The Positive Career Goal Discrepancy Scale: Development and Initial Validation
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Author(s)
Akmal, Sari Z
Creed, Peter A
Hood, Michelle
Duffy, Amanda
Year published
2020
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The 15-item Positive Career Goal Discrepancy Scale was developed to assess emerging adults’ appraisals of the extent to which their current career progress exceeds their set career goals. We generated 32 items based on a literature review, focus groups, and expert reviews, used EFA (N = 244, M age 18.7 years; 65% women) to reduce the number of items, and CFA (N = 254, M age 18.7 years; 68% women) to confirm the factor structure and demonstrate superior reliability at the total score level (ω reliability = .91). Validity testing demonstrated that the scale was distinct from a measure of negative career goal discrepancy and ...
View more >The 15-item Positive Career Goal Discrepancy Scale was developed to assess emerging adults’ appraisals of the extent to which their current career progress exceeds their set career goals. We generated 32 items based on a literature review, focus groups, and expert reviews, used EFA (N = 244, M age 18.7 years; 65% women) to reduce the number of items, and CFA (N = 254, M age 18.7 years; 68% women) to confirm the factor structure and demonstrate superior reliability at the total score level (ω reliability = .91). Validity testing demonstrated that the scale was distinct from a measure of negative career goal discrepancy and related, as expected, to constructs in the nomological net: correlated positively with career satisfaction and optimism, and negatively with negative career goal discrepancy. The scale is a useful addition to the career literature and is likely to stimulate research into positive career goal progress in young people.
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View more >The 15-item Positive Career Goal Discrepancy Scale was developed to assess emerging adults’ appraisals of the extent to which their current career progress exceeds their set career goals. We generated 32 items based on a literature review, focus groups, and expert reviews, used EFA (N = 244, M age 18.7 years; 65% women) to reduce the number of items, and CFA (N = 254, M age 18.7 years; 68% women) to confirm the factor structure and demonstrate superior reliability at the total score level (ω reliability = .91). Validity testing demonstrated that the scale was distinct from a measure of negative career goal discrepancy and related, as expected, to constructs in the nomological net: correlated positively with career satisfaction and optimism, and negatively with negative career goal discrepancy. The scale is a useful addition to the career literature and is likely to stimulate research into positive career goal progress in young people.
View less >
Journal Title
Journal of Career Assessment
Copyright Statement
Akmal, SZ; Creed, PA; Hood, M; Duffy, A, The Positive Career Goal Discrepancy Scale: Development and Initial Validation, Journal of Career Assessment. Copyright 2020 The Authors. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
Note
This publication has been entered as an advanced online version in Griffith Research Online.
Subject
Applied and developmental psychology
Testing, assessment and psychometrics
Human resources and industrial relations
Strategy, management and organisational behaviour