Career adapt-abilities scale-France form: Psychometric properties andrelationships to anxiety and motivation

Jacques Pouyaud a,, Emmanuelle Vignoli b, Odile Dosnon b, Nolle Lallemand b

a University of Bordeaux, Research Centre on Psychology, Health and Quality of Life (EA4139), F 330 Bordeaux, Franceb Research Centre on Work and Development (CRTD, EA4132), National Institute of Research in Work and Vocational Guidance, Conservatoire National des Arts etMtiers, Paris, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history:Received 5 January 2012Available online 23 March 2012

The CAAS-France Form consists of four scales, each with six items, which measure concern, control,curiosity, and confidence as psychosocial resources for managing occupational transitions, develop-mental tasks, andwork traumas. Internal consistency estimates for the subscale and total scores ran-ged frommoderate to good. The factor structurewasquite similar to the one computed for combineddata from 13 countries. The CAAS France Form is identical to the International Form 2.0. Concurrentvalidity evidence was collected relative to motivation and anxiety given that adaptability has beenidentified as ameta-competency for career construction in information societies. Relations betweencareer adaptability and motivation measures were as predicted. However, they provide partial sup-port to the relations between career adaptability and general or career anxiety.

2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords:AdaptabilityTransitionCareerDevelopmentMotivationAnxiety

1. Introduction

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS)- International Form 2.0 is a 24 items scale evaluating four adaptability resources(4Cs=Concern, Control, Curiosity and Confidence) operating in career construction. Among the 18 countries that initially participat-ed in the construction of the International Form 1.0, three of themwere French speaking countries (France, Swiss and Belgium). Eachcountry was free to add new items or subscales to the initial form according to its particular context, but as a first step, in order toconstruct a basic French Language Career Adaptability Scale that can be used for comparison, the choice was made not to add anyitems or subscales for these three countries. A first translation of the 24 items in the International Form 2.0wasmade by a practitionerand researcher in counseling psychology that was familiar with English language and with the content of the scale. This first adapta-tion was then completed and double checked by other researchers and studies exploring the construction and validation of this firstscale were separately conducted in each of the three countries before constructing a specific shared form in a second step of re-searches. The purpose of this article is to report the first studies and development of CAAS in France.

While the CAAS-International Form 2.0 demonstrated excellent reliability and appropriate cross-national measurement equiva-lence (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012-this issue), its validity for use in France needs to be addressed by further analysis. The present articledescribes the CAAS-France Form and reports its psychometric properties, including item statistics and internal consistency estimates.In addition, we compare the factor structure of the CAAS-France to the multi-dimensional, hierarchical measurement model of theCAAS-International, and provide some initial validity evidence for CAAS-France scores.

One of the main questions about the construct of adapt-ability as a meta-competency is its relations to personality traits, disposi-tional dimensions, and contextual resources. Our aim in this studywas to definemore clearly adaptability as ameta-competency, andto explore concurrent validity of the measure. To explore concurrent validity of the career adaptability construct, we chose disposi-tional and contextual dimensions that can be seen as related to the career adaptability dimensions. Our aim was also to explorethe usefulness of CAAS-France for career counseling with adolescents. If 4C's are resources for career adaptability, then CAAS has to

Journal of Vocational Behavior 80 (2012) 692697

Corresponding author.E-mail address: Jacques.pouyaud@u-bordeaux2.fr (J. Pouyaud).

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be seen as a tool to develop these resources more than as an evaluation tool. For these reasons, we decided to explore the relationsbetween career adaptability, motivation in the educational environment, and anxiety in school context.

Motivation suggests that individuals are able to be involved in the present, engaged with the future, and have a capability to actwith confidence. The Questionnaire deMotivation pour les Situations de Formation (QMF-6; Forner, Deram, Herman, & Katheran, 2006)is a motivation training questionnaire, often used by school and career counselors in France to explore the three dimensions of futuretime perspective, need for achievement, and locus of control. On this base, the motivated person is then very close to the adaptativeindividualwho is conceptualized as (a) becoming concerned about the vocational future, (b) taking control of trying to prepare forone's vocational future, (c) displaying curiosity by exploring possible selves and future scenarios, and (d) strengthening the confi-dence to pursue one's aspirations (Savickas, 2006). Based on this theoretical framework, CAAS-France scores would relate positivelyto all the three motivation dimensions measured by QMF.

