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Journal of Vocational Behavior 93 (2016) 120–128

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Variations of career decision ambiguity tolerance between China and the United States and between high school and college Hui Xu a,⁎, Zhi-Jin Hou b, Terence J.G. Tracey a, Xin Zhang b a b

Arizona State University, United States Beijing Normal University, United States

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 28 November 2015 Received in revised form 25 January 2016 Accepted 27 January 2016 Available online 29 January 2016 Keywords: Ambiguity tolerance Career decision Measurement invariance Cross-culture High school and college

a b s t r a c t The variation of career decision ambiguity tolerance (CDAT) by cultures and development stages was examined in a sample of Chinese high school students (n = 339), a sample of Chinese college students (n = 356), along with U.S. college students (n = 328). It was hypothesized that career decision ambiguity tolerance decreases when individuals experience more societal/cultural pressure on decidedness and responsibility for their career decision making. Based on the three-factor structure of CDAT (i.e., preference, tolerance, and aversion), measurement invariance was examined between Chinese and U.S. college students and between Chinese high school and college students. While the factor of tolerance was not upheld in both Chinese samples, the factors of preference and aversion were found to be structurally invariant across cultures and developmental stages. The analyses comparing means of preference and aversion found that U.S. college students had a higher level of preference relative to Chinese college students. It was also found that in comparison to Chinese high school students, Chinese college students had a higher level of aversion. The criterion validity of CDAT in Chinese culture was supported in the findings of preference and aversion being associated with career exploration and career indecision. The implication of this study was discussed along with its limitations and suggestions for future research. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

