moderator effects of clients’ characteristics on the effectiveness of career counseling jonas...

MODERATOR EFFECTS OF CLIENTS’

CHARACTERISTICS ON THE EFFECTIVENESS

OF CAREER COUNSELING

Jonas Masdonati, Sophie Perdrix, Koorosh Massoudi, & Jérôme Rossier

Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne,Anthropole, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]




IAEVG 2009 Conference 2

Introduction

Effectiveness of career counseling

Career interventions are moderately effective, with varying effect sizes.

Variations of effect sizes are explained e.g. by the number of sessions, the

intervention ingredients, the treatment modality, and the type of outcome

measure.

More research is needed in order to verify:

- which variables moderate the efficacy of career counseling;

- which type of intervention modality is effective for which kind of clients.

Brown et al. (2003); Heppner & Heppner (2003); Whiston et al. (1998); Whiston & Rahardja (2008)


Introduction

The longitudinal study “Professional tracks”

Aims:

To assess the short- and long-term effectiveness of career counseling;

To consider specific and non-specific outcome indicators;

To investigate the influence of moderator variables, such as relational

factors and clients’ characteristics.

Masdonati et al. (in press); Massoudi et al. (2006; 2007; 2008)


Method

Sample

Intervention group: 252 clients, 129 women and 123 men; aged between 14

and 56 years (M = 21.7, SD = 7.4); 67% studying, 16% working, 17%

unemployed; 20% compulsory education (secondary I), 56% in post-

compulsory education (secondary II), 23% in higher education (tertiary

level).

Reference group: 84 students, 43 women and 41 men; aged between 14 and

20 years (M = 16.6, SD = 1.5).


Method

Measures

Career Decision-making Difficulties Questionnaire revised (CDDQr; Gati,

Osipow, Krausz & Saka, 2000): 34 items assessing Total Career Indecision,

Lack of Readiness, Lack of Information and Inconsistent Information.

Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diner et al., 1985; Blais et al., 1989):

Five items assessing general satisfaction with life.

Satisfaction With the Intervention (SWI; Massoudi et al., in press): 10 items

assessing the general and subjective satisfaction concerning the career

counseling intervention.


Method

Measures

Working Alliance Inventory (WAI; Horvath & Greenberg, 1989): 36 items

assessing global working alliance, agreement about the Goals, agreement

about the Tasks, and quality of the Bond.

NEO Five-Factor Inventory Revised (NEO-FFI-R; McCrae & Costa, 2004):

60 items assessing 5 dimensions: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness,

Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness.

Wonderlic Personal Test (WPT; Wonderlic Inc., 1983): 50 items, 12

minutes; Brief measure of general mental ability.


Method

Measures

Emotional Intelligence scale (EI; Schutte et al., 1998): 33 items inspired

from Salovey et Mayer’s model (1990).

Demographic data: age; sex; current or past school difficulties; current

additional difficulties; educational level.

Intervention

Individual counseling, lasting between 4 and 6 one-hour sessions, and

containing at least 4 of the ingredients identified by Brown et al. (2003).

Three stages: demand and goals; assessment and information; decision-

making and planning.


Method

Procedure

1st 3rd Last

WAI, NEO-FFI-R, EI and WPT

SWLS, CDDQ and SWI

Clients

1st week 5 week later

SWLSand CDDQ

Reference group

SWLSand CDDQ

SWLSand CDDQ


Method

effectiveness

Clients’ characteristics: NEO-FFI-R, WPT, EI,

Demographic data (age, sex, difficulties, educ. level)

(Relational factors: WAI)

moderator

PreCDDQ-rSWLS

direct

PostCDDQ-rSWLS

PostSWI


Results

Effectiveness of career counseling

Beginning End3

4

5ClientsControls

Car

eer

deci

sion

dif

ficu

ltie

s

Beginning End4

5

6 CounseleesControls

Sat

isfa

ctio

n w

ith

life

2 = .19

2 = .11

ClientsReference


Results

Moderator effects of personality

Personality

R2 N E O A CSWLS Ń Ń Ń Ń .02 *CDDQ Ń Ń Ń Ń .03 **

Lack of readiness .04 ** Ń Ń Ń .03 **Lack of information Ń Ń Ń Ń .04 **Inconsistent information Ń Ń Ń Ń .02 *

