A Multi Dimensional Measure of Vocational Identity Status PDF

Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Adolescence
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado
A multi-dimensional measure of vocational identity status

Erik J. Porfeli a, *, Bora Lee b, Fred W. Vondracek b, Ingrid K. Weigold c
a
b
c
Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and Pharmacy, Rootstown, OH 44272, USA
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Department of Counseling, The University of Akron, USA
a b s t r a c t
Keywords:
Identity status
Vocation
Career
Adolescence
Young adulthood
Measurement
Establishing a worker identity is among the most central aspects of the transition from
adolescence to adulthood. Despite its importance, few measures with acceptable
psychometric and conceptual characteristics exist to assess vocational identity statuses.
This study reports the development and evaluation of the Vocational Identity Status
Assessment (VISA), which is derived from established conceptual models and includes
career exploration, commitment, and reconsideration dimensions. Results show that the
VISA exhibited metric invariance across a high school and university sample. Cluster
analyses demonstrated that the VISA consistently resolved six identity statuses across the
two samples, supporting the previously established achieved, moratorium, foreclosed, and
diffused statuses along with two additional statuses termed searching moratorium and
undifferentiated. The identity statuses predicted differences in participants work valences
and well-being with the achieved and diffused statuses respectively exhibiting the most
and least favorable characteristics. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future
research based upon these ndings are offered.
2011 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier
Ltd. All rights reserved.
The present study describes the development and tests the psychometric characteristics of the Vocational Identity Status
Assessment (VISA) for adolescents and young adults. This measure is based on Marcias (1966) conceptualization of four
identity statuses (i.e., achieved, moratorium, foreclosed, and diffused), as well as more recent extensions of the identity status
model.
The relationship of vocational identity to other identity domains has received little attention in the empirical literature, in
part because of the absence of valid and reliable domain-specic measures of identity. Nevertheless, in spite of measurement
limitations, some interesting ndings have been reported that suggest that Erikson was correct in assigning a leading role to
vocational identity development in the overall process of identity formation. For example, Skorikov and Vondracek (1998),
while conrming earlier results that found that vocational identity was positively related to overall identity (Kroger, 1986,
1988), reported that advancement toward vocational identity achievement did not depend on prior advancement toward
overall identity achievement. In fact, vocational identity development appeared to lead identity development in other
domains. Another noteworthy nding was that the developmental progression in identity development proposed by
Grotevant (1987) was conrmed for the vocational domain in a number of studies (e.g., Archer, 1989; Dellas & Jernigan, 1987;
Kroger, 1988; Meeus, 1993; Skorikov & Vondracek, 1998).
Few measures exist to assess the vocational identity statuses, and those that do tend to have conceptual or psychometric
limitations (Skorikov & Vondracek, 2007b). While the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOM-EIS; Adams,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 1 330 325 6114.

E-mail address: eporfeli@neoucom.edu (E.J. Porfeli).
0140-1971/$ see front matter 2011 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.02.001
854
E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871
Bennion, & Huh, 1989) faithfully applies Marcias model, a subscale created to measure vocational identity status demonstrated marginal psychometric properties, primarily due to the low number of items in this subscale (Skorikov & Vondracek,
1998). On the contrary, the vocational identity subscale of My Vocational Situation (MVS) instrument exhibits excellent
psychometric characteristics (Holland, Johnston, & Asama, 1993; Lucas, Gysbers, Buescher, & Heppner, 1988), but it is
essentially a measure of career commitment and omits career exploration almost entirely. The centrality of work, coupled
with the limitations in existing measures of vocational identity, suggests that the time is ripe for a new and improved
measure.
Background
Rationale for development of a domain-specic (vocational) identity measure
Most established identity status measures (e.g., Adams et al., 1989) are global in the sense that they involve items pertaining to many life domains (e.g., work, family, religion, and politics) and are based upon Marcias (1966, 1993) twodimensional model of identity status, which includes dichotomized (i.e., high and low) exploration and commitment, yielding
four identity statuses. The four statuses are identity achieved (high exploration and commitment), foreclosed (low exploration and high commitment), moratorium (high exploration and low commitment), and diffused (low exploration and
commitment). Marcias model presumes that most, if not all people begin in the diffused status and move toward the other
three during the periods spanning childhood and adulthood. Recent research supports such a progression (Klimstra, Hale,
Raaijmakers, Branje, & Meeus, 2010; Kroger, Martinussen, & Marcia, 2010) while other research argues against it
(Berzonsky, 2003). The achieved status is thought to be the most advanced and preferred identity status because it describes
people who are committed to roles that they have thoroughly explored. The moratorium status is believed to be a transitory
status that most often leads to increased commitment and the achieved status. The foreclosed status is not preferable in most
circumstances because it assumes commitment, often sourcing from external forces (e.g., the will of family members), in the
absence of adequate exploration. This conguration of low exploration and high commitment presumably increases the
probability that ones premature commitments will not suit ones identity as determined sometime later. Finally, diffusion is
characterized by minimal exploration and commitment and can be characterized as a disengaged or drifting state. Progressing through identity statuses and toward the achieved status is associated with positive psychological adjustment
(Balistreri, Busch-Rossnagel, & Geisinger, 1995; Chen, Sousa, & West, 2005; Marcia, 1980, 1993).
There has not been complete agreement on the nature or number and kind of identity domains (e.g., work, family, religion,
race, ethnicity, gender, and politics) contributing to ones global sense of identity, but almost all conceptualizations include
the vocational domain. Erikson (1959), for example, insisted that the development of an occupational (vocational) identity
was the most troublesome and difcult aspect of identity formation during the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Indeed, half-a-century after Eriksons observation, establishing a worker identity and choosing a career are paramount tasks
as youths make the transition to adulthood (Blustein, 1994; Blustein, Devenis, & Kidney, 1989; Blustein & Noumair, 1996;
Vondracek, 1992). Various researchers have commented on the asynchronous nature of identity development across
domains (e.g., Grotevant, 1987, 1993; Kroger, 1988; Kroger & Haslett, 1991; Lavoie, 1994; Skorikov & Vondracek, 1998;
Waterman, 1985). For example, Waterman (1985) compiled a composite cross-sectional analysis of identity studies published in the 1970s and early 1980s and reported that the development of identity appeared to proceed at different rates
across identity domains. Moreover, some identity domains, like ethnic identity, may be highly signicant for some individuals
and completely unimportant for others, highlighting the importance of the self in context in determining the salience of
various identity domains (Vondracek, 1995). The importance of vocational identity development likely varies across contexts
between and within societies, but in the context of industrialized countries, vocational development and acquiring a vocational (occupational) identity has been recognized as the most important task of adolescents and young adults. For example,
Kroger (1993) reported that various cohorts of students in New Zealand considered their occupational choice to be centrally
important in their identity formation. Similar results have been reported in the United States (Schulenberg, Bachman,
Johnston, & OMalley, 1994) and in Germany (Frster & Friedrich, 1996). Perhaps even more impressive is the observation
that adults report that their vocation was the most important factor in their identity development and the arena of the most
signicant and earliest identity status transitions (Kroger & Haslett, 1991). In sum, there is support for the notion that
vocational identity plays a key role in overall identity development in industrialized countries.
Exploration and commitment are deemed to be the two central processes involved in progress through the (vocational)
identity statuses (Marcia, 1966, 1993) and toward a career choice (Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996). Career exploration (Flum &
Blustein, 2000; Jordaan, 1963, pp. 4278; Patton & Porfeli, 2007) and career commitment (Blustein, Ellis, & Devenis, 1989;
Creed & Patton, 2003; Diemer & Blustein, 2007; Germeijs & Verschueren, 2006) are generally perceived as favorable
processes promoting the transition from the student to the worker role in most industrialized countries. Adolescents develop
their vocational identity as they explore themselves and the working world and get ready to make commitments to both (e.g.,
crystallizing work choices and personal values and interests). Doing so is believed to improve the chances of establishing
a suitable match between the person and the occupation and help the person remain committed to the process of preparing
for the worker role despite the challenges or setbacks that may be faced during the preparation period (Super et al., 1996).
The vocational identity literature indicates that establishing an achieved identity status is associated with enhanced selfesteem, adjustment, life satisfaction, competence, academic adjustment, and performance (Meeus Iedema, Helsen,
855
Vollebergh, 1999; Skorikov & Vondracek, 2007b; Vondracek, 1994). This pattern is also found in the global identity status
literature (e.g., Meeus, 1996; Waterman, 2007). Vocational identity statuses may also be associated with ones general
emotional, experiential, and motivational valence toward work. Previous research demonstrated that participants as young as
the grade-school years exhibit distinct positive and negative emotional and experiential valences toward work (Porfeli, Wang,
& Hartung, 2008). To the extent that adolescents perceive work as offering favorable experiences and emotions, they may be
more or less willing to explore and commit to an occupational role and remain more or less doubtful and exible about their
choices.
Contemporary models of identity status
Recent empirical studies of global identity status have implications for the development of a new measure of vocational
identity. Two specic avenues of advancement have occurred and are summarized in Table 1. The rst avenue is termed here
as the Luyckx model (Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers, & Soenens, 2006; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, & Beyers, 2006; Luyckx,
Goossens, Soenens, Beyers, & Vansteenkiste, 2005). This model includes two dimensions of exploration (in-breadth and
in-depth) and commitment (commitment making and identication with commitment), consistently resolving ve statuses
including the achieved, foreclosed, and moratorium statuses proposed by Marcia. This work also has led to a renement of the
diffused status into two statuses termed diffused diffusion and carefree diffusion. A subset of studies employing this model has
also found a sixth status characterized as undifferentiated, with all exploration and commitment subscale scores at or near the
mean (Luyckx et al., 2008; Luyckx, Vansteenkiste, Goossens, & Duriez, 2009). This work demonstrates that a new measure of
identity status could benet from rening Marcias two dimensions of identity status into two subscales of exploration and
two subscales of commitment, yielding ve or six statuses.
The second avenue, termed here as the Meeus and Crocetti model (Crocetti, Klimstra, Keijsers, Hale, & Meeus, 2009;
Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, & Meeus, 2008; Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Crocetti, Schwartz, Fermani, & Meeus, 2010;
Meeus, 1996), suggests that identity statuses are dened by three dimensions including commitment (akin to identication with commitment in the Luyckx model), exploration (akin to in-depth exploration in the Luyckx model), and reconsideration of commitment. Reconsideration, according to the Meeus and Crocetti model, involves releasing current
commitments, comparing and contrasting alternative commitments, and a willingness to conduct in-breadth exploration.
The research employing the Meeus and Crocetti model with mainly early and middle adolescent samples found that
reconsideration contributed to the identication of Marcias (1966) achieved, foreclosed, and diffused statuses (Crocetti,
Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008). It also led to a renement of the moratorium status into moratorium and searching moratorium statuses. The searching moratorium status reected participants with elevated commitment, in-depth exploration, and
reconsideration and was compared to the moratorium-achievement-moratorium-achievement (MAMA) cycle (Stephen,
Fraser, & Marcia, 1992), which characterizes individuals who vacillate between the moratorium and achievement statuses
while establishing and rening their identity. Including reconsideration as a third dimension of the Marcia (1966) model may
aid in resolving an identity status akin to the MAMA cycle.
Age-based implications
More than a decade ago, Meeus et al. (Meeus, 1996; Meeus et al., 1999) examined the empirical literature on identity
statuses across adolescence and young adulthood and arrived at conclusions pertinent to the present study. First, many in the
eld had incorrectly assumed that the majority of identity development occurred in the years immediately following high
school (i.e., the college years). Meeus (1996) urged researchers to focus their efforts on the high school years in light of
evidence suggesting that identity development begins during that period. A related and important nding was that
a signicant fraction of the eld, at least tacitly, endorsed the position that identity statuses could be identied during the
early to middle adolescent period (Meeus, 1996; Meeus et al., 1999) despite statements (e.g., Marcia, 1980) suggesting that
identity crises did not typically occur until late adolescence or early adulthood (see Meeus et al., 1999, p. 422, for a review of
this literature).
A new measure of vocational identity status should have the capacity to assess developmental change if it aims to be
applicable across the adolescent and young adult periods, given that previous research has found these to be very active
periods for identity development. Such a measure should be sensitive enough to nd the regular progression of increasing
fractions of adolescents in the moratorium status up to about an age of 19 years, followed by a steady decline thereafter,
coupled with increasing fractions of those in the achieved status and decreasing fractions of those in the foreclosed and
diffused statuses across the adolescent and young adult periods (Klimstra et al., 2010; Kroger, Martinussen, & Marcia, 2010). In
brief, a measure of vocational identity status should be capable of assessing theoretically predictable status differences as well
as developmental change.
A seemingly contradictory requirement is that a measure of vocational identity status should also demonstrate
measurement invariance with age. The common classication of measurement invariance is congural, metric, and scalar
(Vandenberg & Lance, 2000). If congural invariance is achieved, the number of factors and the items loading on the factors of
a measure are invariant across age periods (e.g., data from adolescents and young adults would demonstrate a similar factor
structure). Metric invariance is achieved when congural invariance exists, and the size of the factor loadings is invariant
across age. Finally, if scalar invariance is achieved, then metric invariance is established, and in addition, the means of the
Global identity status models
Model
Dimensions
Identity statuses
Measures
Marcia
(Marcia, 1966, 1993)
Exploration
B Low
B High
Commitment
B Low
B High
Achieved
Foreclosed
Moratorium
Diffused
Objective measure of ego

