Development and Validation of a Chinese Five-Factor Short Form of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale

Abstract

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) is a widely used measure to assess career adaptability. The initial design covered four areas — concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. Recent research validated a 12-item version of the scale (CAAS-SF) and a five-factor version that includes the additional factor of cooperation (CAAS-5). The study reported here developed and validated a brief 15-item Chinese version of Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS-5-SF) to include five factors. Based on data obtained in Macao from a sample of 326 university graduates who had gained employment, it was found that the scale has good factor structure and internal consistency. Significant correlations between CAAS-5-SF and career success, as well as between cooperation subscale and social capital, provided evidence for convergent validity of the instrument and the cooperation subscale respectively. It was also found that CAAS-5-SF and CAAS-5 were strongly associated in their subscales and overall scale. Results suggested that CAAS-5-SF is a suitable alternative to CAAS-5 for research and practice purposes with Chinese speakers. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Malay Translation and Validation of Career Adapt-Abilities Scale for Higher Learning Institution Students in Malaysia

“…One study also noted that males reported higher levels of curiosity and confidence (Yu et al, 2019). However, this finding is opposed with a previous study which showed that females were higher in the level of Concern and Confidence dimensions (Duarte et al, Hou et al, 2012;Sou et al, 2020) thus further explorations of this issue is deemed warranted.…”

“…With regards to difference in gender, research recounted varieties of mix and match findings. In this study, it was revealed that male students have higher levels of Control dimension than their counterparts (Hou et al, 2012;Sou et al, 2020;Leung et al, 2021) which shows that males are able to make own decision, take responsibility for own actions and depend on oneself. These characteristics show sense of maturity in male students, contradicting with previous studies (Abdinoor, 2020;Zahra & Malik, 2018).…”

Career adaptability as a mediator between social capital and career engagement

“…Career adaptability was measured using Career Adapt‐Abilities Scale–Short Form (CAAS‐SF), which had previously been validated with a sample of college graduates in Macao (Sou et al., 2021). The scale contains four dimensions of concern, control, curiosity, and confidence, each with three items.…”

“…In addition, social capital is an important resource for individuals during their job loss and job search process (Fugate et al., 2004). Among university graduates who are transitioning from school to work, those with more social capital achieve better subjective career success (Sou et al., 2021).…”

“…The current study aims (i) to obtain additional information on the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of CAAS‐SF (Sou et al., 2021) using a new sample of university students (see Hypothesis 1 below); and (ii) to investigate relationships among social capital, career adaptability, and career engagement among these university students (see Hypotheses 2 to 5 below).…”