“Work and Surroundings”: A Training to Enhance Career Curiosity, Self-Efficacy, and the Perception of Work and Decent Work in Adolescents

Abstract

The development of professional identity starts with childhood. In adolescence, individuals should have appropriate resources to make choices; high levels of self-efficacy and professional curiosity, as well as better representations of the concept of work and decent work, could support adolescents in their planning of the future. For this reason, we developed a training aimed at providing adolescents with resources of professional curiosity and self-efficacy, which would also increase their representation of the concepts of work and decent work. A longitudinal study compared a control group (n = 80) with an experimental group (n = 80). The second group participated in mainly qualitative career counseling activities and showed an improvement in the levels of professional curiosity and self-efficacy; moreover, after the training, the experimental group showed a better representation of work and decent work. Consequently, the training managed to improve the dimensions set out above. The results show that career counseling activities can help increase adolescent resources and increase their chances of finding a qualitatively good job.

The Concepts of Work and Decent Work in Relationship With Self-Efficacy and Career Adaptability: Research With Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Adolescence

“…In other studies, we have shown that career education and counseling can do a lot in this direction even starting from adolescence, helping young people to have broad ideas of work and decent work, as well as promoting dimensions, such as career adaptability and self-efficacy (Zammitti et al, 2020) or hope and optimism (Santisi et al, 2021). Furthermore, the study offers a contribution to broadening the field of career education using mixed techniques (Blustein et al, 2005;Schultheiss, 2005;Whiston and Rahardja, 2005).…”

“…To investigate the representation of work and decent work, as suggested by other studies (Ferrari et al, 2009 ; Zammitti et al, 2020 ; Magnano et al, 2021b ), we used two open questions: what is your definition of work? What is your definition of decent work?…”

“…The data analysis with the NVivo software allowed us to identify the most used words and the most used nodes in the description of the concepts. Using a procedure already adopted in other studies (Zammitti et al, 2020 ), the analyses were conducted separately by two researchers, belonging to the research group. The two researchers met repeatedly and reached an agreement on the coding also through a third researcher (part of the research group).…”

“…To investigate the representation of work and decent work, as suggested by other studies (Ferrari et al, 2009;Zammitti et al, 2020;Magnano et al, 2021b)…”

Personal Values in Relation to Risk Intelligence: Evidence from a Multi-Mediation Model

“…Finally, in the context of the changing nature of the 21st-century world of work, considering that mental and physical health costs of job insecurity could be high [ 142 ] and that daily value-based actions are related to greater daily psychological well-being and lower daily psychological distress [ 143 ], it is important to include the exploration of one’s personal values within educational and professional guidance programs that aim to promote risk intelligence as a useful resource for career adaptability and career development. Indeed, career counsellors should be concerned with the promotion of personal resources in different contexts and educational levels [ 144 , 145 , 146 ]. Clarity about personal values is a core dimension of psychological flexibility [ 63 ] and, therefore, can support effective actions in the direction of what people want to achieve, helping them to move in contexts of uncertainty.…”