Strategies for Coping with Career Indecision: Convergent, Divergent, and Incremental Validity

The goal of the present research was to test the convergent and divergent validity of the Strategies for Coping with Career Indecision (SCCI) model and questionnaire, which comprises three main coping styles—Productive coping, Support-seeking, and Nonproductive coping—using three samples of young adults deliberating about their career choice. Study 1 tested the association between the SCCI and career decision-making profiles, using a sample of 390 young adults. Study 2 tested the relations between the SCCI and emotional and personality-related career decision-making difficulties, using a sample of 454 young adults. Finally, Study 3 tested the associations between the SCCI and career decision self-efficacy as well as the five dimensions of the Big Five Inventory, using a sample of 451 young adults. All three studies also tested the SCCI’s incremental validity by assessing its ability to predict individuals’ stages in the career decision-making process over and above the other measures. The results supported the convergent and divergent validity and partially supported the incremental validity of the SCCI. The theoretical and counseling implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.