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Preparing for an adult career through careful planning, choosing a career, and gaining confidence to achieve career goals is a primary task during adolescence and early adulthood. The current study bridged identity process literature and career construction theory (Savickas, 2005) by examining the commitment component of career adaptability, career preparation (i.e., career planning, career decision-making, and career confidence), from an identity process perspective . Research has suggested that career preparation dimensions are interrelated during adolescence and early adulthood; however, what remains to be known is how each dimension changes over time and the interrelationships among the dimensions during the transition from high school. Drawing parallels between career preparation and identity development dimensions, the current study addressed these questions by examining the patterns of change in each career preparation dimension and parallel process models that tested associations among the slopes and intercepts of the career preparation dimensions. Results showed that the career preparation dimensions were not developing similarly over time, although each dimension was associated cross-sectionally and longitudinally with the other dimensions. Results also suggested that career planning and decision-making precede career confidence. The results of the current study supported career construction theory and showed similarities between the processes of career preparation and identity development.

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Preparing for an adult career and incorporating a career into one's identity is a key task during the transition to adulthood (Erikson, 1968), and completing developmental tasks is considered a major factor in adjustment (Havinghurst, 1972). Previous research has established associations between overall career preparation in high school and adjustment soon after high school graduation. Differences in the developmental patterns of career preparation dimensions (indecision, planning, and confidence) following high school graduation also have been found. The current study builds on that prior work by examining associations between changes in the dimensions of career preparation and changes in 3 aspects of adjustment (emotional stability, social adaptation, and self-actualization) from 12th grade in high school to 4.5 years after high school graduation in a sample of 454 youths, using latent growth curve analysis. Results showed that career preparation both predicts and is predicted by adjustment. Career confidence was a particularly important predictor of adjustment. Both 12th grade career confidence and changes in confidence over time predicted changes in adjustment and adjustment 4.5 years post-high school. In an alternative model, an increase in emotional stability was predictive of higher career confidence and lower indecision. Results are discussed in the context of developmental theories and the notion that adjustment and career are interrelated processes.

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