Search

The study deals with the psychological and environmental predictors and correlates of career orientation in middle adulthood. The sample consisted of 74 participants (32 men and 42 woman aged from 41 to 44 years) who participate in the longitudinal study running from 1961. Atmosphere in the family of origin, intelligence and school success at 12 years predict only educational level in adulthood, but not career orientation indexed by stability of career line and long-term unemployment. Concurrently, educational level in adulthood is slightly related to career orientation. The stability of career line, is influenced also by personality characteristics measured in middle adolescence, especially by extraversion. Highly extraverted adolescents had variable (but not unstable) career line in their middle adulthood. In the adulthood, career orientation was associated with risk behavior and with sense of coherence: risk behavior was connected to long-term unemployment and sense of coherence to stability of career line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]