Readiness to adaptively change under three conditions: Clinical, careers, and natural change situations

The Adaptive Change Model (ACM) was developed as an alternative form of the Transtheoretical Model of Change to address some of the criticisms of early operationalisation. Both models provide a framework for measuring the potentialities of change and to facilitate targeted behaviour change in general and clinical settings. In this research, the eight factors of the Adaptive Change Questionnaire (ACQ) operationalising the ACM were validated using confirmatory factor analysis, involving 238 respondents. The findings indicated a good fit between the model and data. A comparison of the mean scores of the factors of the ACM showed respondents seeking clinical therapy (n = 85) were lower on self-rating of factors related to adaptive change than a group receiving career counselling (n = 88) and a non-therapy group (n = 65). The ACQ factors correctly predicted the allocation of 79.3% of the clinical and non-therapy respondents which confirmed previous research. The relevance of the findings for therapeutic interventions and future research are discussed.