Applications of the coping with career indecision instrument with adolescents

This article discusses the potential use of the Coping with Career Indecision (CCI; Larson, Heppner, Ham, & Dugan, 1988) instrument which identifies subtypes of undecided students. The CCI was later refined by Larson, Toulouse, Ngumba, Fitzpatrick, and Heppner (1994) across four studies, extending the use of the CCI to gifted adolescents seeking help in career exploration. Data from 125 adolescents were examined with respect to their CCI scores on five additional career planning measures: the Problem Solving Inventory (PSI; Heppner, 1988), the Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy-Short Form (CDMSE-SF; Betz, Taylor, & Klein, 1994), the Academic College Major Decidedness item from the Career Decision Scale (CDS; Osipow, 1987), the Career Barriers Inventory-Short Form (CBI-SF; Swanson & Tokar, 1991), and the Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Expanded Form (PANAS-X; Watson & Clark, 1994). Factor analysis of the scores revealed two underlying dimensions, personal agency and affective distress. Then, factor scores on both of these dimensions were generated for each participant and entered into a cluster analysis. The cluster procedure identified four groups based on their relationship to these underlying dimensions: (a) Low Agency/High Distress, (b) High Agency/High Distress, (c) High Agency/Low Distress, and (d) Low Agency/Low Distress. Applications for career counselors working with adolescents and the specific utility of the CCI are presented.