As it becomes more common for individuals to work in many different jobs throughout their lives, career adaptability becomes more important to understanding how individuals deal with this changing environment. This study examined the history and background of career adaptability and personality, as well as current research in the field. A total of 196 students from a large Midwestern university completed the Career Futures Inventory – Revised and a Big Five measure from the International Personality Item Pool to examine potential relationships between individual personality traits and career adaptability. Pearson correlations, linear and hierarchical regression analyses, and analysis of variance were used to analyze possible relationships. The results of the study indicated that 39.7% of career adaptability was accounted for by the Big Five personality traits. All five personality traits and career adaptability were moderately correlated and neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion predicted participants’ overall career adaptability. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that career adaptability and career agency both predicted major satisfaction above and beyond personality. Key words: career adaptability, Big Five personality, major satisfaction

Using self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985b) as the theoretical framework, this study examined the following three hypotheses: 1) there is a positive relationship between the level of perceived parental need support and the level of major satisfaction; 2) there is a positive relationship between the level of perceived parental need support and the level of autonomous self-regulation in their agricultural major; and 3) the level of autonomous self-regulation partially mediates the relationship between the levels of perceived parental need support and major satisfaction. Participants included 536 college students with declared agricultural majors in a college of agriculture at a large Midwestern university. Measures included the Perceptions of Parents Scale (POPS; Robbins, 1994), the Self-regulation Questionnaire (SRQ; Ryan & Connell, 1989) and the Academic Major Satisfaction Survey (AMSS; Nauta, 2007). As hypothesized, autonomous self-regulation mediated the relationship between perceived parental need support and major satisfaction. Specifically, autonomous self regulation fully mediated the relationship between perceived mother need support and major satisfaction and only partially mediated the relationship between father need support and major satisfaction. Implications of this study include the potential relevance of self-determination theory to the career development literature and major satisfaction generally.

The focus of the current study is to examine the role of parental social support in college students' career development process, specifically choosing a satisfying academic major. It is hypothesized that: 1. There is a positive correlation between overall score on the Social Support Behaviors (SS-B) and major satisfaction score, 2. The relationship between the overall SS-B score and major satisfaction is mediated by the college student's major/career exploration, and 3. The emotional support subscale explains the greatest variance in major satisfaction followed by practical assistance, advice/guidance, and financial assistance, and finally socializing. Participants consisted of traditional college students at the sophomore and junior level from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Measures include: the self and environmental exploration subscales of the Career Exploration Survey (CES; Stumpf, Solarelli, & Hartman, 1982), the Social Support Behaviors (SS-B) measure (Vaux, Riedel, & Setwart, 1987), and the Academic Major Satisfaction Scale (AMSS; Nauta, 2007). Although results of the primary hypotheses were nonsignificant, there were several relationships between modes of social support and career exploration variables. Specifically, self-exploration related positively to total social support from primary caregiver as well as practical assistance, and environmental exploration related significantly to financial support from secondary caregiver. Other exploratory results are presented and discussed related to parents' role in facilitating college students' career development. Future implications of the present study, which add to vocational literature on career satisfaction, are discussed in regard to both research and practice with a college student population.

This study examined how vocational interests, vocational personal styles and work values impact on major satisfaction and specialization choice of 256 students in Master of Social Work programs from several regions of the United States. Participants completed the General Occupational Themes (GOTs) and the Personal Style Scales (PSSs) of the Strong Interest Inventory (SII; Donnay et al., 2005), the Values Scale (VS; Super & Nevill, 1989), and the modified Academic Major Satisfaction Scale (AMSS; Nauta, 2007). A series of logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine factors predicting major satisfaction, and a series of discriminant function analyses were conducted to investigate factors involved in distinguishing the three specialization groups (clinical social work-health/mental health/special population; clinical social work-children/youth/family; and non-profit organization administration/management, policy, community development). The results supported the importance of person-environment fit (P-E fit) in the membership of the MSW programs, the MSW students’ major satisfaction, and their specialization choices. The results also showed the validity and the utility of the GOTs, the PSSs, and the VS. Beyond three-letter Holland codes, further utilization of the GOTs and integration of the PSSs and the VS seem to be essential. Significant roles of work values of the VS were also noted. Implications for future research and career counseling are discussed. Recommendations for administrators of MSW programs are offered to more effectively recruit students, support their process of selecting a specialization, train them during the program, and provide additional training to professional social workers.