There has been an emerging proposition in the vocational psychology literature that the career decision-making process is full of ambiguity and the ability to handle this ambiguity is critical in terms of career decision outcomes (Xu & Tracey, 2014, 2015a; Xu & Tracey, 2015b). Xu and Tracey (2015b) have proposed and demonstrated that ambiguity tolerance specific to the career decision-making domain is an important construct with respect to career decision making. However, it remains unestablished as to the similarity and variation of this construct across cultures and across developmental stages. The focus of the current study was thus to examine measurement invariance of career decision ambiguity tolerance across China and the U.S. and across high school and college. 1. Ambiguity tolerance in career decision making Career decision making has been conceived, in part, as an information collecting and processing process, which can be widely seen in primary career theories (e.g., Holland, 1997; Sampson, Lenz, Reardon, & Peterson, 1999). Parsons (1909) long ago proposed a model of collecting information about the self and the vocational world and then using the information to identify a vocational and educational match. While this model continues to serve the field as a guiding model (e.g., Blustein, 1997; Flum & Blustein, 2000; Zikic & Hall, 2009), the significance of information proposed by this model has been revealed to be equivocal. ⁎ Corresponding author at: Counseling & Counseling Psychology, MC-0811, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-0811, United States. E-mail address: [email protected] (H. Xu).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.01.007 0001-8791/© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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For example, Xu, Hou, and Tracey (2014) investigated the relation of environmental and self exploration with career indecision and only found small associations. Therefore, researchers have proposed that how individuals evaluate and respond to informational ambiguity is a critical area in the career decision-making process as individuals hardly ever have clear and unequivocal information (Xu & Tracey, 2014, 2015a; Xu & Tracey, 2015b). Ambiguity tolerance (AT) has been defined as the way individuals evaluate and respond to ambiguous situations or information characterized by an array of unfamiliar, complex, or inconsistent clues (Budner, 1962; Furnham & Ribchester, 1995). According to Furnham and Ribchester (1995), people with low levels of ambiguity tolerance tend to experience stress, react prematurely, and avoid ambiguous information, while those with high ambiguity tolerance perceive ambiguous situations/information as desirable and interesting and do not deny or distort the complexity of incongruity. There has been evidence consistently supporting the salience of ambiguity tolerance in career decision making. Xu and Tracey (2014) found that ambiguity tolerance negatively predicted different areas of career indecision directly and indirectly through career exploration. In addition, ambiguity tolerance was found to moderate the link of career exploration with career indecision. Xu and Tracey (2015a) demonstrated that ambiguity tolerance was positively linked to career decision-making self-efficacy and negatively predictive of career indecision. These results therefore collectively portrayed ambiguity tolerance as an important factor related to not only an important process variable of career decision-making (i.e., career decision-making self-efficacy) but an important outcome variable of career decision-making (i.e., career indecision) as well. Based on the emerging support of general ambiguity tolerance being important with respect to career decision making, Xu and Tracey (2015b) proposed a construct of career decision ambiguity tolerance, which refers to ambiguity tolerance in the specific career decision-making domain. They also developed and validated a measure specific to this construct. The initial Career Decision Ambiguity Tolerance Scale (CDAT) was developed based on Budner's (1962) tripartite model of ambiguity tolerance (i.e., tolerance for novelty, complexity, or inconsistency) and an additional factor (i.e., tolerance for unpredictability) was derived from Germeijs and De Boeck's (2003) and Dequech's (2000) work. Xu and Tracey (2015b) conducted an exploratory and confirmatory analysis and found that college students in the U.S. primarily perceived career decision ambiguity tolerance based on a three-factor structure, consisting of preference, tolerance, and aversion. In Xu and Tracey's (2015b) model of CDAT, preference emphasizes positive appraisal of ambiguity in career decision making and the excitement for change and new things. Individuals with high preference tend to approach the career decision-making process and show interests. In contrast to preference, tolerance emphasizes confidence in coping with ambiguity and the ability to tolerate ambiguity. Individuals with high tolerance tend to appeared comfortable and relaxed when facing ambiguity, but they do not necessarily enjoy the ambiguous process. The third factor of aversion emphasizes negative avoidance to ambiguity in career decision making. Individuals with high aversion tend to find ambiguity in career decision-making anxiety provoking and daunting. The validity of this three-factor CDAT was supported by its incremental prediction on career indecision, career decision-making self-efficacy, and career adaptability over and beyond general ambiguity tolerance. 2. Cross-cultural measurement of career decision ambiguity tolerance While career decision ambiguity tolerance has been demonstrated to play a salient role in career decision making among U.S. students (Xu & Tracey, 2014, 2015a; Xu & Tracey, 2015b), it remains unclear as to the measurement and role of this construct in international backgrounds, particularly in a collectivistic context (Triandis, 1989). It is plausible that handling ambiguity in career decision making is a pan-cultural process as individuals hardly ever have complete and unequivocal information regardless of cultural backgrounds (Xu & Tracey, 2014, 2015a; Xu & Tracey, 2015b). However, the structure and levels of this construct could vary across cultures. It has been demonstrated that different cultures associate different meanings with work and the career decision-making process (Zhou, Leung, & Li, 2012), which potentially leads to different reactions to ambiguity in career decision making. Zhou et al. (2012) found that Chinese students endorse traditional Chinese values (e.g., career as a way to repay parents and sustain family well-being) in addition to Western values (e.g., individuals' self-actualization). They also found that Chinese students commonly believe that work is a process full of hardship and they need to utilize positive qualities to reach desirable outcomes. Such a strong goal-oriented approach to work as well as a strong family-oriented responsibility could elevate Chinese students' concerns and fears regarding potential career decision mistakes. Consequently, new and complex information in career decision making could appear less interesting and desirable (i.e., lower preference) for Chinese students in comparison to U.S. students. However, Hofstede (2001) found that China endorses a lower score (30) on the ambiguity avoidance dimension than the U.S. (46), indicating that Chinese individuals are more accepting to the unknown future relative to U.S. individuals (i.e., lower aversion). This finding was consistent with the influential Taoism teaching that people should be open to and tolerant of unpredictable future (Bai, 2005). In addition, different personalities of Chinese and U.S. students could result in different levels of career decision ambiguity tolerance as well. McCrae and Terracciano worked with colleagues to collect data on Big Five personality in 51 cultural contexts (McCrae & Terracciano, 2005). They found that Chinese college students had lower mean scores on neuroticism and extroversion than U.S. college students (McCrae & Terracciano, 2005). As neuroticism embraces anxiety, it is plausible that Chinese students could found ambiguity less anxiety provoking and intimidating than U.S. students (i.e., lower aversion). As extroversion entails seeking excitement, it is reasonable to expect that Chinese students could have a lower level of excitement for new information than U.S. students do (i.e., lower preference). In summary, we thus hypothesized that Chinese students have a lower level of preference and a lower level of aversion relative to U.S. students. As acceptance of unpredictability is emphasized in Chinese culture

