The study compared the contributions of self- and social-oriented personality factors to Chinese adolescents’ career exploration with a longitudinal perspective. The mediation effects of career decision self-efficacy and perceived parental support were also investigated. A total of 488 high school students in Hong Kong took three waves of a questionnaire survey at Grade 10, Grade 11 and Grade 12 respectively. The results indicated that adolescents’ career exploration at Grade 12 could be predicted by both self- and social-oriented personalities at Grade 10. Specifically, both self- and social-oriented personality factors could contribute to adolescents’ environmental exploration, and the effect was mediated by perceived parental support at Grade 11, after controlling for the effect of career exploration at Grade 11; whereas self-oriented personality factor could contribute to self-exploration, and the effect was mediated by career self-efficacy at Grade 11. The implications for career counseling and education for Chinese adolescents are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a brief interest inventory intervention on career decision self-efficacy in an undergraduate sample. A pretest-posttest equivalent group design compared students who completed an interest inventory and participated in two sessions of its interpretation, students who only completed an interest inventory, and students who received no career intervention. Participants completed the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale — Short Form before and at the end of the intervention. The results indicated that both experimental groups had significant gains on career decision self-efficacy, whereas no significant gains were observed for the control group. Although both treatment conditions were effective, the feedback group appeared to be more powerful in increasing career decision self-efficacy. By participating in a feedback group and completing the activities in their interest profiles, a client had the opportunity to be actively involved in his/her own career process instead of passively completing an inventory and receiving no feedback. As well, clients had the opportunity to check the interpretations of their profile and share their results with other clients having similar career difficulties.