identity status (Adams,
Bennion, & Huh, 1989)
Luyckx
(Luyckx et al., 2005;
Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers, et al., 2006;
Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, et al., 2006)
Exploration
In-breadth
B In-depth
Commitment
B Commitment making
B Identication with commitment
Achieved
Foreclosed
Moratorium
Diffused diffusion
Carefree diffusion
Undifferentiated
Ego Identity Process

Questionnaire (EIPQ;
Balistreri et al., 1995)
Utrecht-Groningen Identity
Development Scale (U-GIDS; Meeus
& Dekovic, 1995)
Meeus and Crocetti

(Crocetti et al., 2009;
Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008;
Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008;
Crocetti et al., 2010; Meeus, 1996)
Exploration
In-depth
Commitment
B Identication with commitment
Reconsideration of commitment
Achieved
Foreclosed
Moratorium
Searching moratorium
Diffused
Utrecht-Management of
Identity Commitments
Scale (U-MICS; Meeus, 2001)
Present study
To be explored in the
present paper
Vocational Identity
Status Assessment (Porfeli, 2009)
Career exploration
In-breadth career exploration
B In-depth career exploration
Career commitment
B
Commitment making
Identication with commitment
Career reconsideration
B
B
B
B
Career self-doubt
Career exibility
Vocational identity status
856
Table 1
Summary of the identity status literature and the VISA.
857
factors are invariant (e.g., adolescents and young adults exhibit the same factor structure and loadings and they do not exhibit
mean differences on the factors). Previous research and theory suggests that a sound measure of vocational identity status
would exhibit congural invariance. We expect the two groups (adolescents and young adults) to demonstrate the same
factor structure given that the proposed measure includes identity processes that are known to be active for both groups. We
would not expect, however, that such a measure would also exhibit scalar invariance, because this would lead to the
expectation that adolescents as a group would not exhibit mean-level differences in identity processes relative to young
adults. Previous research reviewed above clearly shows that career exploration and commitment tend to increase from the
adolescence to young adulthood. We would thus expect an effective measure of vocational identity status to exhibit no more
than metric invariance across the adolescent and young adult years. In addition, we would expect that the measure would
demonstrate invariance in the number and type of statuses for adolescents and young adults so that the measure could then
be used to demonstrate the regular progression in identity statuses discussed above In sum, if we succeed in constructing
a measure with these characteristics, it would have the capacity to detect the regular developmental change leading to an
increased likelihood of vocational exploration and commitment and decreased likelihood of vocational reconsideration,
which could be used to translate into the language of identity statuses.
Initial development of the VISA
The VISA (Porfeli, 2009) was initially developed to assess the original identity status dimensions (career exploration and
commitment), the two subscales of those dimensions reported by Luyckx, and the reconsideration dimension offered by
Meeus and Crocetti. This work also was based on a more differentiated conceptualization of career exploration (in-breadth
and in-depth) based on recently reported research (Gati & Asher, 2001; Patton & Porfeli, 2007; Porfeli, 2008; Porfeli &
Skorikov, 2010). The original measurement model demonstrated adequate t according to established criteria (Hu &
Bentler, 1999). The internal consistency reliabilities of the original subscales ranged from .72 (career self-doubt) to .88
(specic career exploration). The initial test of the model demonstrated that using just the constructs from the Luyckx model
yielded a two-cluster solution distinguishing those participants who were or were not exploring and committing to careers.
When career self-doubt (an indicator of reconsideration from the Meeus and Crocetti model) was added to the cluster model,
the solution reected either two or four statuses with the two status solution suggesting that being more or less engaged in
exploring and committing was associated with being less or more doubtful, respectively, and the four status solution
reecting the exploration and commitment pattern proposed by Marcia (1966), with self-doubt being elevated in the
moratorium and diffused statuses. The four identity statuses predicted meaningful differences across several indicators of
career development and adjustment, thereby supporting the validity of the measures and the four identity statuses derived
from them. While the VISA showed a promising start, the inability of the measure to convincingly resolve more than two
identity statuses signaled potential conceptual and/or methodological limitations that needed to be addressed.
To address possible conceptual limitations, the construct of career reconsideration was expanded. This dimension of
identity status is conceived here to be composed of at least two aspects. The rst aspect is career self-doubt. Career self-doubt
is characterized by doubt, uneasiness, and worry about ones current career choice and a sense that others share the same
feelings and ideas. Self-doubt is a possible negative consequence of the process of working toward a career commitment, and
it may hinder in-depth exploration and making and identifying with career commitments. Research has shown that
adolescents who are actively experiencing an identity crisis exhibited increased doubt, confusion, and conicts with others
(Kidwell, Dunham, Bacho, Pastorino, & Portes, 1995), and those in the moratorium status (Hunsberger, Pratt, & Pancer, 2001;
Porfeli, 2009) and the diffused status (Porfeli, 2009) experienced elevated doubt relative to the other two statuses. Moreover,
personality characteristics associated with self-doubt, such as emotional instability (i.e., neuroticism), have been shown to
interfere with career decision making (Jin, Watkins, & Yuen, 2009; Lounsbury, Hutchens, & Loveland, 2005; Lounsbury, Tatum,
Chambers, Owens, & Gibson, 1999). Based upon past ndings, individuals in the moratorium and diffused statuses are
expected to exhibit elevated levels of doubt relative to the other three statuses.
The second aspect of career reconsideration is career commitment exibility, which is most aligned with the original
conceptualization of reconsideration offered by the Meeus and Crocetti model (Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008). Career
commitment exibility is dened here as an active and ongoing consideration of alternatives and a recognition and acceptance that ones career choice, interests, and values might change in the future as a consequence of learning and experience. In
the context of adults aged 1840 years typically changing jobs 10 times and a large proportion of these jobs ending within
a year (U.S. Department of Labor, 2004), a exible approach to identity formation may be adaptive (Savickas, 1997, 2002).
Career commitment exibility may be more prevalent and active for those who perceive themselves as being relatively early
in the decision-making process. Adolescents who exhibit career exibility may acknowledge that they still have much to learn
and experience and are open to doing so. While career self-doubt centers on the negative consequences of working toward
a career commitment and presumably contributes to a more reticent attitude toward work choices, career commitment
exibility connotes a more positive rationale for remaining uncommitted to a career. Career commitment exibility is predicted to be positively associated with in-breadth career exploration and career self-doubt, and negatively associated with
identication with career commitment making and identication with those commitments.
The inability of the VISA to discern multiple identity statuses may also be partly due to methodological considerations. In
the previous research on the VISA, the SPSS two-step procedure was used to identify an appropriate number of identity
statuses (Porfeli, 2009). Some believe that use of the SPSS two-step procedure should be avoided in favor of using a k-means
858
method (Clatworthy, Hankins, Buick, Weinman, & Horne, 2007). Others have outlined (Gore, 2000) and applied (e.g., Crocetti,
Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008; Luyckx et al., 2005) a more elaborate approach to clustering that involves a determination of the
appropriate number of clusters employing an iterative hierarchical and k-means procedure. This method yields an estimate of
the reliability of the cluster solution across randomly split halves of the sample. We extended this method here to estimate
reliability of cluster assignment across a high school and college sample, which supports our aim to construct a measure that
is suitable for adolescents and young adults who are still preparing for an occupation.
Aims and hypotheses of the present study

