The Development and Validation of a Short Form of the Australian Version of the Career Development Inventory

Abstract

This study used a sample of 2173 high school students, enrolled in Years 8 to 12, to develop a 33-item shortened form (CDI-A-SF) of the Australian version of the 72-item Career Development Inventory (CDI-A). The long form of the CDI-A has been criticised for its length, difficulty and repetitive nature. The CDI-A-SF was devised with reference to content coverage and statistical criteria. Factor analysis of the short form indicated that, at the item level, subscale items loaded on their respective factors, and at the subscale level, the attitudinal and cognitive subscales loaded on the appropriate factors. Strong correlations were found between the CDI-A-SF and the CDI-A at the subscale, composite scale and total scale levels. Internal reliability coefficients for the CDI-A-SF at all levels were satisfactory to good. Initial validity for the CDI-A-SF was demonstrated by associations in the expected direction with career decidedness, self-esteem and decision-making self-efficacy, and by age and gender differences in the expected directions. The CDI-A-SF shows promise as a measure of career maturity where it is not possible or inappropriate to use the full version, although further research needs to replicate the findings and further test its validity.

Validation of the Short Form of the Career Development Inventory—Australian Version with a Sample of University Students

“…Whilst satisfactory to good internal reliability coefficients were reported for subscales CP, WW, and DM, a low internal reliability coefficient was obtained for CE. The internal consistency coefficients for the two scales CDA and CDK were high and concurred with the data reported by Creed and Patton (2004) with a sample of years 8 to 12 high school students.…”

“…As discussed previously, this may relate to adults having sound knowledge and skills. However, in support of developmental explanations for career maturity (Crites, 1976;Savickas, 1984), the present study illustrated that the older sample had higher mean scores on each of the four subscales than the Creed and Patton (2004) high school age sample. It might be predicted that an older, better educated sample would demonstrate greater career maturity than a younger, less educated sample.…”

“…Using one sample t-tests, mean subscale scores for the total sample of university students on the CDI-A (SF) were compared with a sample of high school students mean subscale scores as reported in Creed and Patton's (2004) study (see Table 1). The sample comprised 2173 year 8 to year 12 students aged 12 -18.…”

“…The internal reliability coefficients for the four subscales (CP, CE, WW, DM) and the two composite scales (CDA, CDK) of the CDI-A (SF) exceeded .80, except for CE which was less than adequate at .63. Creed and Patton (2004) reported internal reliability coefficients ranging from .70 to .87 for the four subscales and the two composite scales. The internal reliability coefficients for the four domain scales ranged from .51 to .79.…”

Validation of the short form of the career development inventory with an Iranian high school sample

“…The CDI-A has been widely used in Australia (e.g., Clayton & Fletcher, 1994;Creed & Patton, 2003;Patton & Creed, 2001) and in other countries, such as South Africa (Patton, Watson & Creed, 2004) and Thailand (Hughes & Thomas, 2006). Creed and Patton (2004) developed and validated a short form of the CDI-A. They used a sample of 2,173 high school students enrolled in grades 8-12 to develop a 33-item short form (CDI-A-SF) of the 72-item CDI-A.…”