The Effectiveness of Strategies for Coping With Career Indecision: Young Adults’ and Career Counselors’ Perceptions

The present research investigated which strategies Israeli young adults (N = 254) use to cope with their career indecision and the perceived effectiveness of these strategies. Their perceptions of the effectiveness of coping strategies were compared to the respective judgments of career counselors (N = 36). The similarity between the young adults’ and the career counselors’ perceptions (r =.98) suggests that young adults have a fairly accurate judgment of the effectiveness of various coping strategies. However, career counselors perceived emotional help-seeking as a more effective strategy and helplessness and submission as less effective strategies than did young adults (|d| > 0.89). The results also show that Productive coping strategies, although perceived as effective by the young adults, were actually used less by them, whereas Nonproductive coping strategies, although perceived as ineffective, were used more. The counseling implications of the finding that the Nonproductive coping strategies but not the productive ones predict career decision-making difficulties are discussed.