Search

Some researchers have reported that people with higher levels of proactive disposition are more conscientious (Major et al., 2006) and that proactive personality is related to career self-efficacy in career exploration (Qu et al., 2015; Shang & Gan, 2009). In other words, undergraduates who have a stronger sense of responsibility might willingly develop much more self-efficacy or outcome expectations, which in turn may lead to more specific goals in their career development. Few studies have been designed to examine the association among personality variables (e.g., proactive disposition) and career goal intentions, particularly in Chinese undergraduates. The aim of this study was to verify the antecedent role of proactive personality in terms of the career self-management model among a sample of Chinese undergraduate students. Consistent with the authors' hypotheses, the results indicate that proactive personality has a positive association with social career cognitive constructs. Chinese undergraduates who actively influenced and adapted to a changing environment were able to develop greater self-efficacy or outcome expectations, which in turn led to specific and clear goals and intentions in their career development. This study presents a new perspective that might help Chinese undergraduates develop and achieve their self-management intentions and behaviors in career planning and decision making by considering the role of proactive personality.

Academics are expected to craft their jobs to keep up with changes in the teaching environment. Improving academics' willingness to engage in job crafting presents a significant challenge in higher education. Based on the Broaden-and-Build Theory, this study examines the association between teaching emotions and job crafting, and the mediating effect of teaching efficacy. Three hundred and thirty-two Chinese academics reported their demographic information, teaching emotions, teaching efficacy, and job crafting via an online platform. After controlling for gender, age, academic rank, and discipline category, the results of the mediation model indicated positive relations between teaching emotions and job crafting. Teaching efficacy fully mediated the relations between negative teaching emotions and job crafting. These findings offer valuable insights for future research on academics' job crafting and provide practical recommendations for both university managers and academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key feature of positive education is its focus on factors that can help students flourish. In the current study, we examined the role of resilience in promoting optimal mental health of Chinese secondary school students who suffered the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, China. In the earthquake central region, 518 participants recruited in November 2008 about 6 months and 473 participants recruited 1 year after the earthquake, were assumed to have the highest and mid-level disaster stress levels, respectively. 602 participants from areas unaffected by the earthquake in December 2008 were assumed to have the lowest stress level. Participants' mental health and resilience were assessed by the clinical scales of the Cross-cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory for Adolescents and the Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents, respectively. Higher stress level participants reported significantly lower resilience and higher mental health problems. Negative correlations between resilience and mental health problems were confirmed across the three groups. Only supportive power resilience showed significant predictions on mental health problems in the two earthquake groups. The implications on mental health counseling and positive education in Chinese secondary school students were discussed.

Student life satisfaction plays a key role in academic achievement; however, the exploration on the predictors of life satisfaction in secondary school students is insufficient. This study explored how indigenous personality traits and parenting style predicted students' life satisfaction. The participants were 718 junior secondary students in China with a mean age of 13.39 years. Personality, parental style, and life satisfaction were assessed through inventories which were statistically supported in the literature. The results showed that personality, parenting style, and life satisfaction were interrelated. Personality and parenting style altogether accounted for around 31% variance in student global life satisfaction. Specifically, global life satisfaction could be predicted by the personality factors of emotional stability, dependability, and indigenous interpersonal relatedness as well as authoritative and permissive parenting styles. Different domains of life satisfaction were predicted by personality factors and parenting styles to different extents. Implications for cross-cultural theorizing and positive education are discussed.

We examined the changes in career decision-making self-efficacy (CDSE) and vocational identity (VI) and their reciprocal associations among 1,026 senior high school students, comprising 493 from Hong Kong (age in 10th grade: M = 16.31, SD = 0.65; 238 girls) and 533 from Shanghai (age in 10th grade: M = 16.50, SD = 0.56; 237 girls). They completed measures for assessing their CDSE and VI annually from 10th to 12th grades. Latent growth curve analyses indicated that both CDSE and VI significantly increased over time in the Hong Kong sample. Cross-lagged path analyses indicated that the reciprocal positive effects between CDSE and VI over time were supported in both samples. These findings indicated that CDSE and VI are generally dynamic and interrelated dimensions for Chinese adolescents' career development with some regional differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study developed and validated a short form of the Cross-Cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory for adolescents (CPAI-A; Form B) focusing on the personality scales by unidimensional and multidimensional Rasch models. Multiple evidence from unidimensional Rasch models (item fit, DIF statistics, dimensionality, reliability indices, construct coverage) were evaluated in order to create a short scale with optimal psychometric properties. Further, multidimensional Rasch model, canonical analysis, and predictive validity were performed and evaluated to validate the CPAI-A-SF further. As a result, 65 of 277 items were selected in the short measure with a four-dimensional structure. The infit and outfit mean-squares (MNSQ) of the personality scale items ranged between .81 and 1.25. Good construct coverage was displayed on the item-person map, and all four dimensions demonstrate reasonable EAP/PV reliability ranging from .81 to .87. The personality scores of CPAI-A-SF predicted life satisfaction as well as the scores from the original inventory.