Comparisonwith anxiety in school context refers to another question. According to the classical distinctionmade by Spielberger(1966), anxietymay be considered either as a state or a trait. Trait anxiety is a general personality variable referring to individual dif-ferences in the likelihood of experiencing state anxiety in stressful situations. The specific context is not taken into account in themea-sures of this trait. According to some theorists who argue for a person-in-context perspective in vocational psychology and in thestudy of personality traits (Endler, Parker, Bagby, & Cox, 1991; Savickas, 2000), anxiety can be conceptualized in relation to a specificthreatening vocational context. Being generally anxious as a trait or situationally anxious about school failure as a state are both cir-cumstances that can be seen as constraints in managing occupational transitions and constructing careers. For these reasons, weexpected negative relations between career adaptability measures and both trait and state anxiety. Because fear of failing relates tothe future school and career context, we expected more important relationships with state anxiety than with trait anxiety.

2. Methods

2.1. Participants

Participants included 609 11th grade students with amean age of 16.60 years (SD=.88). The samplewas composed of 57.47% fe-males. All the adolescentswere in their second to last year of high school, close to the transition fromhigh school to university but in agrade in which they were not forced to make career choices. They were recruited from public high schools. 60.8% of them pursued ageneral school training, and 39.2% a technological school training. Public high schools were selected from 10 regions among the 22metropolitan French areas. In contrast with the US sample, ethnic information cannot be collected in France.

2.2. Measures

The students volunteered to complete four measures for this study: the CAAS-France, a motivation scale, and two anxiety scales.

2.3. Career adapt-abilities scale-France form

The CAAS-International Form 2.0 contains 24 items that combine to form a total score which indicates career adaptability (Savickas &Porfeli, 2012-this issue). Participants responded to each item employing a scale from 1 (not strong) to 5 (very strong). The 24 items are di-vided equally into four subscales thatmeasure the adaptability resources of concern (e.g. Rflchir ce que seramon avenir Thinking aboutwhatmy futurewill be like), control (e.g.Prendre la responsabilit demesactes Taking responsibility formyactions), curiosity (e.g.Explorermon environnement Exploringmy surroundings), and confidence (e.g.Dvelopper mes capacits Learning new skills). The item descrip-tive statistics and loadings from the confirmatory factor model appear in Table 1. The total score for the CAAS-International has a reportedreliability of .92,while the reliabilities of the subscale scores are .83 for Concern, .74 for Control, .79 for Curiosity, and .85 for Confidence. Thereliabilities are generally lower for this sample relative to the total international sample. The total score for the CAAS-France has a reliabilityof .85, while the reliabilities of the subscale scores are .74 for Concern, .64 for Control, .66 for Curiosity and .78 for Confidence.

2.4. Motivation Formation Questionnaire (QMF)

Motivation in educational environments was assessed with theMotivation Formation Questionnaire (QMF; Forner, 2005; Forner etal., 2006) that measures three variables: (a) need for achievement or desire for significant accomplishment, mastering of skills, con-trol, or high standards (McClelland, 1987;Murray, 1953); (b) internal locus of control (Rotter, 1989); and (c) future time perspectiveor present anticipation of future goals (Lewin, 1952; Nuttin, 2000). Participants responded to 25 items for each dimension on a scalefrom 1 (definitely wrong) to 5 (definitely true). Internal consistency reliabilities for the sample employed in this study were .94 for theQMF global score, .86 for Need for Achievement, .81 for Internal Control, and .92 for Future Time Perspective.

2.5. Trait Anxiety Inventory

General anxiety was assessed with the French version of the Trait Anxiety Inventory (Bruchon-Schweizer & Paulhan, 1993;Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983). The scale consists of 20 items thatmeasure anxiety in generalwithout referenceto a particular context. Each item is rated on a four-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (almost never or never) to 4 (almost always oralways). Internal consistency reliability for the present sample was .88.