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(Bai, 2005) and confidence in coping is emphasized in U.S. culture, it is plausible that students in both cultures could develop a similar level of tolerance. Therefore, we hypothesized the Chinese students and U.S. students have an equivalent level of tolerance. 3. Measurement of career decision ambiguity tolerance across developmental stages While career decision ambiguity tolerance has been demonstrated to play a salient role in career decision making (Xu & Tracey, 2014, 2015a; Xu & Tracey, 2015b), the development of this construct remains unexamined. We focused this study on two important development periods: the high school and college years. During high school, individuals begin to realize the importance of career/major decision making and begin to engage in initial career exploration (Super, 1980). During college, individuals continue to develop their cognitive capacity and collect information regarding the self and the vocational world. Meanwhile, they begin to experience more pressure from the cultural/societal/parental expectation for their decidedness (Super, 1980). Therefore, in Super's life-span theory high school and college represents an important transition from the stage of exploration to the stage of establishment (Super, 1957, 1980). Based on the three-factor structure of CDAT, we made three hypotheses regarding the development of CDAT from high school to college. High school students were anticipated to have a higher level of preference in comparison to college students. During the transition from high school to college, individuals experience an increasing pressure for an optimal career decision, which leads to an increasing anxiety associated with new and complex information. Given the same reason, college students were anticipated to have a higher level of aversion in comparison to high school students. Moreover, college students were anticipated to have a higher level of tolerance in comparison to high school students. During the transition from high school to college, individuals continue developing their cognitive maturity (Basseches, 1980; Hudspeth & Pribram, 1990), which leads to an increasing confidence and acceptance for ambiguity in career development. 4. Overview of the present study While ambiguity tolerance has been portrayed as a salient factor in career decision making among U.S. college students (Xu & Tracey, 2014, 2015a; Xu & Tracey, 2015b), it becomes imperative to investigate the variations of career decision ambiguity tolerance across cultures and developmental stages. The focus of the current study was thus to examine measurement invariance of career decision ambiguity tolerance between China and the U.S. and between high school and college students. If the measurement structure was found to be invariant then we could examine differences in scale means across country and age groups. We hypothesized that Chinese students would have a lower level of both preference and aversion relative to U.S. students, with no differences on tolerance. In addition, we hypothesized that high school students would have a higher level of preference, a lower level of tolerance, and a lower level of aversion in comparison to college students. In addition, we examined the criterion validity of the CDAT in China by assessing the covariance of the subscales with career exploration and career indecision. For both Chinese high school and college students, preference and tolerance were hypothesized to positively relate to career exploration and negatively relate to career indecision; while aversion was hypothesized to negatively relate to career exploration and positively relate to career indecision. Given the salience of career decision ambiguity tolerance, we also hypothesized that the correlations of the CDAT subscales (i.e., preference, tolerance, and aversion) with the criteria would exhibit equivalent magnitude across high school and college students. 5. Method 5.1. Sample The Chinese sample consisted of 695 high school and college students. High school students (n = 339) were recruited from three high schools that are located in the urban areas of mainland China. College students (n = 356) were recruited from five universities that are located in the urban areas of mainland China. The high school students in the current study ranged in age from 12 to 19 (M = 15.92, SD = 1.08). Of this sample, 45.1% were male (n = 153) and 54.6% were female (n = 185). The college students in the current study ranged in age from 17 to 30 (M = 20.91, SD = 1.68). Of this sample, 28.7% were male (n = 102) and 71.3% were female (n = 254). The U.S. sample was the one used in Xu and Tracey's (2015b) study. The sample consisted of 328 undergraduate students recruited from a southwest state university. They ranged in age from 18 to 44 (M = 19.07, SD = 2.00). Of the sample, 48.8% were male (n = 160), 50.6% were female (n = 166), and .6% were self-identified as transgender (n = 2). In terms of race/ethnicity, 7.6% (n = 25) were African American/Black, 10.4% (n = 34) were Asian/Asian American, 14.6% (n = 48) were Latino (a)/Hispanic, 57.9% (n = 190) were Caucasian/White, .6% (n = 2) were Native American, 7.9% (n = 26) were Multiracial, .9% (n = 3) were self-identified as others. They completed the CDAT voluntarily as an extra credit opportunity. 5.2. Measures 5.2.1. The career decision ambiguity tolerance scale (CDAT) The 18-item CDAT (Xu & Tracey, 2015b) was developed to measure people's evaluations of and responses to unfamiliar, complex, inconsistent, and unpredictable information in career decision making. It contains three subscales of preference (6 items),