Satisfaction Ń Ń Ń Ń ŃNote. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001


Results


Beginning End2

3

4

5

LowMediumHigh

CD

DQ

Conscientiousness


Results


Beginning End4,0

4,2

4,4

4,6

4,8

5,0

LowMediumHigh

SW

LS

Conscientiousness

SW

LS


Results

Moderator effects of other clients’ characteristics

Clients' characteristic

ΔR square WPT EI Age Sex School Add. Educ

SWLS — .02 * — — — .05 ** —

CDDQ — — — — — — —

Lack of readiness — — — — — — —

Lack of information — — — — — — .04 *

Inconsistent information — — — — — — —Satisfaction a — .05 * — — .07 ** — —Note. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001a direct effect


Results

Moderator effects of other clients’ characteristics

Personal or family difficulties:

Beginning End3,8

4,0

4,2

4,4

4,6

4,8

5,0

5,2

YesNo

SW

LS

Additional difficulties

SW

LS


Discussion

Synthesis Career counseling is effective considering both specific (decision

difficulties; d ≈ .96) and non-specific (life-satisfaction; d ≈ .70) outcome indicators.

Conscientiousness has small to medium moderator effects on the evolution of non-specific (d ≈ .28) and specific (d ≈ .35) outcome indicators.

The existence of personal or family problems has medium moderator effects on non-specific outcome indicators (d ≈ .45).

Emotional intelligence and school problems directly influence (d ≈ .28; d ≈ .46) satisfaction with the intervention.

Age, sex, education and mental ability do not moderate the effectiveness of career counseling.


Discussion

effectiveness

Personality: C (N)Personal/family

difficulties (EI, educational level)

moderatordirect

PreCDDQ-rSWLS

School difficultiesEI

PostCDDQ-rSWLS

PostSWI

Age, sex, WPT, (educational level)


Discussion

Implications

Standard career counseling interventions seem to be effective with most types

of clients, both at career-specific and global levels.

Interventions should take into account:

- clients’ personality (particularly, their level of conscientiousness);

- their existing school, family or personal difficulties.

Specific activities should be conceived in order to:

- “compensate” clients’ lack of conscientiousness;

- discuss the interference of difficult life situations on career pathways.


Discussion

Perspectives

Longitudinal studies:

- How do intervention effects evolve after the counseling process?

- Do clients’ characteristics have differed moderator effects?

Process studies:

- Do relational variables moderate or mediate the impacts of career

counseling?

- What about other process variables (e.g. ingredients, intervention type)?


References

Brown, S. D., Ryan Krane, N. E., Brecheisen, J., Castelino, P., Budisin, I.,

Miller, M., et al. (2003). Critical ingredients of career choice interventions: More

analyses and new hypotheses. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 62, 411-428.

Heppner, M. J., & Heppner, P. P. (2003). Identifying process variables in career

counseling: A research agenda. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 62, 429-452.

Masdonati, J., Rossier, J., & Massoudi, K. (in press). Effectiveness of face-to-

face career counseling and the working alliance. Journal of Career Development.

Massoudi, K., Masdonati, J., Clot-Siegrist, E., Franz-Pousaz, S., & Rossier, J.

(2008). Evaluation des effets du counseling d’orientation: Influence de l’alliance

de travail et des caractéristiques individuelles. Pratiques Psychologiques, 14,

117-136.

…


References

Massoudi, K., Masdonati, J., & Rossier, J. (2006). De l’efficacité de la

consultation en OSP. Panorama, 6, 21-22.

Whiston, S. C., & Rahardja, D. (2008). Vocational counseling process and

outcome. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Handbook of Counseling

Psychology (4th ed., pp. 444-461). New York: Wiley.

Whiston, S. C., Sexton, T. L., & Lasoff, D. L. (1998). Career-intervention

outcome: A replication and extension of Oliver and Spokane (1988). Journal of

Counseling Psychology, 45, 150-165.

This research project is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation

Thank you to the team of the counseling center of the University of Lausanne: Eva Clot-Siegrist, Prof Jean-Pierre Dauwalder, Sylvie Franz, Vincent Risse.

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