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2.6. Fear of Failing Scale

Students responded to the Fear of Failing scale from the Future School and Career Anxiety Inventory (Vignoli, Croity-Blez, Chapeland,De Fillipis, & Garcia, 2005). The scale measures Fear of Failing in one's academic or professional career with seven items (I keep feel-ing I won't be able to succeed academically). Respondents indicated the extent to which they agreed with each statement on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (definitely). Internal consistency reliability for this sample was .78.

2.7. Procedures

Participants completed all the questionnaires in one session and in the following order: Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-France Form,Motivation Formation Questionnaire, Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Future School and Career Anxiety Inventory. They were assuredabout the confidentiality of the result at the beginning of the experiment and completed the questionnaire after volunteering to par-ticipate in the study. The study was conducted during school hours outside of the students regular class sessions. The students weredebriefed about the study after completion of the questionnaires.

3. Results

The CAAS-France item means frequencies show that the typical response was 3 (moderate) or 4 (strong). Skewness and kurtosisvalues for the CAAS-France items ranged from (80. to .12) and (.96 to .24) respectively, butmost of themwere near 0, suggestingthat the items distributions conform to the assumptions required for confirmatory factor analysis for this data. Scale means and stan-dard deviations for the CAAS-France appear in Table 1. Skewness and kurtosis values for the CAAS-France constructs ranged from(.33 to .13) and (.32 to .15) respectively, suggesting that the scales distributions conform to the assumptions of correlation-based statistics for this sample. Furthermore, the four subscales correlated from .70 to .81 to the adaptability total score.

3.1. Conrmatory factor analysis

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that data for CAAS-France fit the theoretical model very well. The fit indices wereRMSEA=0.046 and SRMR=0.061 (Porfeli & Savickas, 2012-this issue), which conforms to established joint fit criteria (Hu &Bentler, 1999). They compare favorably to the fit indices for the CAAS-International model which were RMSEA=0.053 and

Table 1Career adapt-abilities scale: items, standardized loadings, descriptive statistics.

Construct Item (rst-order indicators) Mean SD Loading

Concern 1. Thinking about what my future will be like 3.37 1.05 .582. Realizing that today's choices shape my future 3.66 1.05 .473. Preparing for the future 3.18 0.92 .674. Becoming aware of the educational and career choices that I must make 3.33 1.03 .585. Planning how to achieve my goals 3.08 1.00 .506. Concerned about my career 3.70 0.95 .52

Control 1. Keeping upbeat 3.28 1.21 .482. Making decisions by myself 3.99 0.94 .513. Taking responsibility for my actions 3.90 0.93 .444. Sticking up for my beliefs 3.88 0.98 .615. Counting on myself 3.71 1.10 .596. Doing what's right for me 3.56 0.96 .46

Curiosity 1. Exploring my surroundings 3.15 1.07 .672. Looking for opportunities to grow as a person 3.47 0.93 .503. Investigating options before making a choice 3.35 0.93 .704. Observing different ways of doing things 3.18 0.97 .585. Probing deeply into questions I have 3.14 1.08 .596. Becoming curious about new opportunities 3.51 0.98 .45

Confidence 1. Performing tasks efficiently 3.80 0.90 .572. Taking care to do things well 3.68 0.91 .493. Learning new skills 3.69 0.81 .704. Working up to my ability 3.60 0.87 .735. Overcoming obstacles 3.41 1.02 .756. Solving problems 3.45 0.95 .67

Construct Construct (Second-Order Indicators) Mean SD Loading

Adaptability 1. Concern 3.39 .66 .612. Control 3.72 .61 .773. Curiosity 3.31 .40 .814. Confidence 3.60 .63 .88

*Note: All of the loadings are statistically significant at =0.01.

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SRMR=0.039 (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012-this issue Table 2, row M1b). The standardized loadings (see Table 1) suggest that the itemsare strong indicators of the second-order constructs, which are in turn strong indicators of the third-order adaptability construct.

