Patterns of Career Decision-Making Difficulties in 16 Countries: A Person-Centered Investigation

Classifying clients into career indecision types can facilitate tailoring interventions to each client’s specific needs. The present research examined a typology of career indecision on 50 data sets (N = 31,527) representing diverse populations from 16 countries on five continents. Latent profile analyses of participants’ responses on the Career Decision-Making DifficultiesQuestionnaire (CDDQ) revealed seven replicable career indecision types across samples: unmotivated, unrealistic, generally uninformed, occupations-uninformed, conflicted-uninformed, externally conflicted, and internally conflicted. Age emerged as a negligible predictor of career indecision types, whereas gender predicted membership in the unmotivated type, with men twice more likely to be unmotivated than women. The seven typeswere similarly predictive of career decision status, decision certainty, and decision self-efficacy. These results largely support using the CDDQ to differentially diagnose career indecision types based on 10 causes of career indecision in different countries, life stages, and genders. Classifying individuals based on their patterns of career decision-making difficulties supports tailoring individual career counseling or group interventions to clients’ needs.