Dysfunctional beliefs are among the most prevalent, severe difficulties many individuals face in the process of making career decisions. The goal of the present study was to develop and test a new multidimensional measure of Dysfunctional Career Decision-Making Beliefs ( DCB). The DCB questionnaire elicits individuals’ beliefs in five aspects of career decision-making: the role of chance or fate, the criticality of the decision, the role of significant others, the role of professional help, and perceived gender barriers. Study 1 used exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis to test the psychometric properties and the five-factor structure of the DCB with a sample of 937 young adults deliberating about their future career. Study 2 used confirmatory factor analysis to validate the structure of the DCB with another sample of 1,251 young adults and analyzed the associations between individuals’ DCB Scale scores and career decision status to test its concurrent validity. The results supported the proposed multidimensional model of dysfunctional beliefs. Implications for future research and career counseling are discussed.

Dysfunctional career decision-making beliefs can impede individuals’ ability to make career decisions. The present research focused on evaluating the effectiveness of a group intervention aimed at facilitating the transition to civilian life of 1,194 young adults before discharge from military service using multivariate multilevel analysis. The results showed gender differences in the strength of dysfunctional career decision-making beliefs, as well as in the workshop’s effectiveness in reducing them. Before the workshop men reported stronger dysfunctional beliefs than women that involved chance or fate (β = .22) and perceived gender constraints (β = .47). The workshop had a greater effect on women than on men (β = 0.16) in reducing all five types of belief, especially those involving the criticality of the decision (β = 0.20) and perceived gender constraints (β = 0.22). The effectiveness of the workshop in reducing gender-related dysfunctional beliefs varied—it was greater for participants whose gender differed from that of their group facilitator. Implications for theory, future research, and counseling are discussed.

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