Comparing the CAAS-France hierarchical factor model to the model for the CAAS-International 2.0 indicated that the loadings offirst-order items on the second-order factors of adaptabilitywere quite similar or slightlyweaker in the France data. Themost notabledifferences were for Concern #2 (Realizing that today's choices shape my future), Concern #5 (Planning how to achieve my goals),Control #3 (Taking responsibility for my actions), Control #6 (Doing what's right for me), Curiosity #2 (Looking for opportunitiesto grow as a person), Curiosity #6 (Becoming curious about new opportunities) and Confidence # 2 (Taking care to do things well)exhibiting a weaker loading in the France data. Of the second-order constructs, Concern exhibited the greatest difference in loadingbetween the France (.61) and international samples (.78), with the USA sample exhibiting a stronger loading. The loading for FranceControl was .77 compared to .86 for International Form Control. The loading for France Curiosity (.81) and Confidence (.88)were sim-ilar or quite similar compared to .88 and .90 for the International form. The Francemean scores were slightly lower than the Interna-tional mean scores: France Concern (M=3.39), International Concern (M=3.79); France Control (M=3.72), International Control(M=3.93); France Curiosity (M=3.30), International Curiosity (M=3.69); France Confidence (M=3.60), International Confidence(M=3.93); and France Adaptability (M=3.50), International Adaptability (M=3.84).

3.2. Concurrent validity

To provide initial evidence for the validity of the CAAS-France scores, we correlated these scores to the motivation and anxietyscale scores. The correlation coefficients reported in Table 2 show a consistent pattern of associations between the adaptabilityscore and the motivation and anxiety scores with all six correlations being significant at =.001 level. Need for Achievement,Locus of Control and Future Time Perspective related positively and moderately to adaptability score while Trait Anxiety and Fearof Failing related negatively to adaptability score, respectively moderately and weakly. There were no significant relation betweenCuriosity and Fear of Failing or Trait Anxiety, and onlyweak correlationswithMotivation subscales. Confidence is moderately related,positively to motivations subscales, and negatively to General Anxiety. The strongest relation of adaptability was between Concernand the motivations subscales. The weakest relation was Concern to the Fear of Failing scale.

4. Discussion

Based on the results of the statistical analyses reported herein, we concluded that CAAS-France performs quite similarly to theCAAS-International Form 2.0 in terms of psychometric characteristics and factor structure. The total scale and four subscales eachdemonstrated moderate to good internal consistency estimates and a coherent multidimensional, hierarchical structure that fitsthe theoretical model and linguistic explication of career adaptability resources. These results should bolster confidence in the con-clusion that the CAAS-France and CAAS-International 2.0 function similarly.

The results indicated a significant positive relation between career adaptability andmotivation. This association provides evidencethat these two psychosocial constructs function as expected. Career adaptability and motivation both relate strongly to contextualaims. Only Curiosity scale appears to be less correlated with motivation. This result can be interpreted by the fact that curiosity asthe ability to explore possible selves and future scenarios could be amore specific resource for career adaptation, than Concern, Con-fidence and Control which appear to be more generalized.

Concerning relations between the two forms of anxiety and career adaptability, the results provide partial support for our hy-pothesis. Even if the two forms of anxiety are globally negatively related with adaptability global score, all the adaptability dimen-sions do not participate to this effect. Curiosity and Concern did not relate with Career Anxiety. These results can be interpreted byconsidering that anxiety as a state or a trait can limit the ability of the individual to construct resources in order to adapt, but thislimitation concerns mainly an ability to go through action (to be confident and to control) and less an ability to think of oneself in

Table 2Correlation matrix and reliabilities (in the diagonal) of the CAAS-France, motivation (need for achievement, locus of control, future time perspective), generalanxiety and fear of failing constructs.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

1. Concern .742. Control .31 .643. Curiosity .29 .37 .664. Confidence .42 .50 .49 .785. Adaptability .70 .73 .72 .81 .856. Need for Achievement .47 .17 .18 .33 .40 .867. Locus of Control .41 .29 .16 .33 .41 .59 .818. Future Time Perspective .62 .15 .15 .30 .42 .60 .47 .929. Motivation global score .61 .24 .19 .38 .49 .86 .78 .86 .9410. General Anxiety -.23 -.39 -.07 -.31 -.34 -.25 -.53 -.20 -.37 .8811. Fear of Failing .00 -.25 -.07 -.17 -.16 -.02 -.23 .04 -.04 .51 .78

Note: Sample sizes reported in parentheses. pb .05. pb .001.

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the future (to be concerned, and to be curious). One explanation of this result is that career anxiety is focused on future school andcareer failure whereas career adapt-abilities are competencies that the individuals developed more generally to cope and organizetheir school and career future (without thinking in terms of failure).

