How Do Efforts to Enhance Career Preparation Affect Peer Groups?

The present study investigated how efforts to enhance career preparation affect peer groups. The participants were 710 9th graders who were randomized into control and intervention groups and assessed 3 times during 1 academic year: at baseline (T1, Fall), immediately after the career preparation intervention (T2, 3 months after baseline), and 5 months after the intervention (T3, Spring). The results showed, first, that maintenance of a stable clique was more likely when most clique members participated in the intervention. Second, it was found that the members of adolescents' cliques resembled each other in respect of the strength of the intervention effect. Finally, the results showed tha…

Adolescents' future education-related personal goals, concerns, and internal motivation during the “Towards Working Life” group intervention

For adolescents, the transition from comprehensive school to post-comprehensive education is one of the most important in this life phase. Future education-related personal goals, concerns, and related internal motivation are assumed to play key roles in a successful transition. The “Towards Working Life” group method was developed, among other objectives, to enhance internal motivation towards education-related goals, and to increase the number of personal goals and concerns related to future education. A total of 1034 ninth graders from comprehensive school were randomized into 25 intervention groups and control groups. A week-long group intervention, which took place at school, showed th…

Goal Importance and Related Achievement Beliefs and Emotions during the Transition from Vocational School to Work: Antecedents and Consequences

Abstract This study investigated the extent to which the appraisal of work-related goals in terms of their importance, level of achievement, and positive emotions would predict young adults' subsequent success in finding a job after graduation from vocational school and the extent to which their success in dealing with this transition would predict how they reappraise their goals later on. Two hundred fifty young adults who were facing a transition from vocational school to work were studied at three points: while they were still at school, 8 months after their graduation, and 1 1 2 years after graduation. They completed the revised Personal Project Analysis inventory, focusing on work-rela…

Preparing for working life : effects of group counseling on adolescents' career development and mental health

Effects of the School-to-Work Group Method among young people

Abstract This study examines effects of the School-to-Work Group Method among 17–25-year-old young people facing the transition from vocational college to work. After baseline measurement ( N  = 416) participants were randomized into experimental and control groups. The results of ten month follow-up ( N  = 334) showed notable beneficial impacts of the group method on both employment itself and on how well it matched participants’ education and personal career plans. The group method also had a significant preventive effect on psychological distress and depression symptoms among those initially at risk of suffering from mental disorder. Moreover, it considerably increased participants’ pers…