The present study represents an effort to unify the identity status models of Luyckx and of Meeus and Crocetti through
the further development and testing of the VISA. The specic aim was to construct a measure that could discern Marcias
(1966) predicted four vocational identity statuses and possibly rened moratorium and diffused statuses as well as an
undifferentiated status on the basis of unique congurations of career exploration, commitment, and reconsideration. This
aim was supported by three goals, including (a) testing the measurement model of the VISA, (b) determining the appropriate number of statuses resolved by the VISA through cluster analyses, and (c) assessing the validity of the identity
statuses resolved by the VISA.
We expected the sample to exhibit congural invariance and not scalar invariance across age groups because we expected
that the university sample would exhibit more career commitment and exploration, but less career reconsideration, than the
high school sample given the mounting societal pressure to establish an identity during the young adult years (Meeus, 1996).
In a consistent manner, we predicted that the factors resulting from the measurement model could be used to establish
a consistent set of identity statuses (i.e., clusters) across the two groups. Aligned with previous research on status progressions with age, we predicted that distribution of participants within the statuses would differ across the high school and
university samples in a manner consistent with the university sample being more advanced in their identity development. It
was predicted that a greater fraction of high school students would be assigned to the diffusion status, and a greater fraction
of university students to the achieved status.
In an effort to further validate the identity statuses derived from the VISA, and in light of the extensive literature
demonstrating links between identity statuses and well-being (Waterman, 2007), mean differences in core self-evaluations
(Judge, Erez, Bono, & Thoresen, 2003), depression, anxiety, and stress (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) across vocational identity
statuses were examined. Positive core self-evaluations have been found to be associated with favorable work performance
and attitudes (Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005), and mental health indicators like depression have been associated with
poorer career development (Saunders, Peterson, Sampson, & Reardon, 2000; Skorikov & Vondracek, 2007a). We predicted
that adolescents and young adults occupying the achieved and diffused statuses will exhibit the largest mean differences in
their core self-evaluations, depression, anxiety, and stress, with the achieved status exhibiting the most favorable prole
across these four indicators of well-being and the diffused status exhibiting the least favorable prole.
Previous research with the rst version of the VISA found that those participants in the achieved identity status exhibited
a more favorable work valence relative to those in the diffused/disengaged status (Porfeli, 2009). Work valence is composed of
belief about ones future work as it will be experienced on emotional and behavioral levels. Luyckx et al. (2010) assessed the
relationships between global identity statuses and indicators of work engagement and burnout and found that identity
achieved and diffused diffusion groups, respectively, demonstrated the most and least favorable proles. The present study
will explore possible differences in adolescents experiential and emotional valences toward work across the identity statuses
identied with the revised version of the VISA. Adolescents in the achieved identity status are predicted to exhibit the most
favorable work valence while their peers in the diffused identity status are predicted to exhibit the least favorable work
valence. Differences among the other statuses revealed by the VISA will be assessed from more of an exploratory frame given
that the number and nature of the statuses were not known a priori.
Method
Participants
Participants were composed of two samples. One sample included 540 tenth and eleventh grade students who were
randomly sampled from a mix of seven suburban and urban high schools in the Midwest. Of the high school participants who
volunteered, 432 provided complete and usable data for the target measures in this study (M age 16.5 years, SD .99). The
sample was 55% female, 20% African American, 72% Caucasian, 2% Asian, and approximately 6% were another race or biracial.
The other sample included 402 students attending a university in Northeastern Ohio. Of this total, 343 students provided
complete and usable data (M age 21.7 years, SD 4.68). Of the 343 students, 74.6% were women (reecting that the
students were sampled mainly from psychology courses), 7.7% African American, 86.4% Caucasian, 1.7% Asian, and approximately 6% were another race or biracial. The university maintains a policy of open enrollment that permits any student with
a high school degree to gain admittance; hence, the relative degree of cultural, economic, and academic achievement
diversity of this sample may be greater than (or at least differ from) the diversity of students from universities that do not
maintain such a policy.
859
Measures
Vocational Identity Status Assessment (VISA)
The VISA was created and employed in previous research (Porfeli, 2009; Porfeli, Lee, & Vondracek, 2010). The items were
constructed on the basis of conceptual and empirical work distinguishing career exploration in-depth (i.e., specic career
exploration) and in-breadth (i.e., diversive career exploration) (Gati & Asher, 2001; Patton & Porfeli, 2007; Porfeli, 2008;
Porfeli & Skorikov, 2010) and the two broad forms of commitment, namely commitment making and identication with
commitment (Luyckx et al., 2005; Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers, et al., 2006; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, et al., 2006). The VISA
was originally developed by the rst author to include 66 items, reviewed and edited by ve experts in identity status
research, and piloted on a sample of adolescents. Using these items, the VISA was constructed to consist of four subscales
aligning with the exploration and commitment dimensions proposed by Luyckx and colleagues, but exclusively focusing on
exploring and committing to work. The original version of the VISA also included one indicator of reconsideration, namely
career self-doubt (Porfeli, 2009). The result of the analytic work on the original version led to the newest iteration of the
VISA employed here (see Table 2), which includes some revised items across the ve subscales and includes an additional
subscale of reconsideration termed career exibility (Porfeli et al., 2010). The VISA, therefore, contains thirty items, with 10
items for each of the three dimensions of career exploration, commitment, and reconsideration, and ve items for each of
the two subscales per dimension. All VISA subscales employed a ve-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to
5 (strongly agree). The subscales and validation measures are described in greater detail below.
Table 2
VISA Constructs, Items, Parcel Assignment, and Factor Loadings
Construct
Items
Career Exploration
In-Breadth Career Exploration
1. casually learning about careers that are unfamiliar to me in order to nd a few to explore further.
2. trying to have many different experiences so that I can nd several jobs that might suit me.
3. thinking about how I could t into many different careers.
4. learning about various jobs that I might like.
5. keeping my options open as I learn about many different careers.
In-Depth Career Exploration
1. identifying my strongest talents as I think about careers.
2. learning as much as I can about the particular educational requirements of the career that
interests me the most.
3. learning what I can do to improve my chances of getting into my chosen career.
4. trying to nd people that share my career interests.
5. thinking about all the aspects of working that are important to me.
Career Commitment
Career Commitment Making
1. I know what kind of work is best for me.
2. No other career is as appealing to me as the one I expect to enter.
3. I have known for a long time what career is best for me.
4. No one will change my mind about the career I have chosen.
5. I have invested a lot of energy into preparing for my chosen career.
Identication with Career Commitment
1. My career will help me satisfy deeply personal goals.
2. My family feels condent that I will enter my chosen career.
3. Becoming a worker in my chosen career will allow me to become
the person I dream to be.
4. I chose a career that will allow me to remain true to my values.
5. My career choice will permit me to have the kind of family life I wish to have.
Career Reconsideration
Career Self-Doubt
1. Thinking about choosing a career makes me feel uneasy.
2. When I tell other people about my career plans, I feel like I am being
a little dishonest.
3. People who really know me seem doubtful when I share my
career plans with them.
4. I doubt I will nd a career that suits me.
5. I may not be able to get the job I really want.
Career Flexibility (Newly added in the present study)
1. My work interests are likely to change in the future
2. What I look for in a job will change in the future.
3. I will probably change my career goals.
4. My career choice might turn out to be different than I expect.
5. I need to learn a lot more before I can make a career choice.
Parcel
Std. Loading
1
1
2
2
2
.66
.68
.75
.70
.69
1
1
.65
.70
2
2
2
.68
.54
.66
1
1
1
2
2
.65
.72
.69
.74
.70
1
1
2
.65
.67
.75
2
2
.67
.48
1
1
.58
.78
.66
2
2
.78
.55
1
1
2
2
2
.81
.61
.80
.60
.65
860
The career exploration dimension