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tolerance (6 items), and aversion (6 items). Preference measures individual tendency to feel interested and excited for ambiguity in career decision making (e.g., “I am interested in exploring the many aspects of my personality and interests”). Tolerance measures individual tendency to experience acceptance of ambiguity and feel competent in coping with ambiguity in career decision making (e.g., “I enjoy tackling complex career decision making tasks”). Aversion measures individual tendency to avoid and withdraw from ambiguity in career decision making (e.g., “I try to avoid complicated career decision making tasks”). Participants would be invited to rate each item on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). After reverse coding for reverse items, high scores indicated high levels of ambiguity tolerance in career decision making. Xu and Tracey (2015b) found consistent support for the three-factor structure of career decision ambiguity tolerance (i.e., preference, tolerance, and aversion). They (2015b) reported alpha coefficients of .83, .70, and .81 for the three subscales of preference, tolerance, and aversion respectively. They also found evidence supporting the incremental validity of CDAT, as can be seen in its additive predictions on career decision-making self-efficacy, career indecision, and career adaptability over and beyond general ambiguity tolerance (Xu & Tracey, 2015b). The Mandarin Chinese translation of the CDAT was completed by the original author of the scale, who is bilingual at Mandarin Chinese and English. The back translation was completed by a Chinese scholar who is proficient in English. All disagreements were discussed between authors until they researched consensus. The content coverage and the item meanings of this Chinese version were equivalent to the original CDAT. The current study found the alpha coefficients of .82, .66, and .75 in high school students and .86, .63, and .73 in college students for the three subscales of preference, tolerance, and aversion respectively.

5.2.2. Career exploration survey (CES) The six-item Environmental Exploration (EE) subscale and the five-item Self-Exploration (SE) subscale of CES (Stumpf, Colarelli, & Hartman, 1983) were designed to assess the degree to which the individual has engaged in that form of career exploration activities during the past 3 months. Each subscale was scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very little) to 5 (very much). EE involves exploration regarding occupation, jobs, and organizations, whereas SE includes self-understanding and retrospection. Research has revealed internal consistency alpha coefficients ranging from .60 to .88 for the CES subscales (Bartley & Robitschek, 2000; Nauta, 2007; Stumpf et al., 1983). A Mandarin Chinese translation of the CES (Xu, 2008) was administrated in the present study. It was translated from the original English CES by two master's students in China who are proficient at English using the standard back-translation procedure. Confirmative factor analysis results and the significant relations with career decision-making self-efficacy and trait/status anxiety in Chinese students (Xu, 2008) support its validity. Xu et al. (2014) revealed the alpha coefficients of .87 and .79 for the EE and SE subscales respectively and found the correlation between EE and SE to be .47 in a sample of Chinese students. The content coverage and psychometrics of this Chinese version were equivalent to the original CES (Stumpf et al., 1983). The current study found the alpha coefficients of .83, and .77 in high school students and .85 and .81 in college students for the EE and SE subscales respectively.

5.2.3. The emotional and personality career difficulties scale (EPCD) The EPCD was originally developed by Saka, Gati, and Kelly (2008) to measure emotional and personality-related career decision-making difficulties. It contains three overarching domains, consisting of pessimistic views, anxiety, and self-concept and identity. Underlying these three overarching domains are 11 subdomains. Participants were asked to respond to each item on a 9-point Likert-type scale from 1 (does not describe me at all) to 9 (describes me well). Higher ratings indicate higher levels of emotional and personality-related career decision-making difficulties. The validity of the original English version of the EPCD was supported in the findings of the EPCD being associated with subsequent decision status and personality measures (Saka & Gati, 2007; Saka et al., 2008). Hou, Li, Liu, and Gati (2015) translated the English version of the EPCD to a Chinese version using the standard back-translation procedure. They reported alpha coefficients of .78, .85, and .93 for the three overarching domains of pessimistic views, anxiety, and self-concept and identity respectively. They also found support for the validity of this measure in Chinese students. In this study, the EPCD-Chinese version was thus used. The current study found the alpha coefficients of .80, .94, and .88 in high school students and 80, .94, and .86 in college students for the three overarching domains of pessimistic views, anxiety, and self-concept and identity respectively.

5.3. Procedure High school and college students in Mainland China were informed of the purpose of the current study and were invited to anonymously participate in this study in class presentations. Students who consented to participate finished the package of instruments in paper and pencil form and a demographic information questionnaire in classrooms. Afterwards, small souvenirs were given to participants to express appreciation for their participation. High schools students were given all questionnaires. All college students were given the CDAT but only 113 were also given the other criterion validity instruments. While 900 surveys were distributed to potential participants, we received 695 (77.2%) valid responses. The missing rate ranged from .4% to 1.3%. We followed Schlomer, Bauman, and Card's (2010) suggestion and used the Full Information Maximum Likelihood estimation (FIML). This approach estimates model parameters based on all available information and has been shown to outperform mean substitution in estimations of coefficients and standard errors when the amount of missing data is small to moderate (Schlomer et al., 2010).

