Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T12:56:08.915Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

So Worried I Don't Know What To Be: Anxiety is Associated With Increased Career Indecision and Reduced Career Certainty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

C. Giuseppina Campagna
Affiliation:
University of Western Sydney, Australia.
Guy J. Curtis*
Affiliation:
University of Western Sydney, Australia. g.curtis@uws.edu.au
*
*Address for Correspondence: Dr Guy Curtis, School of Psychology, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 1797, Australia.
Get access

Abstract

There is a relationship between career indecision and anxiety, however the relative contributions of state and trait anxiety are unclear in the literature. 110 first-year university students completed the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Career Decision Scale (CDS) to measure anxiety and career indecision. Regression analyses revealed that state and trait anxiety made independent contributions to career indecision and that state anxiety is a much stronger predictor of career certainty than is trait anxiety. Although anxiety significantly predicted career decidedness, participants did not indicate that anxiety impacted on their career decidedness in response to open-ended questions. As such, counselling clients may not be consciously aware that anxiety impacts on their career decidedness. It is recommended that counsellors create a relaxed environment to ease clients' career decision making.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)