71

Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology,

January - July 2005, Vol. 31, No.1-2, 71-76.

Career Maturity of School Children

Upma Dhillon and Rajinder Kaur
Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
The present investigation has been undertaken to study career maturity among
the students of public and government schools. A dense sample of 500 high
school students were the subjects of this study (250 males and 250 females).
The Crites career maturity inventory (CMI), self concept scale (SCS),
achievement motivation test (ACMT), and Lumpkins locus of control scale (LOC)
were administered to the students to study the relationship between career
maturity and self concept, achievement motivation and locus of control. On
comparison of public and government schools, the results clearly indicate that
the students of public schools possess a higher career maturity attitude (CMA),
career maturity competence (CMC), as well as self concept and achievement
motivation. Significant relationships have also been obtained between CMA and
CMC, internal LOC and ACMT in case of boys in public schools and between
CMA, ACMT and SCS in case of girls in public schools. On the other hand
significant relationship has been found between CMA and external locus of
control, achievement motivation and self concept in case of boys in government
school and between CMC and achievement motivation in case of girls in
government schools.

One of the most crucial decisions a

young adolescent must make is the selection
of an occupation. A large number of career
options are available these days to the
students, making it a difficult task for the
youngster to make a mature choice. The
concept of Career Maturity has its origin in
the Supers developmental theory of career
behaviour, which envisages that selection of
an occupation is a process spanning a
considerable number of years usually from
late childhood to early childhood. Career
maturity is the term, which denotes the place
reached on this continuum of career
development from exploratory years to
decline.

The words Career Development,

Vocational Development, and Occupational
Development are used synonymously, they
refer to a lifelong process of developing work
values, crystallizing a vocational identity,
learning about opportunities and trying out
part-time work situations
The literature on vocational theory and
development identifies a number of
correlates of vocational maturity. Included
among these are social, psychological and
educational variables such as vocational
aspirations, needs and interests, selfconcept, locus of control and so forth.
Vocational development is an extended

Career Maturity

72

process that has its key to construct the self

concept. Self-concept is defined as the total
of a persons perceptions about his physical,
social and academic competence. A
recurring theme is that an individual chooses
an occupation which permits him / her to
function in a role consistent with his / her
self concept. It follows from Supers theory
that self definition may be the most
significant vocational development task for
an elementary school age child. Several
writers subscribe to this notion that a young
persons self concept and career
development are related (Holland, 1981;
Kidd, 1984; Munson, 1992) found that
subjects with high self esteem scored
significantly higher on vocational identity and
career salience variable.
Holland, (1981) studied the relationship
between vocational development and selfconcept in 6 th grade students. Results
indicate a significant relationship between
self-concept and career maturity.
Locus of control is an attribute of
personality on which individuals are
distributed according to their degree of
belief in their control over events in their
lives. Internals believe that events occur
primarily as a result of their own behaviour,
while externals see events following their
behaviour as primarily determined by
outside forces (e.g., luck, chance, powerful
others). Khan, (1983) found that higher
Career maturity inventory scores were
associated with himself esteem, internal
locus of control and intrinsic work values. A
number of other studies have also shown
that an internal locus of control is more
conducive to career maturity than an
external locus of control (Benardelli, Stefano
& Dumont, 1983). Mullis, and Mullis (1997)
found that high school students with higher
scores on self esteem and showing internal
locus of control expressed more interests in
a variety of vocational themes.

