The role of bipolar disorder and family wealth in choosing creative occupations.

Research in psychology and medicine has linked mental health disorders, and particularly bipolar disorder (BD), to employment in creative professions. Little is known, however, about the mechanisms for this link, which could be due to biology (primarily through a person's genes) or environmental (through socioeconomic status). Using administrative data on mental health diagnoses and occupations for the population of Denmark, we find that people with BD are more likely to be musicians than the population, but less likely to hold other creative jobs. Yet, we also show that healthy siblings of people with BD are significantly more likely to work in creative professions. Notably, people from wealthy families are consistently more likely to work in creative professions, and access to family wealth amplifies the likelihood that siblings of people with BD pursue creative occupations. Nevertheless, family wealth explains only a small share of the correlation between BD and creative employment.

Genetic basis of STEM occupational choice and regional economic performance: a UK biobank genome-wide association study.

BACKGROUND: Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals are regarded as the highly skilled labor force that fosters economic productivity, enterprise innovation, and international competitiveness of a country. This study aims to understand the genetic predisposition to STEM occupations and investigate its associations with regional economic performance. We conducted a genome-wide association study on the occupational choice of STEM jobs based on a sample of 178,976 participants from the UK Biobank database. RESULTS: We identified two genetic loci significantly associated with participants' STEM job choices: rs10048736 on chromosome 2 and rs12903858 on chromosome 15. The SNP heritability of STEM occupations was estimated to be 4.2%. We also found phenotypic and genetic evidence of assortative mating in STEM occupations. At the local authority level, we found that the average polygenic score of STEM is significantly and robustly associated with several metrics of regional economic performance. CONCLUSIONS: The current study expands our knowledge of the genetic basis of occupational choice and potential regional disparities in socioeconomic developments.

Rethinking Driving Against Medical Advice: The Situated Nature of Driving After Stroke.

Background: As stroke can result in functional impairments that impact driving ability, many jurisdictions mandate a 30-day period of driving restriction post-stroke. However, between 26% and 38% of clients drive against medical advice during this period. Purpose: Informed by critical reflexivity of the literature and the first author's practice, this critical analysis paper (1) explicates and critiques how adherence to guidelines regarding driving after stroke in the first 30 days is conceptualized in individualistic, biomedically centred research and (2) argues for expanded understandings of driving based on a transactional occupational perspective. Key Issues: Individualistic, biomedical perspectives view driving against medical advice as an individually located phenomenon, generating partial understandings and individually focused solutions. Re-conceptualizing driving after stroke as a transactional occupational choice provides a productive basis for understanding and addressing driving within practice and research. Implications: Concepts from occupational science can generate new insights for research and client-centred practice regarding driving following stroke.

Escolha da profissão e da especialidade por médicos de um serviço de transtornos alimentares / Choice of profession and specialty by physicians in an eating disorder service

A formação profissional na área médica tem sido exaustivamente investigada, porém pouco se tem pesquisado sobre as especialidades menos conhecidas. Este estudo teve por objetivo conhecer os motivos de escolha da profissão e da área de especialidade por médicos de um serviço interdisciplinar de transtornos alimentares. Participaram seis médicos vinculados a um hospital público do interior paulista. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevista semiestruturada, audiogravadas e transcritas na íntegra. O roteiro explorou questões relacionadas ao itinerário formativo: graduação, residência médica, motivação para atuar na área. Os relatos foram submetidos à análise temática indutiva. Foram elaboradas três categorias temáticas: Motivos de escolha da profissão médica; Escolha da área de especialização; Experiências que influenciaram a escolha da especialidade, que originaram a categoria geral "Formando-se médico: itinerários formativos e experiências marcantes". Os participantes relataram que a escolha da profissão médica emergiu como decisão supostamente livre de conflitos. A escolha da especialidade médica, por sua vez, mobilizou angústias referentes às atividades e ao impacto que elas teriam no estilo de vida. Compreender os itinerários de formação profissional de médicos possibilitou identificar experiências relevantes na formação profissional, que podem funcionar como aspectos facilitadores ou dificultadores da atuação nessa área específica do sofrimento humano.