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5.4. Analysis To examine structural invariance, we followed the progressive testing strategy recommended by Vandenberg and Lance (2000) to examine measurement invariance between Chinese and U.S. college students and between Chinese high school and college students. We first examined configural invariance to see if the three-factor structure of CDAT is valid across groups. Supposing the structural patterns are consistent across groups, we would proceed to examine metric invariance in order to see more precisely if the factor-loadings are equivalent across groups. Supposing the factor loadings are consistent across groups, it would then become legitimate to examine scalar invariance by comparing means of the CDAT factors across groups. The latent variable Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) enabled us to examine measurement invariance through a nested model comparison approach (i.e., baseline free estimated models vs. invariance models). The fit of the models were evaluated using the criteria recommended by Hu and Bentler (1999): robust chi-square, CFI, RMSEA, and SRMR. We performed the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test (Lilliefors, 1967) to examine the univariate normality of each variable. Results indicated that all the variables violated the normal distribution, p b .05. With the purpose of making the statistical tests robust to non-normality, we adopted the robust maximum likelihood parameter estimation. Differences between nested models were examined with the Santorra–Bentler scaled chi-square difference test (Muthén & Muthén, 2012) and the ΔCFI (Cheung & Rensvold, 2002; Meade, Johnson, & Braddy, 2008). A non-significant result of the Santorra–Bentler scaled chi-square difference test indicated that an invariance model is a better representation of the data (Muthén & Muthén, 2012). However, the chi-square difference test has been revealed to be highly sensitive to the sample size and less sensitive to a lack of invariance than ΔCFI (Cheung & Rensvold, 2002; Meade et al., 2008). Simulation studies comparing multiple goodness-of-fit indices (e.g., chi-square, AIC, RMSEA, and CFI) have recommended using ΔCFI given its independence of model complexity and sample size and a ΔCFI less than .01 indicates similar fit (Cheung & Rensvold, 2002; Meade et al., 2008). Meade et al. (2008) suggested that if ΔCFI indicates invariance and the sample size is greater than 200, any differences between groups are probably trivial and further analyses can proceed, even if the chi-square difference test is significant. Following the examination of structural invariance, we focused on the CDAT scales that were invariant across Chinese high school and college students and examined the criterion validity with the other measures. First, we calculated the correlations between the subscales and the exploration and indecision subscales. Then we examined the invariance of these relations across groups using multi-group SEM but focusing only on the manifest variables, because the number of Chinese college students that completed the exploration and indecision measures was too low to warrant the use of latent variables. In this model, each CDAT subscale co-varied with each criterion. The parameters were then constrained to be equal across groups to see if the relation to these outside variables was equal.

6. Results 6.1. Configural invariance We first examined the configural invariance of CDAT structures between China and the U.S (see Table 1 for summarized results). As can been seen by the value of RMSEA (.071 and .084), SRMR (.08 and .09), and CFI (.77 and .77), the three-factor structure derived from U.S. data was not a good representation of the CDAT structure in Chinese high school and college students. It was found that the factor of tolerance in the original structure had poor loadings on the last three items in both Chinese samples. Given this, we focused only the other two factors (i.e., preference and aversion) and dropped all items related to the tolerance factor. We examined the structure of this two-factor model in all three samples. As can be seen by the values of RMSEA (.069 and .063), SRMR (.07 and .06), and CFI (.87 and .92), the two-factor structure fit the data well in both Chinese samples as well as fitting on the U.S. sample. Thus, the factors of preference and aversion were present in Chinese high school and college students as well as U.S. college students, which allowed for the following metric and scalar invariance examination.

Table 1 Summary of model fit indices. χ2

df

CFI

RMSEA

SRMR

Estimate

90% C. I.

Chinese college (n = 356) 3-factor original model 2-factor final model

462.89 127.32

132 53

0.77 0.92

0.084 0.063

[.076, .092] [.049, .077]

0.09 0.06

U.S. college (n = 328) 3-factor original model 2-factor final model

245.70 86.07

132 53

0.86 0.97

0.070 0.044

[.056, .083] [.026, .060]

0.08 0.05

Chinese high school (n = 339) 3-factor original model 2-factor final model

356.26 137.83

132 53

0.77 0.87

0.071 0.069

[.062, .080] [.055, .083]

