(Re)career Scale: Pilot Study for the Validation of a Scale About Career Post-Career Transitions

Abstract

This article aims to validate the factorial structureof the (Re)CareerScale: Coping Styles, which evaluates how late adults think and feel about career changes, in particular the transition to a career post-career. A career post-career is a development phase that takes place after the formal retirement of a job/ continued work and requires the involvement in a set of developmental tasks related to one’s own, the environment, and the decision-making and planning (Pinto, in press). Thirty-sixitems were developed, considering the literature review of the main career development models. These items were administered to a total of 95 Portuguese late adults (31 (32.6%) men and 64 (67.4%) women; Mage=62.91; SDage=6.901), of which 47 are in an active professional situation and 48 already retired. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) indicated a three-dimensional career post-careermodel considering a set of developmental tasks related to Identity, Opportunity and Adaptation. The final version of 30 items has good psychometric properties, with Cronbach’ salphas ranging from .82 to .89. The descriptive study and the correlation between the three dimensions suggest that the scale has potential to be used in research and intervention programs to support the transition to a career post-career.