In-breadth and in-depth career exploration. These subscales include 10 items assessing two dimensions of career exploration,
namely career exploration in-breadth and in-depth. Each set of items begins with, When you explore careers, to what extent
do you agree with the following statements? Right now I am. Higher scores indicate greater levels of in-breadth and indepth exploration, respectively.
The career commitment dimension
Career commitment making and identication with a career commitment. These subscales include 10 items, which assess two
dimensions of commitment. The rst dimension is an indication of the extent to which participants had committed to an
occupation, and the second reects the degree of their identication with that commitment. Higher scores indicate greater
levels of commitment and identication, respectively.
The career reconsideration dimension
Career self-doubt. This subscale includes 5 items and was inspired by identity status research suggesting that doubt is an
important indicator of experiencing an identity crisis, particularly for those participants in the moratorium status. The scale
assesses the extent to which participants are uncertain about their career choice and about becoming a worker, with higher
scores reecting greater self-doubt.
Career commitment exibility. This new subscale of the reconsideration dimension has 5 items that assess the degree to which
a participant expects and is open to changes in themselves and their career choice in the future. Higher scores reect greater
exibility.
Validation measures
Core self-evaluations (high school sample only). This construct was assessed with a measure of a basic, fundamental appraisal of
ones worthiness, effectiveness, and capability as a person (Judge et al., 2005, p. 304). Core self-evaluations are dened as
a composite of self-esteem, generalized self-efcacy, neuroticism, and locus of control (Judge et al., 2003). The wording of the
items was slightly modied to be more appropriate to the age range of participants in this study (e.g., Sometimes, I do not feel
in control of my work was changed to be Sometimes, I do not feel in control of my life). Participants responded to the items
on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Judge et al. (2005) reported acceptable internal
consistency estimates (a was between .83 and .87 across several samples).
Depression, anxiety, and stress (university sample only). These aspects of adjustment were assessed with the Depression,
Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). This forty-two-item version of the measure includes
depression, physical arousal, and distress subscales. Participants were asked to respond to the series of items considering how
much they applied to them over the past week. The Likert scale ranges from 0 (did not apply to me at all) to 3 (applied to me
very much, or most of the time). This measure has received extensive support in the literature as a valid measure of the target
constructs with internal consistency estimates of .97, .92, and .95 for the three scales respectively (e.g., Antony, Bieling, Cox,
Enns, & Swinson, 1998), but appears to be limited for use on adult samples only (Patrick, Dyck, & Bramston, 2010).
Work valence: positive and negative work affectivity and experiences. These scales are revised and expanded versions of scales
employed with grade-school children to assess their work valences (Porfeli et al., 2008). The six positive and seven negative
affectivity items begin with When you are an adult doing your job, how often do you think you will feel . Each item is an
emotion that was identied by the emotion literature to be pertinent to the work context. Example positive affectivity items
are happy and proud, and example negative affectivity items are disgusted and defeated. The 8 positive and 8 negative
work experience items begin with When you are an adult doing your job, how often do you think you will. Each item
reects a common experience within the work context. Example positive work experience items are succeed at work and
get really interested in your work, and example negative work experience items are get really tired at work and be
assigned too many work tasks.Participants responded to the items on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always) and
total scale scores were computed as an average of the item scores. The internal consistency across both samples for the
positive and negative affectivity (a .80 and a .86, respectively) and positive and negative experience items (a .78 and
a .75, respectively) in the current study were acceptable.
Analytic plan
The present study is a test of the psychometric characteristics of the VISA. The aim of the analytic plan was to (a)
test the factor structure of the VISA and its invariance across age, (b) determine the appropriate number of statuses
861
resolved by the VISA and the stability of this solution across age groups, and (c) test the validity of the identity statuses
resolved by the VISA across age groups. The analytic method is partly based on a protocol employed to test the Meeus
and Crocetti (Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008; Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Meeus, 1996) and the Luyckx
(Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers, et al., 2006; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, et al., 2006; Luyckx et al., 2005) models. This analytic
method is enhanced by employing item and parcel approaches to conrmatory factor analysis (CFA) and a more
contemporary means of assessing measurement invariance in CFA models. The overall analytic plan is divided into
assessments of (a) the measurement model of the VISA, (b) the appropriate number of statuses resolved by the VISA
through cluster analyses, and (c) the validity of the identity statuses resolved by the VISA.
Results
The measurement model: assessing t and invariance across age
Multivariate outliers (about 1% of the sample) were identied via Mahalanobis distance estimates and removed. Absent
outliers, descriptive univariate statistics and bivariate correlations were computed for all of the VISA items and parcels
(available upon request) separately for the high school and university samples and suggested that the items and parcels
exhibited an approximate normal distribution. The item and parcel correlations were generally in the expected directions,
stronger within than between constructs, and those within constructs were statistically signicant and of a meaningful
magnitude. In sum, this pattern of associations generally supported the hypothesized structure of each scale and the interrelationships among the scales.
We then proceeded to test the measurement model of the VISA and its invariance across age. To conduct these tests, we
computed CFA models for the VISA using item and parcel approaches (Atlas & Overall, 1994) and then we tested the
measurement invariance across the high school and university samples. We employed item parcels in order to facilitate
a comparison between the results here to those reported in previous research using the same method (e.g., Crocetti, Rubini,
Luyckx, et al., 2008; Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Luyckx et al., 2005). Employing item parcels (i.e., combining a set of
items into a smaller subset of parcels) with CFA is known to yield more stable factor loadings, diminished measurement
error terms, and improved normality relative to items (Marsh, Hau, Balla, & Grayson, 1998), and simulations suggest that,
under the condition that a set of items represents one underlying factor, items and parcels behave similarly in a CFA model
(Alhija & Wisenbaker, 2006). On the contrary, other research nds that parceling may be inappropriate for use with items
that may be best modeled as multi-dimensional because parceling this set of items may yield overinated t indices,
thereby obscuring the true number of factors represented by the items (Bandalos, 2002) and falsely suggesting measurement invariance across groups (Meade & Kroustalis, 2006). Computing the item and parcel models permitted a comparison
of the measurement model t employing a conventional approach and an approach used in relatively recent identity status
research.
The item and parceled measurement models were examined with CFA and multi-group CFA (Jreskog, 1971) using AMOS
16. The rst block in Table 3, termed Six Factor Vocational Identity, begins with the results from the item-level CFA, which
involved modeling the data for all the participants. The combination of the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Root Mean Square
Error of Approximation (RMSEA), and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) suggests that the measurement
model ts the data in an adequate fashion, particularly given that the model involves 30 indicators and 6 factors. This
conclusion is partly supported by simulation studies demonstrating a known bias toward diminished t in CFA models that
involve a larger number of indicators (Nasser & Wisenbaker, 2003).
Table 3
Fit indices for multi-group conrmatory factor model of career commitment, exploration, and reconsideration.
Model
c2
df
CFI
RMSEA
SRMR
c2 (df)
CFI
Six factor vocational identity

a. Combined groupa
b. Multi-groupb unconstrained
c. Multi-group congural invariance
d. Multi-group metric invariance
e. Multi-group scalar invariance
1132.2**
1607.0**
1644.0**
1700.5**
1825.8**
390
780
804
825
855
.919
.911
.910
.906
.896
.050
.037
.037
.037
.038
.0533
.0601
.0599
.0676
.0691
37.0* (24)
93.5** (45)
218.9** (75)
.001c
.005c
.015
.000c
.000c
.001c
Parceled six factor vocational identity

a. Combined groupa
b. Multi-groupb unconstrained
c. Multi-group congural invariance
d. Multi-group metric invariance
e. Multi-group scalar invariance
81.4**
129.3**
135.9**
192.4**
234.2**
39
78
84
105
117
.991
.989
.989
.981
.974
.038
.029
.028
.033
.036
.0253
.0297
.0304
.0531
.0568
6.6 (6)
63.1** (27)
104.9** (39)
.000c
.008c
.015
.001c
.004c
.007c
Note. CFI Comparative Fit Index; RMSEA Root Mean Square Error of Approximation; SRMR Standardized Root Mean Square Residual.
* p < .05; ** p < .001.
a
N of combined group 775.
b
N of high school sample 432; N of university sample 343.
c
CFI and RMSEA less than cutoffs (.01 and <.05, respectively) suggested by Cheung and Rensvold (2002).
RMSEA
862
Following the t of the combined model within the rst block in Table 3, results from a series of tests employing the multigroup CFA models are reported. These tests are aligned with the commonly used terms congural, metric, and scalar
invariance (Vandenberg & Lance, 2000). The degree of invariance was assessed with two approaches. The rst involved the
changes in chi-square (c2) as a consequence of increasing constraints on the measurement model and whether or not those
changes were statistically signicant (French & Finch, 2006). These results are included given that they are considered the
most typical test of measurement invariance. More recent research on the validity of this test suggests that it may be too strict
(Byrne, 2010). The second approach to testing measurement invariance involved computing the change in the Comparative Fit
Index (CFI) and the change in the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA). The results of these tests are
contained in the last two columns in Table 3. The full explanation and rationale behind this approach is beyond the scope of
this paper, so the reader is referred to work by Cheung and Rensvold (2002). This work suggests that CFI .01 and RMSEA
.05 reects an equivalent measurement model across groups at a .01 (Cheung & Rensvold, 2002). While we report both
types of tests to permit the reader to consider the results from the traditional test, we will base our conclusions on the results
from the more recently developed tests employing CFI and RMSEA. The results of the traditional tests (see column entitled
c2 (df)) suggest that the measurement model does not exhibit congural invariance across the high school and university
samples at even the minimal level. Applying the more recent criteria (see columns entitled CFI and RMSEA) leads to the
conclusion that the VISA exhibits metric invariance but does not exhibit scalar invariance across age. This means that the
pattern and the magnitude of factor loadings are equivalent across the high school and university samples, but the means
differ as expected across these two groups.
The second block in Table 3, termed Parceled Six Factor Vocational Identity, replicates the approach used in the rst block,
but now all analyses are conducted on item parcels to be consistent with previous identity status research (e.g., Crocetti,
Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Luyckx et al., 2005). Whereas the previous analysis employed thirty items with ve items per
factor, this approach involves randomly combining the ve items into two parcels (three items in one and two in the other)
and then computing all the models outlined above for the item-level multi-group measurement models. In other words, the
parcel approach substantially diminishes the number of estimates computed, and as a consequence, it has the effect of
increasing the probability that the model t will be improved relative to the item approach (Nasser & Wisenbaker, 2003). In
this case, the t of the measurement model employing all the participants and, as indicated by the CFI, RMSEA, and SRMR, is
quite good and improved relative to the item-level approach reported above. Moreover, the multi-group CFA results suggest
that the high school and university samples exhibit equivalent measurement weights using the traditional (c2) and more
recent criteria discussed above (CFI and RMSEA). Finally, the high school and college samples exhibited metric invariance
but not scalar invariance.
The net of the results reported in Table 3 suggest that the measurement model adequately ts the data for the entire
sample and exhibits metric invariance across the high school and university samples. The t indices from the parcel approach
also compare well to those reported in previous identity status research using the same approach (Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus,
2008; Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers, et al., 2006). Table 2 contains the item factor loadings for the nal model. The VISA items
appear to assess six underlying constructs representing subscales of the career commitment, exploration, and reconsideration
dimensions, and the conguration of these items relative to the factors and the metric of the loadings appears to remain
invariant across the high school and university years.
The six subscale scores were created by computing the mean response from the set of item indicators so that subscale
scores could be interpreted on the basis of the original scale of the items. The descriptive statistics by age group are reported
in Table 4 and reveal that both age groups tend to exhibit commitment, exploration, and self-doubt at levels above the
midpoint of the Likert scales around agree and disagree and trending toward agree and commitment exibility below the
Table 4
Correlations between indicators of identity statuses by age group.
High school sample

Commitment
Exploration
Reconsideration
University sample
Commitment
Exploration
Reconsideration
SD
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Commitment making
Commitment identication
In-depth exploration
In-breath exploration
Self-doubt
Commitment exibility
3.35
3.84
3.90
3.69
2.51
3.18
.81
.62
.60
.69
.80
.79
.84
.76
.77
.83
.79
.83
.56*
.48*
.64*
.10
.33*
.53*
.11*
.28*
.21*
.09
.39*
.16*
.08
.35*
.49*
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Commitment making
Commitment identication
In-depth exploration
In-breath exploration
Self-doubt
Commitment exibility
3.45
3.98
4.06
3.48
2.37
2.98
.83
.64
.62
.78
.78
.78
.82
.79
.79
.82
.81
.81
.60*
.49*
.63*
.08
.09
.31*
.38*
.45*
.30*
.15*
.39*
.29*
.15*
.43*
.61*
Note: High school sample, N 432; University sample, N 343.