0.08 0.07

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6.2. Metric invariance We examined the metric invariance of CDAT-preference and CDAT-aversion between Chinese and U.S. college students first. Table 2 summarized the results of model-data fit for all the models. As can been seen by the values of CFI (.92 and .97), RMSEA (.063 and .044), and SRMR (.06 and .05), the two-factor model of CDAT (i.e., preference and aversion) in Chinese and U.S. college students both fit the data adequately. We specified a baseline Model a1, where all factor loadings were freely estimated. As can be seen by the values of CFI (.90), RMSEA (.068), and SRMR (.07), Model a1 fit the data adequately. Based on Model a1, we specified Model a2, where all factor loadings across Chinese and U.S. college students were constrained to be equal. As can be seen by the values of CFI (.89), RMSEA (.069), and SRMR (.08), Model a2 fit the data adequately as well. The corrected chi-square difference test indicated that Model a2 was significantly worse in fit than Model a1, scaled Δχ2 (10, N = 706) = 30.75, p b .05. However, the ΔCFI was b.01, indicating that in practical terms, the two models were not substantially different. The chi-square test is highly related to sample size (Cheung & Rensvold, 2002; Meade et al., 2008) and it was not that large in the present result. Given this and the very small ΔCFI, we interpreted these two data sets as being similar; thus concluding that metric invariance of the CDAT was supported between Chinese and U.S. college students across the two factors of CDAT (i.e., preference and aversion). We examined the metric invariance of CDAT-preference and CDAT-aversion between Chinese college and high school students using a similar analysis strategy. As can been seen by the values of CFI (.87 and .92), RMSEA (.069 and .063), and SRMR (.07 and .06), the two-factor model of CDAT (i.e., preference and aversion) in Chinese high school and college students both fit the data adequately. We specified a baseline Model b1, where all factor loadings were freely estimated. As can be seen by the values of CFI (.89), RMSEA (.065), and SRMR (.07), Model b1 fit the data adequately. Based on Model b1, we specified Model b2, where all factor loadings across high school and college students were constrained to be equal. As can be seen by the values of CFI (.89), RMSEA (.063), and SRMR (.07), Model b2 fit the data adequately as well. The corrected chi-square difference test indicated that Model b2 did not significantly worsen the model-data fit compared to Model b1, scaled Δχ2 (10, N = 706) = 17.13, p N .05. The ΔCFI was b.01, also indicating a similar fit between the models. The metric invariance of CDAT-preference and CDAT-aversion between Chinese high school and college students were thus supported, indicating that the two factors of CDAT (i.e., preference and aversion) in China had comparable meanings across high school and college students. 6.3. Scalar invariance We then examined the scalar invariance of CDAT-preference between Chinese and U.S. college students in Model a2. While Chinese students were set as the reference (i.e., zero), it was found that CDAT-preference was significantly above zero (unstandardized estimate = .21, p b .05) and CDAT-aversion was not significantly different from zero (unstandardized estimate = − .03, p N .05). The results thus suggested that U.S. college students tend to feel more excited for new information in career decision-making relative to Chinese college students. We examined the scalar invariance of CDAT-preference and CDAT-aversion between Chinese high school and college student by setting the factor means in Chinese high school students as the reference (i.e. zero) in Model b2. It was found that CDAT-aversion was significantly above zero (unstandardized estimate = .15, p b .05) and CDAT-preference was not significantly different from zero (unstandardized estimate = −.10, p N .05). The results thus suggested that in comparison to high school students, college students tend to find ambiguity in career decision-making more intimidating and anxiety provoking. 6.4. Criterion validity An examination of criterion validity was conducted by correlating the exploration and indecision variables with the preference and tolerance subscales. Table 3 shows the means, standard deviations, and correlations of preference, aversion, environmental exploration, self-exploration, and domains of career indecision for both Chinese samples. The results of multi-group SEM are presented in Table 4. We first specified Model c1, where all hypothesized correlations between CDAT-preference and CDAT-aversion with the subscales of CES and EPCD were freely estimated. This model was a saturated model and thus had a perfect fit to the data. It was expected that high school and college students have equivalent association patterns of CDAT-preference and CDAT-aversion with CES and EPCD. We therefore specified Model c2, where correlations were freely estimated within high school and college students but constrained to be equal across high school and college students. Table 2 Summary of multi-group comparisons for structural invariance of CDAT-preference and CDAT-aversion. χ2

df

CFI

RMSEA

SRMR

Estimate

90% C. I.

