The Development and Factor Structure of a Career Locus of Control Scale for Use With School Pupils

This article describes the development and psychometric assessment of a multidimensional, domain-specific Career Locus of Control Scale (CLOC) designed for use with adolescent school pupils engaged in the career development and decision-making process. A 47-item version was administered to 743 school pupils, age 15 or 16 years evenly split between males and females (54% male). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to develop a 20-item scale that represented expectations related to Internality, Luck, Helplessness, and Powerful Others. Estimates of internal reliability of the sub-scales were high, and scale scores correlated significantly with measures of generalized locus of control and career decision self-efficacy. Overall, the CLOC scale demonstrated promising psychometric properties such that further research appears warranted and required.