Considerable researches has been

conducted in this area among the students
in the western society, however very few
investigations have been conducted among
the Indian students, hence the present
investigation is an attempt to study the
nature of career maturity and its personality
characteristics among the students in
government and public schools. A
government school is governed by the state
governments educational policy with the
vernacular language as the medium of
instruction. On the other hand a public
school is a private institution managed by s
a private management committee with
English as the medium of instruction.
Method
Sample
The study is conducted on a sample of
500 high school students from various public
and government schools in Amritsar. The
sample is equally divided among boys and
girls.
Measures used
Crites Career Maturity Inventory, (Crites,
1978), Self concept scale (Saraswat, and
Gaur, 1981), Achievement Motivation test
(Bhargava, 1994) and Locus of control scale
(Lumpkin, 1985).
Results and Discussion
Reliabilities of the measures used:
Split half reliability coefficient were computed
for Crites career maturity inventory (0.85 for
career attitude and 0.93 for career
competence), and the self concept scale
(0.88). Test retest reliability for Achievement
motivation test (0.86) and locus of control
scale (0.41)
Comparison of means:
On comparing the means (Table 1), it has
been found that Boys from public schools
differ significantly from the boys in the
government schools, in career attitude and

73

Upma Dhillon and Rajinder Kaur

career competence. Thus indicating that the

Boys from public schools have more positive
attitude toward work behaviour and are better
acquainted with career opportunities and
choices. Significant differences have also

been obtained on personality characteristics

such as achievement motivation and selfconcept. Boys from public schools have a higher
self-concept and are more achievement
oriented than their counterparts in government
schools.

Table 1. Mean, SDs and the statistical significance of the measured variables of boys
from Public and Government schools.
Variables
Mean

Public School

Government School

SD

SD

Mean

t-ratio

CMA

31.39

5.62

21.15

3.96

17.06**

CMC

34.88

8.96

6.39

3.38

22.27**

LOC

3.27

0.67

3.15

0.51

21.03

4.84

15.61

3.48

10.42**

172.39

14.46

169.04

12.29

2.01 *

ACMT
SCS

1.6

Table 2. Mean, SDs and the statistical significance of the measured variables of Girls
from Public and Government schools.
Variables
Mean

Public School

Government School

SD

SD

Mean

t-ratio

CMA

30.38

4.83

26.77

5.01

6.01**

CMC

34.53

9.89

32.18

8.83

2.02*

LOC

3.21

0.49

3.19

0.53

0.36

21.16

4.81

20.41

5.06

1.25

167.28

13.81

176.71

12.75

ACMT
SCS

Table 2, shows the comparison of girls

from Government and public schools. The
girls from the public schools have scored
higher on career attitude and career
competence as compared to the girls from
government schools. However the girls from
government schools have scored higher on
self-concept than the public schools. This
may be attributed to the fact that the system
of education in public school is coeducational whereas in the government

5.71**

school it is not so. Thereby the girls in public

schools have lower self-concept when they
compare themselves to the boys, whereas
in the government school it is not so. There
is no significant difference on the variables
of locus of control and achievement
motivation among the two groups though the
girls in public schools are slightly higher on
achievement motivation.

Career Maturity

74

Table 3. Mean, SDs and the statistical significance of the measured variables of Girls
and Boys from Government schools.
Variables

Girls
Mean

SD

Boys
Mean

t-ratio
SD

CMA

26.77

5.01

21.15

3.96

9.89**

CMC

32.18

8.83

6.39

3.38

18.79**

LOC

3.19

0.53

3.15

0.51

0.60

20.41

5.06

15.61

3.48

8.8**

176.71

12.75

169.04

12.29

4.85 *

ACMT
SCS

Table 4. Mean, SDs and the statistical significance of the measured variables of Girls
and Boys from Public schools.
Variables

Girls
Mean

SD

Boys
Mean

t-ratio
SD

CMA

30.38

4.83

31.39

5.62

1.58

CMC

34.53

9.89

34.88

8.96

0.30

LOC

3.21

0.49

3.27

0.67

0.94

21.16

4.81

21.03

4.84

0.22

167.28

13.81

172.39

14.46

ACMT
SCS

2.93 *

Correlational Analysis
Table 3 compares the Girls and boys of
Government schools. The girls scored
significantly higher on career maturity attitude,
career maturity competence, achievement
motivation and self-concept. However there is
no significant difference on the variable of
locus of control. A number of previous studies
support the above results. To date most of the
studies of gender differences in career
maturity (Hesser, 1981; Lokan, Boss and
Patsula, 1982; Neely and Johnson, 1981;
Luzzo and Antony, 1995) have focused on
verifying the tendency of women to career
maturity higher than men. In other studies
(Fouad, 1988) females were higher on some
subscales only.
Table 4 compares the girls and boys of
public schools. There are no significant
differences on any of the variables except selfconcept, which is higher among the boys.

