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Behavioral Sciences
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External Influences in Adolescents’ Career Development: 2nd Edition
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External Influences in Adolescents’ Career Development: 2nd Edition

A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Developmental Psychology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 2844

Editor

Dr. Anna Parola

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II, Via Porta di Massa 1, 80133 Naples, Italy
Interests: youth development; career development; career indecision; career guidance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Considering the interest sparked by the Special Issue “External Influences in Adolescents’ Career Development” and the success it has achieved, we are delighted to announce a second edition.

Making career choices represents one of the most demanding developmental tasks for adolescents. An emerging area within developmental and educational psychology is attention to external influences in the career development process. Educational systems, family, and peers play a crucial role in decision-making processes. Teacher career-related support is defined as the supportive behavior of teachers towards students concerning career decisions. Adolescents spend a good part of their time in the classroom, and they should be equipped with the skills needed to successfully cope with the current challenges of the labor market. Moreover, parental career-related behaviors are also associated with adolescents' career development, with specific evidence in the literature on supportive or interfering behavior. Likewise, central to the family system is sibling behavior, which is still little-explored in the literature. Finally, peers also play a significant role in changing the behavior of individuals and decision making regarding careers. Nowadays, other factors might influence career choices, for example, cultures, media influences, and the social acceptability of careers.

This Special Issue aims to collate manuscripts that deal with the study of external influences on adolescents' career choices. It also welcomes contributions that propose new measures and interventions, such as career guidance practices. Contributions should fall under one of the following three categories—article, conceptual paper, or review—and address the topic of the Special Issue. As this is a second edition, we expect even more up-to-date studies on the topic, using sophisticated and advanced research methods to explain the phenomenon.

Dr. Anna Parola
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • career development
  • career choices
  • teacher career-related support
  • parental career-related support
  • peer behavior

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 376 KB  
Article
Validation of a Scale to Measure Career Concerns Related to Perceived Environmental Challenges (the CC-PEC Scale)
by Andrea Zammitti, Angela Russo, Jenny Marcionetti and Anna Parola
Behav. Sci. 2026, 16(5), 636; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16050636 - 24 Apr 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 418
Abstract
Choosing a future career represents a complex developmental task, often accompanied by multiple concerns and anxieties. The Social Cognitive Career Theory and Life Design paradigm emphasize the importance of supporting individuals in managing career-related challenges. However, global stressors—such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the [...] Read more.
Choosing a future career represents a complex developmental task, often accompanied by multiple concerns and anxieties. The Social Cognitive Career Theory and Life Design paradigm emphasize the importance of supporting individuals in managing career-related challenges. However, global stressors—such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and increasing awareness of the climate emergency—have introduced new and multifaceted sources of uncertainty that are not adequately captured by existing instruments. This gap highlights the need for a psychometrically sound measure to assess emerging career-related concerns in the contemporary context. Accordingly, the study aimed to develop and validate the Career Concerns related to Perceived Environmental Challenges (CC-PEC Scale). Four studies were conducted. Study 1 employed exploratory factor analysis, supporting a three-factor structure (Career-related COVID-19 pandemic concern, Career-related war concern, and Career-related climate emergency concern). Study 2 confirmed this structure using confirmatory factor analysis and demonstrated measurement invariance across gender, supporting a hierarchical factorial model. Study 3 provided evidence of concurrent and discriminant validity through associations with related constructs. Study 4 offered preliminary evidence of stability and predictive validity using life satisfaction and flourishing as outcome variables. Overall, the findings support the CC-PEC Scale as a reliable and valid instrument for assessing career-related concerns linked to global environmental challenges. These results have important implications for research and career guidance interventions aimed at supporting young people’s career development in increasingly uncertain contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue External Influences in Adolescents’ Career Development: 2nd Edition)
18 pages, 416 KB  
Article
How Perceived Career Advising Initiates Career Orientation of UAS Undergraduates in China: Career Exploration as a Mediator
by Tingting Gao, Guoxing Xu, Tingzhi Han and Jiangshan Sun
Behav. Sci. 2025, 15(9), 1208; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15091208 - 5 Sep 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1750
Abstract
In the context of universal higher education and labor market polarization, undergraduates in universities of applied sciences (UAS) face growing challenges in forming career orientation. Drawing on data from a UAS in China (N = 3138), this study examines how perceived career advising [...] Read more.
In the context of universal higher education and labor market polarization, undergraduates in universities of applied sciences (UAS) face growing challenges in forming career orientation. Drawing on data from a UAS in China (N = 3138), this study examines how perceived career advising influences students’ career orientation. Three key findings emerge: (1) Only perceived perspective advising (PPA) exhibits significant and direct effects on career orientation, underscoring the developmental value of structured guidance. In contrast, perceived emotional advising (PEA) and perceived growth advising (PGA) show no direct effect. (2) Both PPA and PGA are positively associated with career exploration, whereas PEA exhibits a negative association. This suggests that when advising interactions are overly affective, they inadvertently reduce students’ initiative to explore. (3) Career exploration fully mediates the effects of PEA and PGA, while it partially mediates the effect of PPA. This reflects that different types of career advising influence career orientation through distinct mechanisms, with PEA and PGA relying more heavily on exploratory engagement. The cultural and educational context in China shapes how students respond to different types of career advising. This study offers theoretical and practical insights for building career advising systems to actively foster students’ autonomous, cognitively engaged exploration processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue External Influences in Adolescents’ Career Development: 2nd Edition)
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