Professional training in the medical field has been extensively investigated, but little research has been done on the lesser known specialties. This study aimed to know the reasons for choosing the profession and the area of specialty by doctors from an interdisciplinary service for eating disorders. Six doctors from a public hospital in the interior of São Paulo participated. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, which were audio recorded and transcribed in full. The script explored issues related to the formative itinerary: graduation, medical residency and motivation to work in the area. The reports were submitted to inductive thematic analysis. Three thematic categories were developed: Reasons for choosing the medical profession; Choice of the area of specialization; Experiences that influenced the choice of specialty, which originated the general category "Being a doctor: formative itineraries and outstanding experiences". Participants reported that the choice of the medical profession emerged as a supposedly conflict-free decision. The choice of the specialty, in turn, mobilized anxieties regarding the activities and the impact they could have on lifestyle of each participant. Understanding the itineraries of professional training allowed us to identify relevant experiences in professional training, which can function as facilitating or hindering aspects to work in this specific area of human suffering.

Do immigrants shield the locals? Exposure to COVID-related risks in the European Union.

This article investigates the relationship between immigration and the exposure of native workers to health and labor-market risks arising from the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. Using various measures of occupational risks based on European Union labor force survey data, we find that immigrant workers, especially those from lower-income member countries in Eastern Europe or from outside the EU, face greater exposure than their native-born peers to both income and health-shocks related to COVID-19. We also show that native workers living in regions with a higher concentration of immigrants are less exposed to some of the income and health risks associated with the pandemic. To assess whether this relationship is causal, we use a Bartik-type shift-share instrument to control for potential bias and unobservable factors that would lead migrants to self-select into more vulnerable occupations across regions. The results show that the presence of immigrant workers has a causal effect in reducing the exposure of native workers to various risks by enabling the native-born workers to move into jobs that could be undertaken from the safety of their homes or with lower face-to-face interactions. The effects on the native-born population are more pronounced for high-skilled workers than for low-skilled workers, and for women than for men. We do not find significant effect of immigration on wages and employment-indicating that the effects are mostly driven by a reallocation of natives from less safe jobs to safer jobs.

A health economic theory of occupational choice, aging, and longevity.

In this paper, I propose a life cycle model of occupational choice with endogenous health behavior, aging, and longevity. Health-demanding work leads to a faster accumulation of health deficits and is remunerated with a hazard markup on wages. Health deficit accumulation is also influenced by unhealthy consumption and health care expenditure. I calibrate the model for a 20 year old average American in 2010 and show the following results, among others. Health-demanding work is ceteris paribus preferred by male, young, and healthy individuals with a relatively low level of education. Health demanding work has a negligible effect on health behavior because income and health investment effects largely offset each other, implying that health effects can be attributed almost fully to the direct health burden of work. Better medical technology induces low-skilled individuals to spend a greater part of their life in health-demanding work and thus increases the health gradient of education. High wealth endowments protect against unhealthy occupational choices. I show robustness of the results in an extension of the model with regard to endogenous retirement.

An exploration of occupational choices in adolescence: A constructivist grounded theory study.

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a critical period within the life course, for developing adult occupational competencies and health behaviours. Few studies have considered how 16-17 year olds choose activities and behaviours from an occupational perspective. AIM AND OBJECTIVES: To explore how adolescents aged 16-17 years old make choices about their daily occupations to inform a theoretical model of occupational choice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: About 27 secondary school students aged 16-17 years attended one of six focus groups. Transcripts were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory, informing the iterative development of a theoretical model of occupational choice. RESULTS: Adolescent occupational choice occurred in response to experiencing needs, and was characterized by 'weighing up' and 'juggling' the following four key domains: 'Appraising values and priorities', 'Interacting with the situational context', 'Exploring skills and occupational repertoire' and 'Considering time factors'. A developing sense of responsibility and autonomy for occupational choices was described, leading to the development of the future occupational self. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: A theory illuminating how adolescents make choices was developed. The theory aligns with existing developmental literature and provides unique insights, from an occupational science perspective, on the conscious process by which adolescents make, develop and adapt choices about the occupations they do considering contextual and individual opportunities and constraints.

