Understanding Career Aspirations Among Young Women

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to improve an instrument used to assess career aspirations (the Career Aspiration Scale), so the revised measure can be used with confidence in research and practice. Items were added to the existing two scales (educational and leadership aspirations) to enhance reliability. In addition, items assessing a third construct of importance to the operationalization of career aspiration (i.e., achievement aspiration) were developed for inclusion in the revised measure. Three studies to assess the psychometric properties of the Career Aspiration Scale–Revised (CAS-R) were conducted with a total of 583 undergraduate and graduate women. The results of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the three-factor solution assessing achievement, leadership, and educational aspirations had good model fit. Support also was found for the reliability and validity of the CAS-R when used with undergraduate and graduate women. Suggestions for future research and practice using this measure are provided.

Differential item functioning of the career aspiration scale within Arab context

“…The results of current study indicate a preliminary support of the psychometric proprieties of 9-items with reliability Gray and O'Brien (2007) provided support for valid and reliable eight-items with value ranging from 0.72 to 0.75 on a sample comprised of only women. The results of factor analysis in the current study supported one factor solution suggesting that the scale did not capture the multi-dimensions of CAS that was proposed by Gray and O'Brien (2007) and Gregor and O'Brien (2016). The developers of the short version of CAS reported two-factor solutions accounted for 72, 62, 52 and 49% of the variance in various studies.…”

“…The developers of the short version of CAS reported two-factor solutions accounted for 72, 62, 52 and 49% of the variance in various studies. However, limitations were documented by previous researchers (Gray and O'Brien, 2007;Gregor and O'Brien, 2016), suggesting that two scales were not strongly interrelated and they may reflect nonrelated aspects of career aspiration. It can be explained that some workers may desire to lead and train other employees but not want to pursue continued education; others may want to focus on expanding knowledge within a field of study, but not aspire to leadership or management positions.…”

“…Nonetheless, the results of various studies illustrated that the validity and reliability of CAS among young women was less strong and low aspiration may reflect lack of self-efficacy or limiting gender role. The measure also did not capture women's aspiration to achieve recognition in their careers (Gray and O'Brein, 2007;Gregor and O'Brien, 2016). Interestingly, using long form of CAS with women in a collective culture such as Korean exhibited moderate aspirations suggesting many cultural barriers for women's career accomplishments (Kim et al, 2016).…”

“…Therefore, examining the psychometric properties of the CAS will help to capture women's aspiration to achieve recognition in their careers (Gregor and O'Brien, 2016) and to provide information for educators planning intervention efforts to increase student aspirations (Plucker, 1996;Rowan-Kenyon et al, 2011). Further testing of the CAS subscales and its applicability in collectivist cultures needs to be assessed more widely (Gray and O'Brien, 2007;Sawitri et al, 2015).…”

Instigating a Revolution of Additive Innovation: An Educational Ecosystem of Making and Risk Taking

“…! The team is following a rigorous instrument development process, in line with the processes taken by other recently published instrument development efforts 16,17 . Below is a description of the phases associated with this work.…”