Development and Cross-Cultural Validation of a Measure of Career Exploration and Decision-Making Outcome Expectations

Abstract

Existing measures of outcome expectations in career exploration and decision-making tend to focus on positive expectations and may not adequately sample the range of anticipated outcomes (e.g., self-evaluative, social) that could motivate or discourage students’ engagement in career planning activities. We developed a novel measure assessing negative and positive outcome expectations and explored its factor structure, validity, and reliability in a sample of undergraduate students in the United States (N = 291). We then administered the scale to a sample of Turkish undergraduates (N = 307) and tested measurement invariance across the two cultural/linguistic groups. Results supported a four-factor structure of the 22-item Career Exploration and Decisional Outcome Expectations (CEDOE) scale in both samples, reflecting positive (self and social benefits) and negative (self and social costs) outcome expectations. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses supported configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance across countries. The scale also yielded promising reliability and validity estimates, including relations with an established measure of career exploration outcome expectations, decisional self-efficacy, and exploratory goals. However, evidence of intercept non-invariance and weaker reliability of the social benefits sub-scale in the Turkish sample suggests that further research, including targeted item refinement, is needed to support cross-cultural use of the CEDOE.