*p < .05.
863
midpoint and trending toward disagree. The correlation matrices suggest that constructs within the three dimensions
generally exhibit stronger correlations than do constructs between dimensions, lending more credibility to the overall
conceptual model. The exception to this trend is that commitment making, commitment identication, and in-depth
exploration exhibit a cluster of moderately sized correlations (Kline, 2004), which suggests that in-depth exploration may be
strongly tied to the process of committing to a career (Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008). There is also a consistent pattern of
weak to moderate negative correlations between the reconsideration subscales and the commitment and exploration
subscales. This suggests that increased reconsideration may thwart identity development and/or vice versa. The results in
Table 4 also demonstrate that the university sample generally demonstrates slightly stronger correlations than does the high
school sample.
The means of the six subscales were compared across the high school and college samples via ANOVA to ascertain the
extent of the difference between the two groups. Taking a developmental perspective would suggest that the university
sample would exhibit more commitment making, commitment identication, and in-depth exploration and less in-breadth
exploration, exibility, and doubt than the high school sample given their closer proximity to the age when adolescents make
the transition to adulthood and establish work roles. This hypothesis was conrmed for all of the constructs except
commitment making (results not tabled, but available upon request). The eta-squared estimates revealed, however, that the
differences were generally quite small to the point of being almost trivial given that no more than 2% of the variance in the six
subscales was explained by age group.
The cluster model: Identifying identity statuses and invariance in statuses across age
With the measurement model of the six subscales established for the entire sample, the model exhibiting metric
invariance across the high school and university samples, and the differences between the means of the two samples being in
the predicted directions, statistically signicant but small, the next step was to ascertain the appropriate number of clusters
(or identity statuses) to characterize the six subscales. While there are many different approaches toward conducting
exploratory cluster analysis, the approach espoused by Gore (2000) has been used in the identity status literature recently
(e.g., Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008; Luyckx et al., 2005). This approach involves multiple steps and iterations within
steps, and is, therefore, complex and computationally intensive. The cluster models were conducted on the entire sample and
then were conducted using a multi-group approach to discern cluster model consistency across and within the high school
and university samples. We also assessed the relative frequencies of participants occupying the clusters by the high school
and university samples to satisfy the age-based hypotheses.
In the rst step, subscale scores were standardized (M 0, SD 1), and these transformed items were subjected to
hierarchical cluster analyses employing Wards method and Euclidean distances. Gore (2000), Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al.
(2008), and Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus (2008) suggest choosing a solution that is most consistent with a priori theoretical
predictions (e.g., number of clusters and pattern of subscale scores within clusters), parsimony of the cluster solution (i.e.,
choosing solutions with a minimum number of clusters), and the capacity of the cluster to explain the variance in the
variables used in the cluster solution with 50% explained variance for each variable being the target. We examined the results
from the hierarchical cluster analyses for the combined sample and for the high school and college samples independently
and concluded that solutions ranging from four to nine clusters were more or less satisfactory for the whole sample and
across the high school and college groups.
The range of solutions from the rst step was then subjected to a second set of tests involving an iterative k-means cluster
analysis. This procedure begins by randomly assigning the sample into two groups. The cluster centers of each group from the
rst step are used as initial cluster centers for a series of k-means analyses that assign participants to clusters ranging from
four to nine. Then, another set of k-means analyses are computed for each group, but in this case, the cluster centers from the
opposite group are used to assign participants to the clusters. The two sets of k-means yield two sets of cluster assignments
per group. The sets within a group are then compared via Cohens kappa (Cohen, 1960) to determine the reliability of cluster
assignment, or in other words, the degree to which participants in each group are assigned to the same cluster given different
initial cluster centers. This entire second set of tests also was conducted by comparing the high school and university
participants. The net of these results is depicted in Fig. 1.
As the number of clusters increases from four to nine, the mean explained variance of the items used to dene the clusters
increases from 47% to 64%. Cohens kappa, as computed by the random split groups and high school versus university split
groups (see thinner lines in Fig. 1), tends to increase from four to six clusters and then declines beyond this point. The mean
kappa for the random and school split approaches was computed and is depicted as a thicker line in Fig. 1. The trend depicted
by the mean kappa line reveals that the maximum mean kappa of the random and school-level splits is 65% and is reached at
six clusters. The six-cluster solution typically explains about 58% of the variance in the variables used to dene the clusters.
These results suggest substantial agreement across the random split and school-level samples (Fleiss, 1981; Landis & Koch,
1977) and demonstrate that the six-cluster solution explains an adequate amount of variance in the variables used to
compose the clusters (e.g., >50% of the variance explained; see Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008). These results led us to
conclude that the six-cluster solution was the most satisfactory solution, which leads to the inference that the three
dimensions as indicated by six subscales can be used to identify six identity statuses.
The means of the six subscales of the career commitment, exploration, and reconsideration dimensions by cluster
membership for the entire sample and for the high school and university samples are depicted in Fig. 2. This gure also
864
Fig. 1. Cohens kappa and explained variance across a range of cluster solutions.
includes identity status labels suggesting that Marcias four identity statuses are conrmed along with two additional statuses
entitled searching moratorium and undifferentiated. The searching moratorium pattern is most like a pattern of the same name
discovered within the Meeus and Crocetti model and is composed of participants who exhibited a pattern of more
commitment and exploration and elevated reconsideration. We interpret this pattern to be reective of adolescents and
young adults who may be vacillating between the achieved and moratorium statuses in a manner akin to the moratoriumachievement-moratorium-achievement (MAMA) cycle proposed by Marcia (1993). The second additional group is characterized as undifferentiated and represents more than 20% of the sample. This group is most like the undifferentiated pattern
discovered within the Luyckx model and exhibits a prole of scores across the six subscales that vacillate around the mean for
the entire sample, but the shape of the pattern is most reective of the achieved pattern. Relative to the achieved pattern,
undifferentiated participants score closer to the mean on commitment, exploration and reconsideration; hence, their prole
Fig. 2. Patterns of career commitment, exploration, and reconsideration for the six identity cluster solution.
865
also can be considered less differentiated and more normative. Thinking in terms of the classic 2 2 identity status table
reecting high and low levels of commitment and exploration that yield the classic four identity statuses, this group would be
situated in the center of this table but leaning more toward the achieved status. This status is supported by a few studies
employing the Luyckx model that have found a similar pattern termed undifferentiated (Luyckx et al., 2008, 2009).
A chi-square was computed to discern differences in the frequency of the identity statuses across the high school and
university samples. Similar to the developmental hypothesis pertaining to the six subscale scores, with the university
students expected to be more advanced than the high school students, we predicted that the university students would be
more likely to occupy the achieved and diffused statuses when compared with the high school students. The results supported this hypothesis, c2 (5, N 775) 28.46, p < .001. These results also demonstrated that a greater fraction of university
students occupied the foreclosed status and a smaller fraction occupied the searching moratorium status relative to the high
school sample. In other words, university students disproportionately occupied the statuses exhibiting higher levels of
commitment and lower levels of reconsideration relative to the high school students.
Validation tests: Relationships between identity statuses and validation measures
Predictive validity tests were conducted by employing the six identity statuses as predictors of participants work valences
along affective and experiential dimensions and indicators of well-being. The general hypothesis was that identity achieved
participants would exhibit a more positive and less negative work valence and identity diffused participants would exhibit
the reverse pattern. Results consistent with this hypothesis would support the validity of the VISA.
The four ANOVA models that were computed suggested that identity statuses are associated with mean differences across
all four of the work valence variables, with achieved and diffused participants exhibiting the largest differences (Table 5 and
Fig. 3). Post-hoc contrasts (employing Bonferroni and Tukey estimates) demonstrated that the largest and statistically
signicant mean differences were exhibited between the achieved and diffused groups, the foreclosed and diffused groups,
and the achieved and searching moratorium groups (available upon request). The pattern of the means of the work valence
variables by the identity statuses suggested that the achieved participants generally have a more favorable and less unfavorable view of their future work lives while the reverse was observed of the diffused participants. The foreclosed group was
most like the achieved group. The moratorium, searching moratorium, and undifferentiated identity status groups exhibit
a similar pattern of work valences with the positive aspects generally hovering around the grand mean.
The ANOVA models for well-being demonstrated that the achieved group exhibited the most favorable characteristics, and the
searching moratorium and diffused groups exhibited the least favorable well-being. It should be underscored that the indicators of
well-being differed for the high school and university samples. The high school students completed an assessment of their core
self-evaluations, and the university sample completed the DASS, which provides indications of participants depression, anxiety,
and distress. The results are, therefore, reported separately for the two samples, and the expected direction of effects is reversed
given that core self-evaluations are scaled such that higher scores reect increasing favorability and the DASS is scaled in an
unfavorable direction (Table 5 and Fig. 3). All the indicators of well-being, except stress, exhibited statistically signicant
differences across the identity status groups. The post-hoc contrasts (employing Bonferroni and Tukey estimates) suggested that
well-being differed most between the achieved and diffused groups and between the achieved and searching moratorium groups.
Discussion
This study supports an elaboration of Marcias (1966) two-dimensional model of global identity status by conrming that
career exploration, commitment, and reconsideration, derived from the Luyckx (Luyckx et al., 2005; Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers,
et al., 2006; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, et al., 2006) and Meeus and Crocetti models (Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008;
Table 5
Predictive validity of the VISA: means (standard deviations in parentheses) and ANOVA results.
Achieved
Searching
moratorium
Moratorium
Foreclosed
Diffused
Undifferentiated
Grand mean
F
h2
N
Stressb
Negative work
affectivity
Positive work
experiences
Negative work
experiences
4.53 (.45)
4.29 (.56)
1.68 (.49)
2.13 (.68)
4.50 (.46)
4.06 (.57)
2.62 (.67)
3.00 (.64)
3.95 (.58)
3.35 (.55)
.56 (.79)
.80 (.95)
.53 (.58)
.74 (.77)
.90 (.80)
1.17 (.99)
4.08
4.36
3.78
4.16
4.14
2.03
1.80
2.29
1.94
2.00
4.16
4.37
3.75
4.14
4.13
2.75
2.60
2.83
2.72
2.75
3.64
3.83
3.21
3.57
3.57
.64
.47
.79
.37
.56
.60
.49
.79
.34
.55
.86
.84
1.00
.70
.86
(.48)
(.42)
(.54)
(.46)
(.54)
33.22*
.19
703
*p < .05, **p < .01.

