Career Certainty and Short‐term Changes in Work Values During Adolescence

This study examined how career certainty, grade level, and gender relate to short‐term changes in work values (Human‐Personal, Non‐Work, Power‐Control, Money‐Security) among junior high and high school students ( N = 496). With scores based on multivariate ANOVAs, the high and moderate career certainty groups scored significantly higher than the low certainty group on all work values except Non‐Work at time 1 (similar results were found at time 2, 6 months later). Between time 1 and 2, each work value declined slightly but significantly; for both Human‐Personal and Power‐Control, however, the decline over time was greater for the high certainty group than for the low certainty group. The findings suggest that during adolescence, higher career certainty reflects greater engagement in a vocational identity search and a more active consideration of work values.