The correlation matrix also provides support for the concurrent validity of the CAAS subscales. The Concern Subscale correlatedmost highly to future time perspective. Concern involves a planful attitude toward the future. The correlation of concern to trait anxietywas negative, as it should be since populating the future with events and plans reduces anxiety. The Control Subscale correlated mosthighly to internal locus of control, as onewould expect. It also had the strongest inverse relation to trait anxiety and an inverse relationto fear of failing. The Confidence Subscale correlated most highly with both need for achievement and internal locus of control, withinverse relations to trait anxiety and fear of failure. This pattern of correlations supports the distinctions asserted for the CAAS scales.The Curiosity Subscale did not have anyother pertinentmeasure towhich to compare it. For this purpose, the studywould have neededto include a scale to measure curiosity in general, career exploration attitudes, or information-seeking behavior. The Curiosity Subscalecorrelated equally and weakly to the three motivation scores and was unrelated to trait anxiety and fear of failing.

More generally, these results suggest possibilities for future use of CAAS both for researchers and practitioners. For re-searchers, further analyses must be made to explore links between career adaptability and other constructs (for example: cre-ativity) and more stabilized characteristics such as intelligence in order to establish a nomological network for adaptability. Forpractitioners, the question is not how to use the CAAS to measure career adaptability. The important issue involves constructingand testing interventions that increase adaptability resources when CAAS scores indicate that they may benefit from furtherdevelopment.

Based on the results reported herein, the CAAS-France appears ready for use by researchers and practitioners whowish to exper-iment withmeasuring and developing adaptability resources among students. Further research will examine its validity for use withemployed adults. However, given the success of the CAAS-Internationalwhen usedwith employed adults, we believe that researchersmay begin to use the scale with adults who are anticipating occupational transitions. The next stepwill be the further development ofthe French language version of CAAS, still fitting with CAAS-International, completed with specific items corresponding to world ofwork, socio-economic and cultural situation in France.

Appendix A. Career adapt-abilities scale-France form

Nom Age: Homme ou Femme

Les noncs suivants dcrivent la manire dont on peut se prparer des changements dans sa trajectoire scolaire ou professionnelle (quil sagisse du passage de lcole au monde du travail ou dun emploi un autre). Nous avons tous diffrents atouts pour nous prparer ces changements.. Merci d'indiquer quels sont les vtres en utilisant lchelle suivante:

5 = J'ai une trs forte capacit de 4 = J'ai une forte capacit de3 = J'ai une certaine capacit de2 = J'ai une assez faible capacit de1 = Je n'ai pas du tout la capacit de

Factors ItemsConcern 1. Rflchir ce que sera mon avenir

2. Me rendre compte que mes choix d'aujourd'hui engagent mon avenir3. Me prparer mon avenir4. Devenir conscient des choix de formation et de profession que je dois faire 5. Planifier la faon d'atteindre mes objectifs6. Me sentir concern par mon parcours professionnel

Control 1. Rester optimiste2. Prendre moi-mme mes dcisions3. Prendre la responsabilit de mes actes4. Dfendre mes convictions5. Compter sur moi-mme6. Faire ce qui est bon pour moi

Curiosity 1. Explorer mon environnement2. Chercher les occasions de progresser en tant que personne3. Explorer les options avant de faire un choix4. Observer diffrentes manires de faire les choses5. Aller au fond des questions que je me pose6. Devenir curieux de nouvelles opportunits

Confidence 1. Me montrer performant dans ce que j'ai faire2. Prendre soin de bien faire les choses3. Acqurir de nouvelles comptences4. Dvelopper mes capacits5. Surmonter les obstacles6. Rsoudre des problmes

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Career adapt-abilities scale-France form: Psychometric properties and relationships to anxiety and motivation1. Introduction2. Methods2.1. Participants2.2. Measures2.3. Career adapt-abilities scale-France form2.4. Motivation Formation Questionnaire (QMF)2.5. Trait Anxiety Inventory2.6. Fear of Failing Scale2.7. Procedures

3. Results3.1. Confirmatory factor analysis3.2. Concurrent validity

4. DiscussionAppendix A. Career adapt-abilities scale-France formReferences