a
High school sample only.
b
University sample only.
(.60)
(.56)
(.71)
(.52)
(.63)
15.47*
.10
703
(.41)
(.39)
(.57)
(.46)
(.53)
34.36*
.20
703
(.57)
(.52)
(.50)
(.47)
(.56)
5.18*
.04
703
Core selfevaluationsa
Depressionb Anxietyb
Positive work
affectivity
(.61)
(.50)
(.50)
(.60)
(.60)
18.93**
.19
401
(.62)
(.57)
(.69)
(.40)
(.64)
4.13**
.06
324
(.63)
(.48)
(.73)
(.38)
(.59)
5.08**
.07
332
2.44
.04
328
(.69)
(.61)
(.66)
(.53)
(.68)
866
Fig. 3. Patterns of anticipated work valences and well-being by identity status. The positive affectivity and experiences lines almost entirely overlap as do the
depression and anxiety lines.
Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Meeus, 1996), aid in identifying multiple vocational identity statuses. Participants who were
assigned to the resulting vocational identity statuses exhibited predictable differences in work valences and well-being. These
ndings support work toward unifying Luyckx and Meeus and Crocetti models into one measurement model of identity status.
The correlational and multi-group conrmatory factor analyses employing the six constructs across the high school and
university samples support the conclusion that the VISA measures two distinct manifestations of exploration, commitment and
reconsideration. The cluster analyses of the VISA suggested that it can reliably identify six groups reecting Marcias four identity
statuses plus two other statuses termed searching moratorium and undifferentiated (see Fig. 4). While the members of the
searching moratorium status expressed levels of exploration and commitment akin to those in the achieved status, they differed
from members of the achieved status in that they expressed the highest levels of career self-doubt and exibility. This status is
most consistent with the MAMA cycle (Stephen et al., 1992) and the searching moratorium status found within the Meeus and
Crocetti model (Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008). This status is depicted as a double-headed arrow in Fig. 4 to reect its
presumed dynamic nature. Members of the undifferentiated status group differed from the others because their pattern was
almost completely normative (i.e., at or around the mean) for all six indicators and is most consistent with the undifferentiated
status identied within the Luyckx model (Luyckx et al., 2008; 2009). Those participants classied as belonging in the achieved,
moratorium, foreclosed, and diffused statuses exhibited career exploration, commitment, and reconsideration patterns consistent
with Marcias identity status framework and previous empirical work within the Luyckx and Meeus and Crocetti models. Of all the
patterns, the achieved and undifferentiated patterns were most similar, but the achieved group expressed commitment,
exploration, and reconsideration at levels that were less attenuated than the undifferentiated group.
The results from the CFAs, combined with the cluster analyses, suggested that identifying and measuring distinct dimensions
of commitment, exploration, and reconsideration may aid in rening the vocational identity status framework. The addition of
searching moratorium and undifferentiated vocational identity statuses could better align vocational identity status research with
innovations occurring within the global identity status literature. The psychometric results also suggest that the VISA may be used
to enhance future studies aiming to employ one or more of the career exploration, commitment, and reconsideration constructs as
Commitment
Less
More
Searching
More
Exploration
Less
Achieved
Moratorium
Undifferentiated
Foreclosed
Diffused
Fig. 4. Identity status model: An elaboration.
867
predictors and outcomes rather than components of identity statuses (e.g., Porfeli & Skorikov, 2010). These results also largely
conrm the original two-dimensional model proposed by Marcia and elaborate it by suggesting the existence of two additional
statuses that t within the original framework. The rst new status is an undifferentiated pattern that is situated at the midpoint of
exploration and commitment. The second new status involves tentative commitments and is an intermediate status situated
between the conceptual spaces previously determined to be the achieved and moratorium statuses. While the conceptual model
principally includes two dimensions, this and other research has consistently demonstrated that more than two indictors of these
processes are needed along with a reconsideration aspect to reliably detect these statuses. Bridging the two predominant
elaborations of the Marcia model (i.e., the Luckyx and Meeus & Crocetti models) seems like a fruitful avenue that should be further
explored in the global and domain-specic identity status literatures.
Comparing the three dimensions of identity status and the frequency of identity statuses across the high school and
university samples hinted at the presence of a developmental trend leading from statuses involving less to more commitment. Recent longitudinal research identied two typical progressions in global identity statuses in support of the
commitment trend, which included a pattern leading from diffused to foreclosed, moratorium, and nally achieved status,
and another pattern progressing from diffused to foreclosed, achieved, and nally moratorium status (Al-Owidha, Green, &
Kroger, 2009). Findings of the present study are consistent with these patterns to the extent that the university sample
exhibited a greater proportion of participants within statuses reecting higher commitment and lower doubt than did the
high school sample. Future research could better test the validity of this nding with longitudinal data spanning the middle
adolescent to young adult years, given the known limitations of making developmental assertions on the basis of data from
different cohorts (Smith, 2008).
The results from the validation tests of the VISA support the well-established nding that identity statuses are distinguished by differences in well-being (Waterman, 2007). The achieved group exhibited the most favorable pattern of identity
progress, work valences, and well-being. The foreclosed group exhibited a pattern most like the achieved group, with the
main exception being that they have arrived at what looks to be a premature career commitment. The diffused group
exhibited the least favorable pattern of identity progress, work valence, and well-being. These three groups, therefore, exhibit
clearly unique patterns.
The patterns expressed by the moratorium and undifferentiated groups are clearly different from the achieved, foreclosed,
and diffused groups in that they reect a more nuanced view of work. The moratorium and undifferentiated groups perceive
their future work as neither categorically favorable nor unfavorable; rather, they expect their work to include favorable and
unfavorable aspects at moderate to high levels of each. They also exhibited normative levels of well-being. While the
moratorium and undifferentiated groups are similar, they are most distinguished by their pattern of career exploration,
commitment, and reconsideration, with the moratorium group being much more focused on exploration than the undifferentiated group.
While the searching moratorium group shared relatively balanced positive and negative work valences, like their peers in
the moratorium and undifferentiated groups, they exhibited some of the poorest levels of well-being, expected to experience
negative aspects of work at levels that rivaled the diffused group, and the most amount of career self-doubt and exibility.
The searching moratorium group may be a snapshot of those participants caught in a MAMA cycle (Stephen et al., 1992).
Occupying the searching moratorium status or vacillating between the achieved and moratorium statuses appears to be
difcult. While this group has made much progress toward exploring and committing to a career, this group still expresses
a unique combination of elevated career self-doubt and exibility. These ndings for the searching moratorium group in
relationship to the others suggest that the act of reconsideration involves favorable (exibility) and unfavorable (doubt)
elements that may yield different consequences to ones well-being. The apparently unfavorable form of reconsideration,
coupled to the belief that work choices will lead to a world that will bring many negative experiences and emotions, could
take a toll on the well-being of those in the searching moratorium group and feel like a barrier preventing them from fully
achieving a worker identity. On the contrary, reconsideration marked by less of each aspect and particularly a lot less selfdoubt, may be felt as a means of making progress for those in the moratorium and undifferentiated statuses. Another point
about the searching moratorium status should be made. High school students occupied this group and all the lower
commitment groups disproportionately more than did university students, suggesting that high school is a critical period
during which commitments are being developed. When high school students disproportionately occupied a high commitment status group, as in the case of the searching moratorium status, their commitments were more frequently paired with
elevated career reconsideration and, particularly, with self-doubt. The searching moratorium group presents a unique
pattern occurring more during the adolescent years and underscores the potential value of expanding the career reconsideration construct to include favorable and unfavorable aspects (Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008; Crocetti, Rubini, &
Meeus, 2008).
The results from all of the analyses can be distilled further to suggest that relationships among identity processes, work
valences, and well-being can be categorized into four variable patterns or elds including a pattern of (1) advanced identity
progress, an optimistic if not Pollyanna work valence, and higher levels of well-being (achieved and foreclosed); (2) moderate
identity progress, balanced positive and negative work valences, and normative levels of well-being (moratorium and
undifferentiated); (3) delayed identity progress, a pessimistic or gloomy work valence, and low levels of well-being (diffused);
and (4) mixed identity progress marked by elevated commitment and exploration, paradoxically coupled with higher levels of
reconsideration and particularly self-doubt, a work valence marked by higher levels of the unfavorable aspects, and poor
levels of well-being (searching moratorium).
868
Conclusions
Measures designed to assess global identity statuses have generally relied upon items pertaining to multiple (e.g., religious, vocational, and political) roles. They often failed, however, to reliably yield role-specic identity statuses when divided
into role-specic scales (Skorikov & Vondracek, 2007b). Theory and research suggest that a vocational identity may emerge
during adolescence (Erikson, 1968) and in advance of other role-specic identities (Skorikov & Vondracek, 1998). Thus,
domain-specic measures like the VISA are needed as researchers explore the contribution of vocational identity development to global identity development and to adjustment and the transition from school to work.
While the original conceptual model presented by Marcia included two dimensions, recent empirical research, including
this study, has demonstrated that a more rened identity status framework may more adequately account for adolescents and
young adults who are in an undifferentiated status and those who are vacillating between the achieved and moratorium
statuses over time. Based on the CFAs and the cluster analyses, a reconsideration dimension was added to the exploration and
commitment dimensions identied by Marcia. This resulted in the addition of two identity statuses named searching
moratorium (as in the Meeus & Crocetti model) and undifferentiated (as in the Luyckx, et al. model). The clear convergence of
results from the present study and the empirically derived global identity status models named above bodes well for a much
needed alignment of vocational identity status research with innovations occurring within the global identity status
literature.
The predictive validity results obtained with the VISA are consistent with other identity status studies pointing to
differences in well-being and adjustment across statuses (Meeus et al., 1999; Skorikov & Vondracek, 2007a; Vondracek,
