Effects of life design counselling on secondary students with career indecision in a resource-constrained community

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effects of life design counselling on secondary students with career indecision in a resource-constrained community. Non-probability, purposive sampling was utilized to select 91 secondary students from two schools (intervention group: N = 17, mean age: 18.00; SD = 1.06; comparison group: N = 74; mean age: 17.41; SD = 1.47). A mixed-methods intervention within a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design was employed. Data was generated using the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale and the Career Decision Difficulties Questionnaire. The Mann-Whitney U test and related-samples Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test were used to examine the outcomes. The participants did not exhibit a decrease in career indecision after the intervention but there was an increase in their curiosity. The intervention should be repeated in longitudinal research with larger samples of diverse participants and different designs and assessment measures.

KEYWORDS:

• Career indecision
• life design counselling
• career adaptability
• assessment
• resource-constrained community

Acknowledgments

1. We thank the students for participating in the research.

2. We also thank the language editor for their editing of the text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the University of Pretoria Doctoral Research Bursary.

Notes on contributors

Che Jude

Che Jude is a lecturer and clinical supervisor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Che holds a doctoral degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Pretoria. He is passionate about helping young people in disadvantaged contexts struggling with subject and career choice-making and transitioning from school to work. With several years of experience working with middle and secondary students, Che is interested in enhancing adolescents’ self- and career construction and career adaptability through life design counselling.

Jacobus G. Maree

Jacobus G. Maree is an educational psychologist and a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Pretoria. He holds doctoral degrees in Education (Career Counselling), Mathematics Education, and Psychology, and he lectures counselling for career construction to educational and counselling master’s psychology students. Since 2014, he has authored or co-authored 35+ peer­reviewed articles and 20+ books/book chapters and successfully supervised eight doctoral theses and seven master’s dissertations. A regular keynote speaker at national and international conferences, he has received multiple awards for his work. He has a B1 rating from the National Research Foundation.

Joyce Jordaan

Joyce Jordaan, who previously held the position of Statistician in the Department of Statistics at the University of Pretoria (UP), retired from her role at UP at the end of 2021.