The role of wage beliefs in the decision to become a nurse.

In light of skilled-labor shortage, the effect of a change in the wage of nurses on their labor supply is intensely discussed in recent literature. Using extensive data of German 14- to 15-year-olds, I analyze the role of the beliefs about a nurse's wage in the decision to become one. To estimate a partial effect, I select controls and their functional form using post-double-selection, which is a data-driven selection method based on regression shrinkage. Highlighting the importance of wages at the extensive margin of labor supply, the wage beliefs play a positive and statistically significant role. Although information is publicly available, educational choices knowingly suffer from misinformation. I find that especially those who do not become a nurse understate the wage. The results lead to two important policy implications. First, increasing the wage may help to overcome the shortage observed in many countries. Second, providing more information on the (relative) wage may be a successful strategy to attract more individuals into this profession. To assess the sensitivity of the results regarding omitted variable bias, I apply a novel approach. It turns out that potential unobserved confounders would have to be strong to overrule the conclusions.

Reading Fluency of Higher Education Students / Fluência Leitora de Estudantes do Ensino Superior / Fluidez Lectora de Estudiantes de Educación Superior

Abstract The literature that links career development with reading skills is scarce. This study seeks to fill this gap, for which the reading fluency of college students was analyzed, taking into account the choice of more/less desirable courses. Desirability is based on the classifications for college access. 211 students participated in the study, 132 female, attending four courses: Mechanical Engineering, Health, Psychology, and Education, in three Portuguese Public Universities. The instruments used were the sociodemographic form and the Teste de Idade de Leitura (Reading Age Test - TIL). The results indicated that students attending less desirable courses (i.e., Education and Health) are significantly less fluent and; students who score lower on reading fluency are more likely to belong to the Education course. This study stresses the importance of the distribution of students by the different areas of studies should not reflect reading fluency asymmetries.

Resumo A literatura que articula o desenvolvimento de carreira com a leitura é escassa. Este estudo teve como objetivo analisar a fluência leitora de estudantes universitários, considerando a escolha de cursos mais/menos desejados. A desejabilidade tem por base as classificações de acesso ao Ensino Superior. Participaram 211 estudantes, 132 de sexo feminino, a frequentar quatro cursos: Engenharia Mecânica, Saúde, Psicologia e Educação, em três instituições públicas de ensino superior portuguesas. Os instrumentos utilizados foram ficha sociodemográfica e Teste da Idade de Leitura- TIL. Os resultados indicaram que estudantes de cursos menos desejados (i.e., Educação e Saúde) são significativamente menos fluentes e; estudantes com menor fluência leitora são mais prováveis de pertencerem à Educação. Este estudo destaca a importância da distribuição pelas diferentes áreas de estudo não ser um espelho de assimetrias ao nível de competências leitoras.

Resumen La literatura que vincula desarrollo profesional con habilidades lectoras es escasa. Este estudio busca llenar este vacío, analizando la fluidez lectora de estudiantes universitarios en cursos más/menos deseables. La deseabilidad de los cursos se basa en las clasificaciones de acceso a la Universidad. Participaron 211 estudiantes, 132 mujeres, de cuatro cursos: Ingeniería Mecánica, Salud, Psicología y Educación, en tres universidades públicas portuguesas. Los instrumentos utilizados fueron la ficha sociodemográfica y el Test de Edad Lectora - TIL. Los resultados indican que los estudiantes de cursos menos deseables (Educación y Salud) son significativamente menos fluentes y; estudiantes con puntuación más baja en fluidez tienen más probabilidades de pertenecer al curso de Educación. Este estudio destaca la importancia de que la distribución por las diferentes áreas de estudio en la universidad no sea un espejo de asimetrías en el nivel de habilidades lectoras.

Distinguishing Constraints on Financial Inclusion and Their Impact on GDP, TFP, and the Distribution of Income.

A general equilibrium model featuring multiple realistic sources of financial frictions is developed to study how different constraints interact in equilibrium. We highlight, distinguish, and evaluate their differential impacts and rich interactions. The economic impact of financial inclusion policies in an economy depends not only on which constraint is alleviated, but also on the tightness of other constraints. Policy instruments should target the most binding constraint, which likely varies across countries. Moreover, there are important tradeoffs between financial inclusion, GDP, and the distribution of income. The transitional dynamics also differ from those in steady states. Policy makers should consider both.

