Willingness to take risks and college women's career choice

This study explored the relationship between women's willingness to take risks, as measured by the Adventure scale of the Strong Interest Inventory, and various aspects of career development such as occupational stereotype, career salience, marriage and family influences, educational aspirations, and parental role models. Two samples, both from the Exploration Stage of Super's Career Development Model, were used. Overall, various levels of willingness to take risks were not related to significant differences on the dependent variables. However, a few differences were found for those subjects in the extreme high- and low-Adventure groups for both samples. Weak evidence suggests that in comparison to low-Adventure women, high-Adventure women may enter more nontraditional occupations, may be less certain of marriage and/or delay marriage, desire fewer children, and perceive themselves as more androgynous and instrumental. Future research should be extended to subjects in later career stages.