For further analysis Pearson product

moment correlation was compared to find the
relationship among the measured variables.
Table 5 shows significant positive correlation
between career maturity attitude, career
maturity competence and internal locus of
control among the boys in public schools.
Career maturity competence is also
significantly correlated with internal locus of
control and achievement motivation. Table
5 also indicates that CMA has significant
positive correlation with CMC, ACMT and SC
in case of boys in government school.
However locus of control has significant
negative correlation with CMA, which means
that boys in government schools have
external locus of control. This indicates that
career maturity in this group is influenced
by chance, peers and other environmental
factors. Thus their attitude towards work is

75

Upma Dhillon and Rajinder Kaur

influenced by external factors. Hence we can

Table 6 shows that career maturity attitude
conclude that students, who have a high has significant positive correlation with
career maturity attitude and competence, achievement motivation and self-concept (girls
possess a high self concept and an external in public schools). However in case of girls in
locus of control and are more achievement government schools, career maturity
oriented. Holland (1981), Munson (1992), competence is significantly correlated with
Khan, (1983), Mullis, and Mullis (1997) have achievement motivation only.
also obtained similar results.
Table 5. Correlation coefficients between CM and LOC, ACMT, SC
Boys from Public schools.
CMA
CMA

CMC

CMC

0.33**

0.80**

LOC

LOC

ACMT

SCS

0.31**

0.14

0.10

0.17*

0.21*

0.13

0.06

0.12
0.05

- 0.24

0.19*

ACMT

0.47**

0.40**

- 0.23*

SCS

0.23*

0.08

- 0.03

0.17

* p < 0.0, ** p < 0.05

Table 6. Correlation coefficients between CM and LOC, ACMT, SC.
Girls from Public schools.
CMA
CMA

CMC

LOC

ACMT

SCS

0.29**

0.09

0.18*

0.36**

CMC

0.36**

0.05

0.09

0.07

LOC

0.06

0.06

- 0.01

0.18*

ACMT

0.15

0.23**

- 0.15

0.15

SCS

0.05

0.15

- 0.09

0.20*

* p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05

Conclusion
The obtained results indicate that
personality characteristics play a significant
role in the development of career maturity. In
the light of above results, it may also be
inferred that the environment of the public
schools promotes career maturity and the
students of public schools are better informed
about career opportunities than the students
of government schools. The public schools
promote a healthy environment that not only
lays stress on academic curriculum but aims

to develop the childs overall personality by

encouraging their students to participate in
debates, declamations, seminars, dramatics
and games etc. The students are motivated
to engage in learning activities to move
towards desired goals and objectives which is
reflected in their career attitude and
competence. On the other hand the
government schools lack such an effective
learning environment, which needs to be
further strengthened in this direction.

Career Maturity

76

Rerefences
Benardelli, Antonio de Stefano, Florent (1983).
Occupational information seeking as a
function of perception of locus of control and
other personality variable. Canadian
Counsellor, 17, 75-81.
Bhargava, V.P. (1994). Achievement motive test.
National Psychological Corporation, Agra.
Crites, J.O. (1973) Theory and research handbook
for the career maturity inventory. Montrey,
Calif: (CTB) McGraw-Hall.
Fouad, N.A. (1988). The construct of career
maturity in the United States and Israel.
Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 32, 49-59.
Hesser, A. (1981). Adolescent career development,
family adaptability and family cohesion.
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Polytechnic Institute and State University,
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Upma Dhillon, Junior Research Fellow, Department of Psychology, Guru Nanak Dev
University, Amritsar.
Rajinder Kaur, PhD, Reader & Head, Department of Psychology, Guru Nanak Dev
University, Amritsar.