Humanistic burden among caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease or dementia in Japan: a large-scale cross-sectional survey.

AIMS: As the population in Japan is rapidly aging, the prevalence of dementia, particularly Alzheimer's Disease (AD), is expected to increase, resulting in a growing need for caregivers. This study aims to quantify and compare the humanistic burden of caregivers of AD/dementia patients with caregivers of patients with other conditions in Japan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study used data from the 2018 Japan National Health and Wellness Survey (NHWS). Outcome measures included the Short-Form 12-item Health Survey (SF-12) for health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL), EuroQol 5-dimension scale (EQ-5D) for health states utilities, impact of health on productivity and activity, and evaluation of depression and anxiety. Multivariate analysis was used to compare across groups, with adjustment for potential confounding effects. RESULTS: A total of 805 caregivers of AD/dementia patients, 1,099 other caregivers, and 27,137 non-caregivers were identified. Both AD/dementia caregivers and other caregivers had lower HRQoL and EQ-5D scores, higher total activity impairment, and more caregivers tended to experience anxiety than non-caregivers. There were no significant differences in the involvment in basic and instrumental activities of daily living (ADL) between AD/dementia caregivers and caregivers of other conditions. Notably, AD/dementia caregivers were more involved in making treatment decisions and finance management than other caregivers. Among AD/dementia caregivers caring for one patient, 395 patients lived in the community and 282 in an institution. AD/dementia caregivers whose patients lived in the community were more significantly involved in basic and instrumental ADL. Caregivers of patients with both AD/dementia and cancer had higher caregiving burden than caregivers of patients with either condition. CONCLUSIONS: Caregivers of AD/dementia patients in Japan reportedly experienced significant humanistic burden which is associated with patients' living arrangements and the presence of an additional chronic condition. Therefore, provision of effective care/support is essential to relieve the burden experienced by the caregivers.

Predicting polytomous career choices in healthcare using probabilistic expectations data.

This paper compares career expectations and career outcomes of Swiss healthcare assistants (HCA), an occupation created to increase the supply of nurses. We investigate whether HCAs can predict their own professional careers two years ahead by eliciting their expectations for a range of career alternatives, including nursing and other studies. Polytomous choice situations have rarely been analyzed using numerical probabilities in the expectations literature. Our results show that almost all respondents give informative answers to the probabilistic online survey question. Individuals express considerable uncertainty about their future careers, with over 60% attaching positive probabilities to more than one career alternative. The analyses reveal that individuals' numerical expectations have substantial predictive value for their future careers, even after controlling for many variables. This finding confirms that individuals have private information not directly available to researchers, and that eliciting choice probabilities for polytomous choice situations is a viable approach in surveys. However, the mean shares for career alternatives implied by individual probabilities do not fully coincide with actual shares and are more accurate over 4 than over 2 years. The information conveyed in expectations and their deviations from outcomes enables us to derive policy recommendations to increase transitions to nursing.

"It's My Calling": Gendered Pathways to Funeral Work.

One of the most prominent features of the U.S. labor force is sex segregation among college majors and across career choices. Hegemonic cultural gender beliefs shape career choices and most men and women go into gender typical majors and occupations, even in death care industries. To better understand how cultural gender beliefs shape occupational choice and socialization, this article investigates the gendered pathways to funeral directing, an occupation historically male-dominated and currently feminizing. Using 21 interviews with mortuary science students, the findings indicate gender differences in the pathways to funeral work and highlight how occupational choice and socialization into funeral work is a gendered process.

