Measurement Invariance of the Career Futures Inventory–Revised Across General and Client Samples

Abstract

Establishing measurement invariance has been emphasized as an important scale validation procedure for group comparisons. The 28-item Career Futures Inventory–Revised (CFI-R) is a widely used measure of career adaptability that has demonstrated initial validity with various samples. The purpose of the present study is to further examine the validity of the CFI-R by testing measurement invariance between a general university student sample and a client sample. First, a five-factor confirmatory factor analysis model was tested with each group. Then, measurement invariance tests were conducted through subsequently examining configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance. Test of invariance was achieved until partial scalar invariance, suggesting that the CFI-R is similarly applicable to both clinical and nonclinical samples. In addition, the comparisons of latent means between two groups revealed that clients showed significantly lower latent means than general students for four factors: Career Agency, Occupational Awareness, Support, and Work–Life Balance.

Virtual federal work‐study and student career development

“…Previous research has found initial support for the validity of the CFI-R (Creed & Hood, 2015;Park et al, 2019;Rottinghaus et al, 2012Rottinghaus et al, , 2017. In the validation study of Rottinghaus et al (2012) for the CFI-R, Cronbach's alpha internal consistency estimates ranged from 0.78 to 0.90 and CFI-R subscales were moderately correlated.…”

“…Previous research has found initial support for the validity of the CFI‐R (Creed & Hood, 2015; Park et al., 2019; Rottinghaus et al., 2012, 2017). In the validation study of Rottinghaus et al.…”

“…Career adaptability Park et al (2019) described the Career Futures Inventory-Revised (CFI-R; Rottinghaus et al, 2005) as the most comprehensive measure of career adaptability. The 28-item CFI-R assesses aspects of career adaptability, including positive career planning attitudes, general outcome expectations, and components of Parsons' tripartite model and Bandura's personal agency (Rottinghaus et al, 2012(Rottinghaus et al, , 2017.…”

Measurement Invariance of the Occupational Engagement Scale – Student and Career Adapt-Abilities Scale across Veterans and Civilians

“…Previous research has focused on measurement invariance with specific career measures has included the Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire (e.g., Levin et al, 2020), the Career Satisfaction Scale (e.g., Spurk et al, 2015), Career Futures Inventory-Revised (e.g., Park et al, 2019), and the Career Indecision Profile (e.g., Abrams et al, 2013; Xu, 2020). These studies have primarily focused on determining measurement invariance across nonclinical and clinical samples, university students, and working adults, but have not examined veterans and civilians.…”

“…Measurement invariance of career assessments has been examined across different groups, including clinical samples (e.g., Park et al, 2019), country, age, gender, and decision status (Levin et al, 2020), and occupations (e.g., Spurk, et al, 2015). Military background, however, has not been the focus of many measurement invariance studies involving career measures.…”