The effects of career interventions on the career uncertainty of adults

This study was driven by concerns regarding an unstable economic and employment period as more adults are seeking career counseling to determine future occupational choices and decisions. Of importance, to the researcher, was exploring life roles, burdens, and resources and their impact an individual's ability to make career decisions. Duane Brown's Values-Based Career Counseling Approach (Brown, 1995) and Howard McClusky's Margin in Life Theory (McClusky, 1963) were the theoretical frameworks guiding the study's interventions.;A quasi-experimental study was designed to focus on whether career indecision of adults could be reduced by participation in a series of values-based career webinars. Subjects were divided into three groups; one control and two treatments where the Career Decision Scale was administered as a pretest and posttest for the researcher to compare the mean uncertainty scores among the three groups. One treatment group received the values-based career webinar intervention and the second received an interest based career counseling intervention. The interventions consisted of three webinars spanning one hour each in length. Participants were also given the Margin in Life Scale simultaneously with the Career Decision Scale to understand current life burdens and resources.;The study targeted alumni from The Pennsylvania State University. Sixty-seven participants persisted throughout the entire study which was voluntary. Participant's age and gender were obtained since previous literature describes both as having significant roles in the ability to make career decisions. The webinars acted as the independent variable while indecision scores obtained through the Career Decision Scale and marginal values scores obtained through the Margin in Life Scale were the dependent variables. Testing was completed using an ANCOVA, Tukey Pairwise and Pearson correlation.;The main contributions that this study generated were: a) show statistical significance of career uncertainty decrease through use of the values-based career counseling intervention which is particularly useful to career counselors working with adults; b) recognize that an individual's age and gender can influence career decision making; c) understand the relationship between life burdens and resources and the ability to make a career decision. Insights were also gained in the areas of career education techniques as this study presented a unique way of facilitating career development through groups using online technology in the form of a webinar.