TY - JOUR
T1 - Weathering the great recession
T2 - Psychological and behavioral trajectories in the transition from school to work
AU - Vuolo, Mike
AU - Staff, Jeremy
AU - Mortimer, Jeylan T.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/11
Y1 - 2012/11
N2 - Studies of career development highlight the importance of finding a good "fit" between individual values, needs, and abilities and the experiences and rewards to be found in particular occupations. Rapid economic change and labor market turbulence make career choice and development life-long processes. Still, early careers are particularly unstable, as young workers move from "survival jobs" to "career jobs" in their quest for a good person-job fit. Little is known, however, about the psychological orientations and behaviors in the postadolescent period that foster longer term success in the world of work. The maintenance of high aspirations, crystallization of career goals, and intensive job search may be particularly important. Using multilevel latent class analysis applied to longitudinal data obtained from 1,010 youth surveyed by the ongoing Youth Development Study (YDS), we examine the interrelations of psychological orientations and behaviors indicative of agentic striving from age 18 to 31 years. In addition, we assess how these trajectories influence adaptation to declining labor market conditions during the severe economic recession that began in 2007. We find that those who maintain high aspiration and certainty over career goals were better insulated against unemployment between 2007 and 2009 (ages 33-35), even when educational and self-identified career attainments, adolescent achievement orientations, and social background variables indicative of advantage are controlled. They also had higher hourly wages in 2009.
AB - Studies of career development highlight the importance of finding a good "fit" between individual values, needs, and abilities and the experiences and rewards to be found in particular occupations. Rapid economic change and labor market turbulence make career choice and development life-long processes. Still, early careers are particularly unstable, as young workers move from "survival jobs" to "career jobs" in their quest for a good person-job fit. Little is known, however, about the psychological orientations and behaviors in the postadolescent period that foster longer term success in the world of work. The maintenance of high aspirations, crystallization of career goals, and intensive job search may be particularly important. Using multilevel latent class analysis applied to longitudinal data obtained from 1,010 youth surveyed by the ongoing Youth Development Study (YDS), we examine the interrelations of psychological orientations and behaviors indicative of agentic striving from age 18 to 31 years. In addition, we assess how these trajectories influence adaptation to declining labor market conditions during the severe economic recession that began in 2007. We find that those who maintain high aspiration and certainty over career goals were better insulated against unemployment between 2007 and 2009 (ages 33-35), even when educational and self-identified career attainments, adolescent achievement orientations, and social background variables indicative of advantage are controlled. They also had higher hourly wages in 2009.
KW - Aspirations
KW - Career development
KW - Job search behaviors
KW - School-to-work transition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84873569263&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84873569263&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/a0026047
DO - 10.1037/a0026047
M3 - Article
C2 - 22059449
AN - SCOPUS:84873569263
SN - 0012-1649
VL - 48
SP - 1759
EP - 1773
JO - Developmental Psychology
JF - Developmental Psychology
IS - 6
ER -