This study examined the relationship between social support (Social Provisions Scale) and stress (Perceived Stress Scale) in a sample of male firefighters in a midwestern community (N ϭ 53). The authors assessed 5 types of perceived support from 2 sources: peer firefighters and supervisors. Results indicate that reassurance of worth and social integration support from supervisors had the strongest negative association with stress. The study critically examined the "unidirectional linear" assumption that a unit increase in support corresponds to a unit increase in adjustment throughout the full range of support scores. Reassurance of worth support from peers exhibited a curvilinear pattern of threshold effects. For individuals with the lowest levels of support, there was a strong negative association between perceived support and stress, but for firefighters above the median, the association was not significant.
The Strengths Self-Efficacy scale (SSES) was developed to allow career counselors, educators, and researchers to assess individuals' perceived abilities to build their personal strengths and apply them in their daily life. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted with 275 adults and resulted in one factor: general strengths self-efficacy. The internal consistency was .96 and SSES was weakly related to social desirability. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed using another sample of 302 adults, and results verified the one-factor structure. The results suggested that the 11-item SSES demonstrated strong internal consistency (a ¼ .95) and that SSES scores were moderately related to self-esteem and life satisfaction and weakly related to social desirability. Finally, a test-retest reliability analysis on a sample of 36 adults indicated that SSES scores were stable over a 3-week period. Implications for career counseling and mental health practices as well as research applications of this new measure were discussed.Strength is the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a specific task (Hodges & Clifton, 2004) and to behave in a manner that allows optimal functioning during the pursuit of tasks and outcomes that are valued (Linley & Harrington, 2006). Strengths assessment is consistent with counseling psychology's philosophy that focusing on an individual's strengths can lead to an improvement in vocational and psychological health and well-being. Subsequently, a strengthsbased approach, or the emphasis on identifying and utilizing strengths within each individual to maximize one's capabilities and performances, has increasingly gained attention by various professionals. To assist professionals in effectively providing strengths-based services, measures such as
The purpose of this study was to perform a comprehensive analysis of 830 articles published in the Journal of Career Development (JCD) between 1972 and 2007 and provide a chronicle of the publication trends since the journal's establishment. The analysis focused on six main areas (e.g., authors and institutions, type of article, major constructs/variables, career theories, type of methodologies, and sample characteristics). The results revealed that JCD published articles with a wide range of topics consistent with its mission statement. Recommendations for future publication agenda are presented.
As one of the four premier journals in vocational psychology, the Journal of Career Development (JCD) has published over 830 articles over the past three decades. This study examined the performance of JCD through a citation analysis and provided
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