

M. L.

Porfeli

E. J.

(2012). Career adapt-abilities scale: Construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80(3), 661–673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.011

58.

Simpson

Janssen

Craig

W. M.

Pickett

(2005). Multilevel analysis of associations between socioeconomic status and injury among Canadian adolescents. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 59(12), 1072–1077. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2005.036723

59.

Siyez

D. M.

(2015). Validity and reliability of a Turkish version of the career locus of control scale. Journal of Career Development, 42(4), 281–293. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845314557814

60.

Slaney

R. B.

(1980). Expressed vocational choice and vocational indecision. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 27(2), 122–129. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.27.2.122

61.

Stead

G. B.

Watson

M. B.

(1993). The career myths scale: Its validity and applicability. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 16(2), 89–97. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01418145

62.

Sultana

R. G.

Watts

A. G.

(2007). Career guidance in the Mediterranean region. European Training Foundation. https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/33147

63.

Taylor

K. M.

Betz

N. E.

(1983). Applications of self-efficacy theory to the understanding and treatment of career indecision. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 22(1), 63–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(83)90006-4

64.

Vermunt

J. K.

Magidson

(2002). Latent class cluster analysis. In Hagenaars

J. A.

McCutcheon

A. L.

(Eds.), Advances in latent class analysis (pp. 89–114). Cambridge University Press.

65.

Weinstein

N. D.

(1980). Unrealistic optimism about future life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(5), 806–820. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.39.5.806

66.

West

Lewis

Roberts

Noden

(2017). Young adult graduates living in the parental home: Expectations, negotiations, and parental financial support. Journal of Family Issues, 38(17), 2449–2473. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X16643745

67.

Whiston

S. C.

Keller

B. K.

(2004). The influences of the family of origin on career development: A review and analysis. The Counseling Psychologist, 32(4), 493–568. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000004265660

68.

Tracey

T. J.

(2014). The role of ambiguity tolerance in career decision making. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 85(1), 18–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.04.001

69.

Tracey

T. J.

(2015a). Ambiguity tolerance with career indecision: An examination of the mediation effect of career decision-making self-efficacy. Journal of Career Assessment, 23(4), 519–532. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072714553073

70.

Tracey

T. J.

(2015b). Career decision ambiguity tolerance scale: Construction and initial validations. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 88, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.01.006

71.

Zener

T. B.

Schnuelle

(1976). Effects of the self-directed search on high school students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 23(4), 353–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.23.4.353

72.

Zhang

Sackett

P. R.

(2023). Planned missingness: An underused but practical approach to reducing survey and test length. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 16(1), 129–142. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2022.113