Child and Adolescent Career Construction: An Expressive Arts Group Intervention

Child and adolescent career construction: Lived experiences of an expressive arts group

“…This phenomenological study explored preadolescent girls’ lived experiences of participating in a CACCI (Lindo & Ceballos, 2020, 2021). Because the CACCI protocol uses prompts to explore participants’ perspective, self‐concept, interests, and decision‐making, we also examined preadolescents girls’ narratives regarding these constructs, including expressive arts illustrations of their lived experiences.…”

“…These are foundational skills as students attempt to "understand the connection between school and the world of work," and "plan for and make a successful transition from school to postsecondary education and/or the world of work and from job to job across the life span" (ASCA, 2019, p. 4). Meanwhile, the CACCI includes a socioemotional emphasis where participants are encouraged to explore self-concept and life themes (Lindo & Ceballos, 2020), corresponding to the social/emotional development domain in school counselors' practice. By adopting this present-focused approach, school counselors can help preadolescents develop self-awareness in the "here and now," which also lays the foundation for future self-exploration as they move through adolescent development (Lindo & Ceballos, 2020).…”

“…The CCI has been used and modified for various populations, except for preadolescents. Hartung (2015) promoted the adaptation of the CCI for use in childhood, and given the CCI's structured format and explorative nature, Lindo and Ceballos (2020, 2021) adapted it for use with preadolescents.…”

“…This summary sheet illustrates (a) perspective (what matters to me), (b) self‐concept (I want to be like…), (c) interests (I like places such as…I like doing … ), and (d) decision‐making (my favorite book or movie is about…). See Table 1 for a summary of the CACCI protocol and Lindo and Ceballos (2020, 2021) for further rationale and details.…”

“…Because of the dearth of child and adolescent career development research (Hartung et al., 2005; Sharf, 2013), the unique career development needs of preadolescent girls (Hartung et al., 2005), and the potential benefits of a gender homogenous group intervention (Schechtman, 2017), we chose to pilot the CACCI with preadolescent girls. Consistent with a phenomenological framework, in the current study, we sought to explore preadolescent girls’ lived experiences of participating in a CACCI (Lindo & Ceballos, 2020, 2021). As such, our research centers around the ‘‘ what ’’ and ‘‘ how ’’ of preadolescent girls’ experiences during the expressive arts group intervention.…”