Chinese college (n = 356) vs. U.S. College (n = 328) Model a1. All loadings freely estimated 301.70 Model a2. Factor loadings invariant 332.79

116 126

0.90 0.89

0.068 0.069

[.059, .078] [.060, .076]

0.07 0.08

Chinese high school (n = 339) vs. Chinese college (n = 367) Model b1. All loadings freely estimated 283.93 Model b2. Factor loadings invariant 300.37

116 126

0.89 0.89

0.065 0.063

[.055, .074] [.054, .072]

0.07 0.07

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Table 3 Means, standard deviations, and correlations of variables for Chinese college (above the main diagonal) and high school (below the main diagonal). High School (n = 339)

Preference Aversion EE SE PESS ANX IDEN

College (n = 113)

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

5.40 3.65 2.22 3.40 4.41 4.71 4.45

1.01 1.20 0.81 0.83 1.29 1.50 1.40

5.19 4.06 2.90 3.53 4.44 4.97 4.60

1.17 0.93 0.80 0.75 1.17 1.35 1.24

Preference

Aversion

EE

SE

PESS

ANX

IDEN

– −.14⁎ .08 .29⁎⁎ −.11⁎

.10 – −.15⁎⁎ −.14⁎ .38⁎⁎ .44⁎⁎ .43⁎⁎

−.04 .02 – .44⁎⁎

.25⁎⁎ .05 .52⁎⁎

−.23⁎ .28⁎⁎ .00 −.04 – .66⁎⁎ .55⁎⁎

−.01 .35⁎⁎

−.25⁎⁎ .36⁎⁎

.01 .11 .54⁎⁎

−.16 −.10 .52⁎⁎ .67⁎⁎

−.01 −.14⁎

−.17⁎⁎ −.19⁎⁎ −.21⁎⁎

– −.06 .01 −.04

– .67⁎⁎



Note. CDAT-P = CDAT-preference; CDAT-T = CDAT-tolerance; CDAT-A = CDAT-aversion; EE = Environmental exploration; SE = Self exploration; PESS = EPCDpessimistic views; ANX = EPCD-anxiety; IDEN = EPCD-self-concept and identity. ⁎ p b .05. ⁎⁎ p b .01.

As can be seen by the values of CFI (1.00), RMSEA (.000), and SRMR (.03), Model c2 fit the data well. The corrected chi-square difference test indicated that Model c2 fit the data as well as Model c1, scaled Δχ2 (10, N = 452) = 8.01, p N .05. The ΔCFI was b.01, also indicating a similar fit between these two models. We then continued to specify a more parsimonious model (Model c3) by dropping the non-significant paths in Model c2. As can be seen by the values of CFI (1.00), RMSEA (.000), and SRMR (.04), Model c3 fit the data well. The corrected chi-square difference test indicated that Model c3 fit the data as well as Model c2, scaled Δχ2 (14, N = 452) = 6.58, p N .05. The ΔCFI (b.001) also indicated a similar fit between Model c3 and Model c1. Therefore, this model was endorsed as the final model representing the current data (see Fig. 1 for all the standardized coefficients). It was found in both samples that preference was moderately associated with self-exploration (standardized coefficients = .24 and .29) and weakly associated with pessimistic views and self-concept and identity (standardized coefficients = −.12 to −.19). In contrast, aversion was moderately associated with pessimistic views, anxiety, and self-concept and identity (standardized coefficients = .30 to .42) but not associated with career exploration. 7. Discussion The current study examined the variance of career decision ambiguity tolerance (CDAT) cross-culturally (i.e., between Chinese and U.S. college students) and across developmental stages (i.e., between Chinese high school and college students). While CDAT was found to have equivalent structures between Chinese and U.S. college students and between Chinese high school and college students on the subscales of preference and aversion, the mean levels of preference and aversion showed differential patterns among the three samples. Results also supported the criterion validity of CDAT in China by the findings of preference and aversion being associated with career exploration and career indecision. The associations showed a similar pattern across high school and college students. While we anticipated a similar three-factor structure of CDAT in China, results indicated that the subscale of tolerance in CDAT had poor loadings on the last three items in both high school and college samples. It was suggested that these items do not work well in the Chinese culture measuring the tolerance subscale. We speculated through scrutinizing the items that the first and last three items in tolerance might represent two different aspects of tolerance. It appeared that the first three items emphasize openness to and acceptance of unpredictable future, while the last three items emphasize confidence in handing complexity and inconsistency. The differentiation of these two aspects was different from the results in the U.S. college sample, where openness and confidence loaded on the same dimension (Xu & Tracey, 2015b). Given the fact that Chinese culture emphasizes modesty and openness to unpredictability rather than confidence (Bai, 2005), it is plausible that the differential structural patterns of tolerance across China and the U.S. resulted from different cultural values. Therefore, future research reexamining the differentiation of these two aspects could provide more cultural insight into how the construct of CDAT plays out in Chinese culture. The current study found that the other two subscales of preference and aversion were good representation of the data in both Chinese high school and college students. These two subscales of CDAT were used then for multi-group comparisons. When Table 4 Summary of multi-group comparisons for criterion validity of CDAT-Preference and CDAT-Aversion. Model

χ2

Chinese high school (n = 339) vs. Chinese college (n = 113) Model c1. All correlations freely estimated 0.00 Model c2. Correlations equivalent 8.01 Model c3. Model c2 + parsimony 14.69

df

0 10 14

CFI

1.00 1.00 1.00

RMSEA

SRMR

Estimate

90% C. I.

