Facets of career decision-making difficulties

The present research investigated the relations among the measured and the expressed career decision-making difficulties in a sample of 299 young adults who intended to apply to college or university. As hypothesised, the correlations between career decision-making difficulties, as measured by the Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ), and the expressed difficulties were generally high (median = 0.64), but varied among the 10 difficulty categories (range 0.35–0.82). Both measured and expressed difficulties correlated negatively with the students’ career decision-making self-efficacy (−0.63 and −0.65, respectively). The correlations between the CDDQ and both dimensions of the Vocational Decision Style Indicator were negative but low (−0.25 for the introvert vs. extrovert dimension and −0.35 for the thinking vs. feeling dimension). The correlations between the students’ scholastic aptitude test scores and both measured and expressed difficulties were negligible (−0.03 and −0.08, respectively). Participants with more crystallised career plans reported lower career decision-making difficulties, higher career decision-making self-efficacy, and a higher ‘thinking’ (as opposed to ‘feeling’) vocational decision-making style. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.