1994). They also suggest that vocational identity statuses can aid in identifying a pattern of work valences and wellbeing that could place certain adolescents in a more or less advantaged position as they become increasingly engaged in the
world of work. The identity status literature posits a developmental progression from the diffused status and tending
toward the moratorium and achieved statuses (Al-Owidha et al., 2009), and this study, in part, supports such a progression.
The present ndings add to our understanding by demonstrating that the statuses may be associated with work valence and
well-being patterns that could be fairly stable over time. Thus, it is likely that the VISA could serve as an important
instrument in developmental and behavioral research devoted to understanding the role of work in the lives of adolescents
and young adults.
Some important limitations of the present research should be noted. First, the study is limited by its reliance on
exploratory methods (e.g., cluster analysis) that can be strongly inuenced by inherent biases in the sample and that fail to
offer a denitive means of assessing model t or statistical signicance. Second, the study relies upon a small to moderate
cross-section of middle adolescents attending several high schools and young adults attending one university in Ohio. Given
the sample and the sampling frame, generalizations to adolescents and young adults outside the geographic and sociodemographic boundaries of the sample must be done with great caution. Even more caution must be exhibited when making
developmental assertions. Generalizing this study to adolescents and young adults and making inferences about development spanning these periods must, therefore, be done with great caution.
Finally, the criterion variables used to assess the validity of the VISA were deemed to be correlates of identity status rather
than antecedents or outcomes. Longitudinal data would permit a more direct test of the causality of the statuses and criterion
variables by assessing their longitudinal relationships. These limitations call for ongoing efforts to specically assess and
improve the VISA, and to more broadly explore the existence, antecedents, and outcomes of vocational identity statuses
across the adolescent and young adulthood periods. As a consequence of these limitations, replication of the principal
ndings of this study with other samples, and preferably longitudinal data, is clearly needed.
Acknowledgment
We would like to thank Kay Vincent and her colleagues at Excel TECC for their work in collecting the data used in this
project.
References
Adams, G. R., Bennion, L. D., & Huh, K. (1989). Objective measure of ego identity status: A reference manual (2nd ed.). Author.
Al-Owidha, A., Green, K. E., & Kroger, J. (2009). On the question of an identity status category order: Rasch model step and scale statistics used to identify
category order. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 33(1), 8896. doi:10.1177/0165025408100110.
Alhija, F. N. A., & Wisenbaker, J. (2006). A Monte Carlo Study investigating the impact of item parceling strategies on parameter estimates and their standard
errors in CFA. Structural Equation Modeling, 13(2), 204228. doi:10.1207/s15328007sem1302_3.
Antony, M. M., Bieling, P. J., Cox, B. J., Enns, M. W., & Swinson, R. P. (1998). Psychometric properties of the 42-item and 21-item versions of the Depression
Anxiety Stress Scales in clinical groups and a community sample. Psychological Assessment, 10(2), 176181. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.10.2.176.
Archer, S. L. (1989). Gender differences in identity development: Issues of process, domain and timing. Journal of Adolescence, 12(2), 117138.
Atlas, R. S., & Overall, J. E. (1994). Comparative evaluation of two superior stopping rules for hierarchical cluster analysis. Psychometrika, 59(4), 581591. doi:
10.1007/BF02294393.
Balistreri, E., Busch-Rossnagel, N. A., & Geisinger, K. F. (1995). Development and preliminary validation of the Ego Identity Process Questionnaire. Journal of
Adolescence, 18(2), 179192. doi:10.1006/jado.1995.1012.
Bandalos, D. L. (2002). The effects of item parceling on goodness-of-t and parameter estimate bias in structural equation modeling. Structural Equation
Modeling, 9(1), 78102. doi:10.1207/S15328007SEM0901_5.
869
Berzonsky, M. D. (2003). The structure of identity: commentary on Jane Krogers view of identity status transition. Identity: An International Journal of Theory
and Research, 3(3), 231245. doi:10.1207/S1532706XID0303_04.
Blustein, D. L. (1994). Who am I?: the question of self and identity in career development. In M. L. Savickas, & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Convergence in career
development theories: Implications for science and practice (pp. 139154), Palo Alto, CA.
Blustein, D. L., Devenis, L. E., & Kidney, B. A. (1989). Relationship between the identity formation process and career development. Journal of Counseling
Psychology, 36(2), 196202. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.36.2.196.
Blustein, D. L., Ellis, M. V., & Devenis, L. E. (1989). The development and validation of a two-dimensional model of the commitment to career choices process.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 35(3), 342378. doi:10.1016/0001-8791(89)90034-1.
Blustein, D. L., & Noumair, D. A. (1996). Self and identity in career development: implications for theory and practice. Journal of Counseling and Development,
74(5), 433441.
Byrne, B. M. (2010). Structural equation modeling with AMOS (2nd ed.). NY: Routledge.
Chen, F. F., Sousa, K. H., & West, S. G. (2005). Testing measurement invariance of second-order factor models. Structural Equation Modeling, 12(3), 471492.
doi:10.1207/s15328007sem1203_7.
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-t indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 233255.
doi:10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5.
Clatworthy, J., Hankins, M., Buick, D., Weinman, J., & Horne, R. (2007). Cluster analysis in illness perception research: a Monte Carlo study to identify the
most appropriate method. Psychology & Health, 22(2), 123142. doi:10.1080/14768320600774496.
Cohen, J. A. (1960). A coefcient for agreement for nominal scales. Educational Psychological Measurement, 20, 3746. doi:10.1177/
001316446002000104.
Creed, P. A., & Patton, W. (2003). Predicting two components of career maturity in school based adolescents. Journal of Career Development, 29(4), 277290.
doi:10.1023/A:1022943613644.
Crocetti, E., Klimstra, T., Keijsers, L., Hale, W. W., & Meeus, W. (2009). Anxiety trajectories and identity development in adolescence: a ve-wave longitudinal
study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38(6), 839849. doi:10.1007/s10964-008-9302-y.
Crocetti, E., Rubini, M., Luyckx, K., & Meeus, W. (2008). Identity formation in early and middle adolescents from various ethnic groups: from three
dimensions to ve statuses. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37(8), 983996. doi:10.1007/s10964-007-9222-2.
Crocetti, E., Rubini, M., & Meeus, W. (2008). Capturing the dynamics of identity formation in various ethnic groups: development and validation of a threedimensional model. Journal of Adolescence, 31(2), 207222. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2007.09.002.
Crocetti, E., Schwartz, S. J., Fermani, A., & Meeus, W. (2010). The Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS): Italian validation and crossnational comparisons. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 26(3), 172186. doi:10.1027/1015-5759/a000024.
Dellas, M., & Jernigan, L. P. (1987). Occupational identity status development, gender comparisons, and internal-external control in rst-year Air Force
cadets. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16(6), 587600.
Diemer, M. A., & Blustein, D. L. (2007). Vocational hope and vocational identity: urban adolescents career development. Journal of Career Assessment, 15(1),
98118. doi:10.1177/1069072706294528.
Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle: Selected papers. Psychological Issues, 1, 1171.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
Fleiss, J. L. (1981). Statistical methods for rates and proportions (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley.
Flum, H., & Blustein, D. L. (2000). Reinvigorating the study of vocational exploration: a framework for research. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56(3),
380404. doi:10.1006/jvbe.2000.1721.
Frster, P., & Friedrich, W. (1996). Jugendliche in den neuen Bundeslndern: Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie zum Wandel der Meinungen, Einstellungen, und Werte von Jugendlichen in Sachsen 1990 bis 1994. [Youth in the new federal states: results of an empirical study regarding changing
values of youth in Saxony, 19901994]. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 19, 1829, (Beilage zur Wochenzeitung Das Parlament).
French, B. F., & Finch, W. H. (2006). Conrmatory factor analytic procedures for the determination of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling,
13(3), 378402. doi:10.1207/s15328007sem1303_3.
Gati, I., & Asher, I. (2001). The PIC model for career decision making: prescreening, in-depth exploration, and choice. In F. T. L. Leong, & A. Barak (Eds.),
Contemporary models in vocational psychology: A volume in honor of Samuel H. Osipow (pp. 754). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Germeijs, V., & Verschueren, K. (2006). High school students career decision-making process: development and validation of the study choice task
inventory. Journal of Career Assessment, 14(4), 449471. doi:10.1177/1069072706286510.
Gore, P. A. J. (2000). Cluster analysis. In H. E. A. Tinsley, & S. D. Brown (Eds.), Handbook of applied multivariate statistics and mathematical modeling (pp.
297321). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Grotevant, H. D. (1987). Toward a process model of identity formation. Journal of Adolescent Research, 2(3), 203222.
Grotevant, H. D. (1993). The integrative nature of identity: bringing the soloists to sing in the choir. In J. Kroger (Ed.), Discussions on ego identity (pp.
121146). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Holland, J. L., Johnston, J. A., & Asama, N. F. (1993). The Vocational Identity Scale: a diagnostic and treatment tool. Journal of Career Assessment, 1(1), 112.
doi:10.1177/106907279300100102.
Hu, L.t., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for t indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural
Equation Modeling, 6(1), 155. doi:10.1080/10705519909540118.
Hunsberger, B., Pratt, M., & Pancer, S. M. (2001). Adolescent identity formation: religious exploration and commitment. Identity, 1(4), 365386. doi:10.1207/
S1532706XID0104_04.
Jin, L., Watkins, D., & Yuen, M. (2009). Personality, career decision self-efcacy and commitment to the career choices process among Chinese graduate
students. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74(1), 4752. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2008.10.002.
Jordaan, J. P. (1963). Exploratory behavior: The formation of self and occupational concepts. Career development: Self-concept theory. Princeton, NJ: College
Entrance Examination Board.
Jreskog, K. G. (1971). Simultaneous factor analysis in several populations. Psychometrika, 36(4), 409426. doi:10.1007/BF02291366.
Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Erez, A., & Locke, E. A. (2005). Core self-evaluations and job and life satisfaction: the role of self-concordance and goal attainment.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(2), 257268. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.90.2.257.
Judge, T. A., Erez, A., Bono, J. E., & Thoresen, C. J. (2003). The core self-evaluations scale: development of a measure. Personnel Psychology, 56(2), 303331. doi:
10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00152.x.
Kidwell, J. S., Dunham, R. M., Bacho, R. A., Pastorino, E., & Portes, P. R. (1995). Adolescent identity exploration: a test of Eriksons theory of transitional crisis.
Adolescence, 30(120), 785793.
Klimstra, T. A., Hale, W. W., Raaijmakers, Q. A. W., Branje, S. J. T., & Meeus, W. H. J. (2010). Identity formation in adolescence: change or stability? Journal of
Youth and Adolescence, 39(2), 150162. doi:10.1007/s10964-009-9401-4.