Habilidades sociais e expectativas de futuro como preditores da autoeficácia para a escolha profissional / Profissional social skills and future expectations as predictors of professional choice self-efficacy / Habilidades sociales y expectativas de futuro como preditores de la autoeficacia para la elección profesional

Durante o ensino médio, os estudantes podem enfrentar as primeiras escolhas relacionadas ao seu futuro profissional. O estudo investigou em que medida o sexo, as habilidades sociais e as expectativas de futuro predizem a autoeficácia para a escolha profissional de estudantes do ensino médio. Participaram 436 alunos (M = 16,23 anos, DP = 1,09), de ambos os sexos, de escolas públicas e privadas do estado do Rio de Janeiro. Os instrumentos utilizados foram: Escala de Autoeficácia para a Escolha Profissional; Escala de Expectativas Futuras; Inventário de Habilidades Sociais para Adolescentes; e Questionário de Dados Socioeconômicos. As habilidades sociais de desenvoltura social e abordagem afetiva, as expectativas de futuro em relação ao trabalho e à educação e o sexo feminino explicaram 26% da variabilidade da autoeficácia para a escolha profissional dos estudantes. Os dados da pesquisa poderão contribuir para o planejamento de futuros programas de intervenção com os alunos, seus familiares e professores.

During high school, students can face the first choices related to their professional future. The study investigated the extent to which gender, social skills and future expectations predict professional choice self-efficacy of high school students. A total of 436 students (M = 16,23, SD = 1,09) from both sexes from public and private schools in the State of Rio de Janeiro participated. The instruments used were: Professional Choice Self-efficacy Scale; Future Expectations Scale; Social Skills Inventory for Adolescents; Socioeconomic Status Questionnaire. Social skills of social resourcefulness and affective approach, expectations of the future in relation to work and education, and the female sex explained 26% of the variability of professional choice self-efficacy of students. The research data may contribute to the planning of future intervention programs with students, their families and teachers.

Durante la escuela secundaria, los estudiantes pueden enfrentar las primeras opciones relacionadas con su futuro profesional. El estudio investigó hasta qué punto el género, las habilidades sociales y las expectativas del futuro predicen la autoeficacia para la elección profesional de los estudiantes de secundaria. Participaron 436 alumnos (M = 16,23, DP = 1,09), de ambos sexos de escuelas públicas y particulares en el Estado de Río de Janeiro. Los instrumentos utilizados fueron: Escala de Autoeficacia para la elección profesional; Escala de Expectativas Futuras; Inventario de Habilidades Sociales para Adolescentes; Cuestionario de datos socioeconómicos. Las habilidades sociales de desenvoltura social y abordaje afectivo, las expectativas de futuro en relación al trabajo ya la educación y sexo femenino explicaron el 26% de la variabilidad de la autoeficacia para la elección profesional de los estudiantes. Los datos de la investigación pueden contribuir a la planificación de futuros programas de intervención con estudiantes, sus familias y maestros.

Estimating Lifetime Cost of Illness. An Application to Asthma.

Rationale: Approximately 8% of the U.S. population suffers from asthma, a chronic condition. It poses a substantial economic burden to society in the form of lost productivity and healthcare costs.Objectives: We use the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 2002-2010 to quantify the lifetime costs of asthma at each age, the impact of adult asthma on earnings and choice of occupation, and the impact of childhood asthma on parental income.Methods: We developed a framework to estimate the present discounted value of the cumulative lifetime asthma-related healthcare costs and lost productivity experienced by an individual after onset. This approach allows for age- and asthma duration-related variability in annual costs as well as for the intermittent nature of asthma symptoms.Results: Estimated asthma-related annual healthcare expenditures across all life stages are $700-$2,200 (2010 U.S. dollars). Lost annual earnings among individuals aged 30-49 are over $4,000 (2010 U.S. dollars). The present discounted value of the cumulative lifetime healthcare costs and lost productivity for a new case of asthma is estimated at $36,500 using the 3% discount rate (2010 U.S. dollars).Conclusions: The economic burden of asthma is substantial and larger than previously estimated, reflecting expenditures on treatment and lost earnings.