0.000 0.000 0.015

[.000, .000] [.000, .061] [.000, .067]

0.00 0.03 0.04

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Fig. 1. Standardized parameter estimates (high school students listed first) for the final model (c3). Abbr.: CDATP = CDAT-preference; CDATA = CDAT-aversion; EE = Environmental exploration; SE = self exploration; PESS = EPCD-pessimistic views; ANX = EPCD-anxiety; IDEN = EPCD-self-concept and identity. *p b .05.

comparing Chinese and U.S. college students, the present study found that U.S. college students tend to feel more excited for new information in career decision-making relative to Chinese college students. This result was consistent with our hypothesis, which derives from the cross-cultural research on Big Five personality (McCrae & Terracciano, 2005). While we anticipated that Chinese college students would have a lower level of aversion compared to U.S. college students, the results did not support our hypothesis and found an equivalent level of aversion. It was thus indicated that Chinese and U.S. college students similarly find ambiguity intimidating and anxiety-provoking in the career decision-making process. It was found that in comparison to Chinese high school students, Chinese college students had a higher level of aversion. This result supported our hypothesis, suggesting that college students tend to find ambiguity in career decision-making more intimidating and anxiety provoking. One plausible reason is that students have to face increasing cultural/social/parental pressure regarding a good career decision-making when they age and the consequence of a wrong choice appears unbearable. This could be particularly the case for Chinese individuals as responsibility/conscientiousness is emphasized by Chinese culture in terms of career decision-making (Bai, 2005; Zhou et al., 2012). The current results did not find the hypothesized differentiation on preference between high school and college students. Instead, the result suggested that students' excitement for novel information do not differ across the years of high school and college. In summary, the current invariance examination of CDAT showed a pattern that preference only exhibited cross-cultural variation (i.e., China b the U.S.) and aversion only exhibited variation across developmental stages (i.e., high school b college). While career decision ambiguity tolerance has been supported as a salient construct in career decision making among U.S. college students (Xu & Tracey, 2015b), the current study further supported the validity of CDAT in the career decision-making process of Chinese students. It was evidenced that the two subscales of CDAT (i.e., preference and aversion) were associated with an important process variable of career decision making (i.e., career exploration) as well as an important outcome variable of career decision making (i.e., career indecision). More specifically, it was revealed by the magnitude of associations that preference was mainly related to self-exploration and aversion was mainly related with career indecision. This result thus portrayed preference and aversion as two relatively independent and divergent subscales of CDAT, which is consistent with the previous findings (Xu & Tracey, 2015b). In addition, the pattern of aversion being more closely associated with career indecision than preference was similar to the one found in the U.S. college students (Xu & Tracey, 2015b). There are several limitations regarding the conclusions drawn from this study. First, the current data are only cross sectional and the results might not generalize to the temporal change of CDAT. So a longitudinal study is needed in order to more rigorously examine the development of CDAT. Second, the current study only adopted two of the original three factors of CDAT in analyses based on the model-data fit. This choice could be sample dependent and future cross-validation is thus needed. Last, it is inconclusive as to why preference appeared more sensitive to cultures and aversion appeared more sensitive to developmental

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stages. Future study investigating adherence to cultures and attitudes towards career decision-making might provide more insights into the mechanism of the differential associations. On a whole, the current study is a valuable extension of the previous research on career decision ambiguity tolerance (Xu & Tracey, 2014, 2015a; Xu & Tracey, 2015b) and examined the important variance of CDAT by cultures and development stages. It was suggested that U.S. college students tend to feel more excited for new information in career decision-making relative to Chinese college students. It was also suggested that in comparison to Chinese high school students, Chinese college students tend to find ambiguity in career decision-making more intimidating and anxiety provoking. While the current study found that CDAT-tolerance did not hold in Chinese students, the results portray CDAT-preference to be culturally dependent and CDATaversion to be developmentally dependent. 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