Kline, R. B. (2004). Beyond signicance testing: Reforming data analysis methods in behavioral research. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Kroger, J. (1986). The relative importance of identity status interview components: Replication and extension. Journal of Adolescence, 9(4), 337354.
Kroger, J. (1988). A longitudinal study of ego identity status interview domains. Journal of Adolescence, 11(1), 4964.
Kroger, J. (1993). The role of historical context in the identity formation process of late adolescence. Youth and Society, 24(4), 363376.
Kroger, J., & Haslett, S. J. (1991). A comparison of ego identity status transition pathways and change rates across ve identity domains. International Journal
of Aging and Human Development, 32(4), 303330.
Kroger, J., Martinussen, M., & Marcia, J. E. (2010). Identity status change during adolescence and young adulthood: a meta-analysis. Journal of Adolescence,
33(5), 683698. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2009.11.002.
870
Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33(1), 159174. doi:10.2307/2529310.
Lavoie, J. C. (1994). Identity in adolescence: issues of theory, structure, and transition. Journal of Adolescence, 17, 1728.
Lounsbury, J. W., Hutchens, T., & Loveland, J. M. (2005). An investigation of big ve personality traits and career decidedness among early and middle
adolescents. Journal of Career Assessment, 13(1), 2539. doi:10.1177/1069072704270272.
Lounsbury, J. W., Tatum, H. E., Chambers, W., Owens, K. S., & Gibson, L. W. (1999). An investigation of career decidedness in relation to big ve personality
constructs and life satisfaction. College Student Journal, 33(4), 646652.
Lovibond, P. F., & Lovibond, S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the
beck depression and anxiety inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33(3), 335343. doi:10.1016/0005-7967(94)00075-U.
Lucas, E. B., Gysbers, N. C., Buescher, K. L., & Heppner, P. P. (1988). My vocational situation: normative, psychometric, and comparative data. Measurement
and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 20(4), 162170.
Luyckx, K., Duriez, B., Klimstra, T. A., & De Witte, H. (2010). Identity statuses in young adult employees: Prospective relations with work engagement and
burnout. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77(3). doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2010.06.002.
Luyckx, K., Goossens, L., Beyers, W., & Soenens, B. (2006). Brief report: the ego identity process questionnaire: factor structure, reliability, and convergent
validity in Dutch-speaking late adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 29(1), 153159. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2005.03.006.
Luyckx, K., Goossens, L., Soenens, B., & Beyers, W. (2006). Unpacking commitment and exploration: preliminary validation of an integrative model of late
adolescent identity formation. Journal of Adolescence, 29(3), 361378. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2005.03.008.
Luyckx, K., Goosens, L., Soenens, B., Beyers, W., & Vansteenkiste, M. (2005). Identity statuses based on 4 rather than 2 identity dimensions: extending and
rening Marcias paradigm. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 34(6), 605618. doi:10.1007/s10964-005-8949-x.
Luyckx, K., Schwartz, S. J., Berzonsky, M. D., Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., Smits, I., et al. (2008). Capturing ruminative exploration: extending the fourdimensional model of identity formation in late adolescence. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(1), 5882. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2007.04.004.
Luyckx, K., Vansteenkiste, M., Goossens, L., & Duriez, B. (2009). Basic need satisfaction and identity formation: bridging self-determination theory and
process-oriented identity research. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 56(2), 276288. doi:10.1037/a0015349.
Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 3(5), 551558. doi:10.1037/h0023281.
Marcia, J. E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. In J. Adelson (Ed.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (pp. 159187). New York: Wiley.
Marcia, J. E. (1993). The status of the statuses: research review. In J. E. Marcia, A. S. Waterman, D. R. Matteson, S. L. Archer, & J. L. Orlofsky (Eds.), Identity: A
handbook for psychosocial research (pp. 2241). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Marsh, H. W., Hau, K. T., Balla, J. R., & Grayson, D. (1998). Is more ever too much? The number of indicators per factor in conrmatory factor analysis.
Multivariate Behavioral Research, 33(2), 181220. doi:10.1207/s15327906mbr3302_1.
Meade, A. W., & Kroustalis, C. M. (2006). Problems with item parceling for conrmatory factor analytic tests of measurement invariance. Organizational
Research Methods, 9(3), 369403. doi:10.1177/1094428105283384.
Meeus, W. (1993). Occupational identity development, school performance, and social support in adolescence: Findings of a Dutch study. Adolescence,
28(112), 809818.
Meeus, W. (1996). Studies on identity development in adolescence: an overview of research and some new data. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 25(5),
569598. doi:10.1007/BF01537355.
Meeus, W., & Dekovic, M. (1995). Identity development, parental and peer support in adolescence: Results of a national Dutch survey. Adolescence, 30(120),
931944.
Meeus, W. (2001). A three-dimensional measure of identity: The Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS). The Netherlands: Research
Centre Adolescent Development, Utrecht University.
Meeus, W., Iedema, J., Helsen, M., & Vollebergh, W. (1999). Patterns of adolescent identity development: review of literature and longitudinal analysis.
Developmental Review, 19(4), 419461. doi:10.1006/drev.1999.0483.
Nasser, F., & Wisenbaker, J. (2003). A Monte Carlo study investigating the impact of item parceling on measures of t in conrmatory factor analysis.
Educational and Psychological Measurement, 63(5), 729757. doi:10.1177/0013164403258228.
Patrick, J., Dyck, M., & Bramston, P. (2010). Depression anxiety stress scale: is it valid for children and adolescents? Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66(9),
9961007. doi:10.1002/jclp.20696.
Patton, W., & Porfeli, E. J. (2007). Career exploration. In V. B. Skorikov, & W. Patton (Eds.), Career development in childhood and adolescence (pp. 4770).
Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Porfeli, E. J. (2008). Career exploration. In F. T. L. Leong (Ed.), Career counseling, Vol. 3 (pp. 14741477). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Porfeli, E. J. (2009). A ve-dimensional measure of vocational identity status for adolescents. In Paper presented at the Society for Research on Child
Development, Denver, CO.
Porfeli, E. J., Lee, B., & Vondracek, F. W. (2010). A multi-dimensional measure of vocational identity status. In Paper presented at the Society for Research on
Adolescence, Philadelphia, PA.
Porfeli, E. J., & Skorikov, V. (2010). Specic and diversive career exploration during late adolescence. Journal of Career Assessment, 18(1), 4658. doi:10.1177/
1069072709340528.
Porfeli, E. J., Wang, C., & Hartung, P. J. (2008). Family transmission of work affectivity and experiences to children. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73(2),
278286. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2008.06.001.
Saunders, D. E., Peterson, G. W., Sampson, J. P., Jr., & Reardon, R. C. (2000). Relation of depression and dysfunctional career thinking to career indecision.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56(2), 288298. doi:10.1006/jvbe.1999.1715.
Savickas, M. L. (1997). Career adaptability: an integrative construct for life-span, life-space theory. Career Development Quarterly, 45(3), 247259.
Savickas, M. L. (2002). Career construction: a developmental theory. In D. Brown, & Associates. (Eds.), Career choice and development (4th ed.). (pp. 149205)
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Schulenberg, J., Bachman, J. G., Johnston, L. D., & OMalley, P. M. (1994). American adolescents views on family and work: historical trends from 19761992.
In P. Noack, M. Hofer, & J. Youniss (Eds.), Psychological responses to social change: Human development in changing environments (pp. 3764). Berlin,
Germany: Walter de Gruyter.
Skorikov, V. B., & Vondracek, F. W. (1998). Vocational identity development: its relationship to other identity domains and to overall identity development.
Journal of Career Assessment, 6(1), 1335. doi:10.1177/106907279800600102.
Skorikov, V. B., & Vondracek, F. W. (2007a). Positive career orientation as an inhibitor of adolescent problem behaviour. Journal of Adolescence, 30(1),
131146. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2006.02.004.
Skorikov, V. B., & Vondracek, F. W. (2007b). Vocational identity. In V. B. Skorikov, & W. Patton (Eds.), Career development in childhood and adolescence
(pp. 143168). Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Smith, H. L. (2008). Advances in age-period-cohort analysis. Sociological Methods & Research, 36(3), 287296. doi:10.1177/0049124107310636.
Stephen, J., Fraser, E., & Marcia, J. E. (1992). Moratorium-achievement (Mama) cycles in lifespan identity development: value orientations and reasoning
system correlates. Journal of Adolescence, 15(3), 283300. doi:10.1016/0140-1971(92)90031-Y.
Super, D. E., Savickas, M. L., & Super, C. M. (1996). A life-span, life-space approach to career development. In D. Brown, L. Brooks, & Associates. (Eds.), Career
choice and development (3rd ed.). (pp. 197261) San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
U.S. Department of Labor. (2004). Number of jobs held, labor market activity, and earnings growth among younger baby boomers: Recent results from
a longitudinal survey (4th ed.). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor.
Vandenberg, R. J., & Lance, C. E. (2000). A review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: suggestions, practices, and recommendations for
organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 3(1), 469. doi:10.1177/109442810031002.
Vondracek, F. W. (1992). The construct of identity and its use in career theory and research. Career Development Quarterly, 41, 130144.
871
Vondracek, F. W. (1994). Vocational identity development in adolescence. In R. K. Silbereisen, & E. Todt (Eds.), Adolescence in context: The interplay of family,
school, peers, and work in adjustment. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Vondracek, F. W. (1995). Vocational identity across the life-span: a developmental-contextual perspective on achieving self-realization through vocational
careers. Man and Work, 6(12), 8593.
Waterman, A. S. (1985). Identity in the context of adolescent psychology. In A. S. Waterman (Ed.), Identity in adolescence: Processes and contents.
New directions for child development, Vol. 30 (pp. 524). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Waterman, A. S. (2007). Doing well: the relationship of identity status to three conceptions of well-being. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and
Research, 7(4), 289307.

A Multi Dimensional Measure of Vocational Identity Status PDF

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originalbeschreibung:

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

A Multi Dimensional Measure of Vocational Identity Status PDF

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

A multi-dimensional measure of vocational identity status

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 1 330 325 6114.

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

Global identity status models

Objective measure of ego

Ego Identity Process

Meeus and Crocetti

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

Vocational identity status

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

Aims and hypotheses of the present study

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

The career exploration dimension

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

Six factor vocational identity

Parceled six factor vocational identity

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

High school sample

Note: High school sample, N 432; University sample, N 343.

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

*p < .05, **p < .01.

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

Fig. 4. Identity status model: An elaboration.

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) 853871

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen