Effectiveness of a brief-structured group career counselling program in adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief-structured group career counselling program in adolescents. Three hundred and twenty one adolescents (190 girls, 59,2% and 131 boys, 40.8%; M.age=15,15, SD.age=0,49) dealing last year of Obligatory Education in five north-western Portuguese high schools participated in this study (178 in the experimental group and 143 in the control group). The treatment program includes five weekly sessions of 90 minutes with the adolescents, and two sessions with the families. A quasi-experimental design of two independent groups with repeated measures (at the pre-treatment and at the post-treatment) has been used. The results in the post-treatment indicate that the adolescents in the experimental group reduce vocational indecision and they had developed their career exploration behaviours. The within-groups effect sizes and the percentage of change were high for the majority of measures in the experimental group and almost null in the control group, so we can point out that the program is effective, for the reduction of vocational indecision and promotion of career exploration and commitment. The implications of this study for the practice and future investigations are discussed.