title: The Development, Validation, and Application of a Career Feedback Inventory for Young Adults: Investigating the Role of Negative Career Feedback in Career Self-Regulation
Creators: name: Hu, Shi
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Feedback
subject: Career self-regulation
subject: Career goals

description: In self-regulation theories, feedback, defined as information regarding the person’s past performance, has been proposed as a crucial construct that directs self-regulatory processes (e.g., cognitions, feelings, motivation, and behaviors) and, in turn, affects their goal pursuit and attainment. However, although self-regulation theories have been extended to the career domain (e.g., Social Cognitive Career Theory; Lent, Brown, &amp; Hackett, 1994), only a few studies have directly investigated the relationships between career feedback and career-related outcomes in young adults (e.g., Anderson &amp; Mounts, 2012; Creed, Wamelink, &amp; Hu, 2015). Additionally, there is little consensus over the conceptualisation and operationalisation of the career feedback construct, and, thus, limited understanding of the role of feedback in career self-regulation. To fill the gap in the extant literature, this research program aimed to fulfil two objectives: (a) developing a brief, psychometrically sound measure to assess career feedback for young adults, and (b) examining the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationships between career feedback and self-regulation processes. This PhD thesis reports a series of five studies presented as five journal articles that meet these objectives: Study 1 addresses the first objective; whereas Studies 2 to 5 fulfil the second objective. In Study 1, using a Chinese sample (N = 531; 42.5% male; Mage = 19.19 years), a 24-item scale was developed to assess three key dimensions of career feedback, that of feedback on progress, on goal suitability, and on improvements needed. Confirmatory factor analysis and convergent and incremental validity tests were conducted on a second sample of Chinese university/college students (N = 524; 36.6% male; Mage = 19.16). These analyses supported the structure and validity of this inventory (e.g., positive correlations were found between negative career feedback and an existing measure of negative feedback on career progress; the new scale explained additional variance to that explained by the existing measure of feedback on progress in career-related stress and self-efficacy). The structure of the scale was also confirmed in an Australian sample (N = 184; 78% female; Mage = 19.44), providing support for its use in western contexts. Using the newly developed career feedback scale in a sample of Chinese health profession students (N = 317; Mage = 19.50), Study 2 examined the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between career feedback and affective self-regulation (i.e., career stress) and the moderating role of career goal importance in this relationship. The results showed that negative feedback was associated positively with career stress via self-appraisal (i.e., perceived progress-goal discrepancy), and higher levels of career goal importance strengthened the relationship between feedback and discrepancy, which, in turn, strengthened the indirect link between feedback and stress via discrepancy. Using a sample of Australian university students (N = 184; 78% female; Mage = 19.44), Study 3 investigated goal adjustment (i.e., career goal disengagement) as a consequence of career feedback, and tested the moderating role of implicit theories about work in this relationship. Consistent with the hypotheses, holding a destiny mindset about work exacerbated the positive relationship between negative feedback and goal disengagement, whereas a growth mind-set about work buffered this relationship. Using a sample of Chinese university/college students (N = 409; 58% female; Mage = 19 years), Study 4 tested a longitudinal, self-regulation model in which career feedback was expected to relate to goal revision (i.e., goal disengagement and downward goal revision) via affective processes (i.e., career stress) across time. The results showed that negative feedback at T1 related positively to goal disengagement and downward goal revision at T2, while career-related stress mediated the relationship between feedback and downward goal revision. Additionally, there were reverse relationships between feedback and stress, and between stress and goal disengagement. Finally, Study 5 focused on the within-person relationships between negative career feedback and cognitive (i.e., career self-efficacy) and affective self-regulation/emotional well-being (i.e., career stress). Using a sample of 53 (75.5% female; Mage = 20.02) Australian university students and four weekly measurements, self-efficacy was found to mediate the positive relationship between weekly feedback and stress. In addition, trait optimism buffered the links between feedback and self-efficacy and stress, whereas destiny mind-set about work strengthened the link between feedback and stress. The implications of the five studies are highlighted and limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.