Contexto personal y elección ocupacional de la trabajadora sexual / Personal context and occupational choice of the sexual working

El estudio busca reconocer la forma, cómo se realiza la elección ocupacional de las personas que se encuentran en el ambito conocido como trabajo sexual. Alternativa de acción que determina el curso de la vida e involucran contribuciones complejas que llevan a la mujer a a abandonar roles, cambiar un patrón de hábitos, elegir e ignorar sus propias dificultades en un esfuerzo de hacerse parecer competente ante los demás, sin embargo, genera dificultades y mantienen a la población objeto de estudio atrapados en un ciclo de elecciones inadecuados y experiencias negativas. El presente proyecto busca determinar cómo el contexto personal influye en la elección ocupacional de la población trabajadora sexual. Conclusión: A través del instrumento de evaluación OPHI II y su narrativa, donde las constantes fueron el nivel volitivo y de habituación se logra establecer decisiones impulsadas por eventos críticos del pasado, conexo a condiciones de pobreza, dinámicas de calle y abandono del rol de estudiante, desencadena una insatisfacción y un bajo sentido de autoeficacia dentro de su participación ocupacional en roles y hábitos. Así mismo dentro de su comportamiento ocupacional actual se vislumbra una doble identidad "una doble vida" y una exclusión de roles familiares y sociales. Como consecuencia de este rol productivo, esta dualidad genera una modificación drástica en la interiorización, guiones y socialización de roles, siendo mutuamente excluyentes, alterando de esta forma la elección ocupacional, la estructuración de hábitos y rutinas, la ejecución de roles y el trabajo hacia metas, siendo estos aspectos los de mayor falencia, teniendo en cuenta que son mujeres que no identifican un estilo de vida ocupacional deseado, no esperan éxito y no reconocen habilidades.

To begin it is absolutely necessary to determine how occupational choice is made by sex workers. All this unrouted women to decision-making and thereby abandon roles, change habits' pattern, choose and ignore their own difficulties in an effort to make themselves appear competent to others. However, these elections generate greater difficulties among population under study. So we can concluded that they are trapped in a cycle of inadequate elections and negative experiences. Conclusion: Through the OPHI II assessment tool it was possible to discover, through narrative, in which the constants were the volitional and habituational level where driven by critical events of the past, related to conditions of poverty, street dynamics and abandonment of roles such as student, unleashing a dissatisfaction and a low sense of self-efficacy within their occupational roles and habits, as well as within their current occupational behavior is a dual identity "double life" and exclusion of family roles and social, as a consequence of the productive role, where it generates a drastic change in the internalization, scripts and socialization of roles, being mutually exclusive, thus altering the occupational choice, the structuring of habits and routines, the execution of roles and work towards goals, these being the aspects of greatest weakness, taking into account that n women who do not identify a desired occupational lifestyle, do not expect success and do not recognize skills.

Night Shift Work-A Risk Factor for Breast Cancer.

Shift work is considered a risk factor for some health problems. This study aimed to determine whether night shift work is a significant factor for breast cancer risk. The case-control study was conducted from 2015-2019 in the Lódz region. The case group included 494 women diagnosed with malignant breast cancer; the control group included 515 healthy women. The research tool was an anonymous questionnaire. In the case group, the percentage of women working shift work was 51.9%, whereas in the control group, it was 34.1% (OR = 2.08 (95% CI: 1.61; 2.69)). A more insightful examination of shift work showed that only night work has a significant impact on breast cancer (OR = 2.61 (95% CI: 1.94; 3.53)). Even after considering the effect of other possible cancer factors (like high BMI, smoking, early menstruation, late menopause, pregnancy history, age, place of living, education), the odds of developing cancer were twice as high in the group of shift workers (OR = 2.20 (95% CI: 1.57; 3.08)). Considering a significantly higher risk of cancer among people working at night and a high percentage of such employees in Poland, the government should consider special action in the prophylactic treatment of cancers.

When is your experience valuable? Occupation-industry transitions and self-employment success.

The literature on employee spinoffs has, for a long time, stressed the importance of industry-specific skills and experiences in explaining the success of new firms. We argue that employees also develop skills that are associated with their occupation within an industry, and that success as an entrepreneur, therefore, is also contingent on the relation between the entrepreneurs' previous occupation and the industry in which they operate as self-employed. Using matched employer-employee data, we develop a measure, occupational spin-offs, that accounts for this relation. An occupational spin-off is defined as a start-up in the most common industry, given the previous occupation of the founder. We then show that entrepreneurs starting occupational spinoffs enjoy above average income from self-employment and have longer spells as business owners.

