The Effectiveness of Strength-Centered Career Counseling in Junior High School Students in Taiwan Author:Yu-Chen Wang
Research Article
The purpose of this study was to explore the immediate and follow-up effectiveness of a strength-centered career counseling modulein well-being and career development of junior high school students. The participants were 12 second-grade and 18 third-grade junior high school students. There were 30 in total, 9 boys and 21 girls; between the age of 14 and 16, (M=14.93; SD=.59). The participants were volunteers recruited via counseling and guidance offices from eight junior high schools in northern Taiwan. The study unitized an experimental design; participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group receivedsix sessions of strength-centered career counseling, and the control group receivedsix sessions of career counseling usingvocational card sort. The two groups were compared on their scores on the Well-Being Scale for Adolescentsand the subscales in the Career Development Inventory - Career Emotion, Career Beliefs, Career Exploration, and Career Planning immediately after the last counseling session and one month following the last counseling session. Data were analyzed by ANCOVA and the results showed that the Strength-Centered Career Counseling Module had immediate and lasting effects in elevating adolescents’ well-being but not their career development.