Construção e análise das propriedades psicométricas da Escala de Envolvimento Parental na Decisão Vocacional (EEPDV) / Construction and analysis of psychometric properties of the Parental Involvement in Vocational Decision Scale (EEPDV) / Construcción y análisis de las propiedades psicométricas de la Escala de Participación Parental en la Decisión Vocacional (EEPDV)

O envolvimento dos pais durante o processo de decisão profissional dos filhos tem sido considerado uma variável de apoio importante. Este estudo visa apresentar as etapas de construção e as propriedades psicométricas da Escala de Envolvimento Parental na Decisão Vocacional. Esta foi elaborada para avaliar a percepção dos adolescentes sobre as atitudes dos pais diante do processo de escolha profissional. Participaram 390 jovens com idades entre 14 e 20 anos (51,8% do sexo masculino). A partir das análises fatoriais exploratórias, foram extraídos dois fatores (Apoio à tomada de decisão vocacional e Apoio à exploração vocacional), obtendo-se bons valores de consistência interna (α=0,76 a α=0,85). As análises permitiram identificar uma estrutura fatorial adequada e evidências de fidedignidade, indicando que a escala possui potencial para ser utilizada no âmbito da pesquisa e da prática de aconselhamento de carreira. (AU)

Parent's involvement during children's professional decision-making process has been considered a significant support variable. This study aims to present the construction steps and psychometric properties of the Parental Involvement in Vocational Decision Scale. The scale was elaborated to evaluate adolescents' perception of their parents' attitudes towards the professional choice process. A total of 390 youth between 14 and 20 years of age (51.8% males) participated. Two factors were extracted from the exploratory factor analysis (support for vocational exploration and support for vocational decision-making), obtaining good internal consistency values (α=0.76 a α=0.85). The analyses permitted identification of an adequate factorial structure and reliability evidence, indicating that the scale has potential to be used in the scope of the research and practice of career counseling. (AU)

La participación de los padres durante el proceso de decisión profesional de los hijos ha sido considerada una variable de apoyo importante. Este estudio busca presentar las etapas de construcción y las propiedades psicométricas de la Escala de Participación Familiar en la Decisión Vocacional. Este fue desarrollado para evaluar la percepción de los adolescentes sobre las actitudes de los padres frente el proceso de elección profesional. Participaron 390 jóvenes con edades comprendidas entre 14 y 20 años (51,8% del sexo masculino). A partir de los análisis factoriales exploratorios, se extrajeron dos factores (Apoyo a la toma de decisión vocacional y Apoyo a la exploración vocacional), obteniéndose buenos valores de consistencia interna (α=0,76 a α=0,85). Los análisis permitieron identificar una estructura factorial adecuada y evidencias de fiabilidad, indicando que la escala posee el potencial para ser utilizada en el ámbito de la investigación y la práctica de la orientación profesional. (AU)

Gender stereotypes in occupational choice: a cross-sectional study on a group of Italian adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Gender beliefs represent cultural schemas for interpreting or making sense of the social and employment world, as they can influence attitudes, career aspirations, and the vocational decision process of young people, especially the adolescence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study examined the influence of gender stereotypes on the choice of career in adolescents. A group of 120 students were recruited to complete an ad hoc questionnaire, Scale of Perceived Occupational Self-Efficacy, and Semantic Differentials. The objectives of the study were to analyze the relationship between occupational self-efficacy and professional preference; to measure the influence of independent variables, such as age and gender, on the representation that students have of themselves and of the profession; and to identify the predictor variables of self-efficacy in the vocational decision. RESULTS: Data showed that the distance between professional identity and social identity increases with age. Results underline that males seem to perceive themselves more self-efficient in military, scientific-technological, and agrarian professions than females. Furthermore, the type of job performed by parents appears to be a self-efficacy predictor variable in the choice of professions in the services area. CONCLUSION: Individuals' perceived occupational self-efficacy, gender, age, and parents' profession have implications for exploratory behavior. The conditions that make gender differences salient are more likely to favor self-representations of the career and consistent assessments with these representations.