Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb

Career exploration in adolescents: The role

of anxiety, attachment, and parenting style
Emmanuelle Vignoli a,, Sandrine Croity-Belz b,
Valrie Chapeland c, Anne de Fillipis c, Martine Garcia
a

Center for Research in the Psychology of Cognition, Language, and Emotion,

University of Provence, France
b
University Toulouse Le Mirail, France
c
Center for Academic and Career Counseling, Aix-en-Provence, France
Received 3 November 2003
Available online 23 February 2005

Abstract
The aim of the study was to examine the role of parentadolescent attachment, adolescent
anxiety and parenting style in the career exploration process and in career satisfaction. Three
kinds of anxiety were considered: general trait anxiety, fear of failing in ones career and fear of
disappointing ones parents. The participants were 283 French high school students on the
threshold of one of the most important school transitions. The results varied by gender. For
girls, general anxiety and neglectful style were negatively related to career exploration; secure
attachment and fear of failing were positively related to it. For boys, fear of disappointing parents was positively related to career exploration. Attachment to parents, authoritative style,
general anxiety, and fear of failing were related to some career exploration satisfaction scores,
though diVerently for boys and girls. The diVerences between boys and girls in the roles played
by anxiety, attachment and parenting style are discussed.
2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

We thank the adolescents who participated in this study and the school staVs and parents who made it
possible. The study was supported by the Center for Research in the Psychology of Cognition, Language,
and Emotion (EA3273) of the University of Provence and the Research Center Personnalisation
et Changement Sociaux (EA1687) of the University Toulouse Le Mirail.

Corresponding author. Fax: +33 4 42 38 91 70.

E-mail address: evignoli@up.univ-aix.fr (E. Vignoli).

0001-8791/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2004.08.006

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E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

Keywords: Attachment; Anxiety; Parenting style; Career exploration process; Adolescence; School transition; Career exploration satisfaction; Individual diVerences

1. Introduction
School transitions are frequently perceived by adolescents as threatening situations (Larose & Boivin, 1998). The relationship between parents and adolescents may
provide emotional support to cope with these situations. According to Bowlby (1978,
1982), secure attachment provides a secure base from which one can explore with self
conWdence. The provision of felt security might facilitate exploratory activity (EA) by
reducing the anxiety, emotional stress, and feelings of depression and loneliness
which are aroused by the school transition and the planning for a future career which
are speciWc to adolescence (Blustein, Preszioso, & Schultheiss, 1995; Larose & Boivin,
1998; Papini & Roggman, 1992).
The last year of high school is one of the most important transitions in the French
educational system. At the end of the year, students take an exam to obtain a
national diploma. This diploma guarantees them entrance to college and permits
them to choose the academic or vocational training which will be decisive for their
future careers. This is therefore a stressful period for French youth, as they must
choose the type of university education they want, and the type of work they want to
do. The exploration of educational and vocational environments is an adaptive way
to cope with that situation. Previous studies have shown that attachments to mother,
father or peers were associated with greater levels of EA directed toward both self
and environment in late adolescence (e.g., Felsman & Blustein, 1999; Ketterson &
Blustein, 1997). The secure attachment of French adolescents to mother or father
would be expected to facilitate their exploration of their educational and vocational
environments.
Another aspect of the inXuence of parents on the exploration process is parenting
style. Four parenting styles have generally been deWned in terms of the interaction of
two independent dimensions: warmth-hostility and controllinguncontrolling
(Baumrind, 1971; Maccoby & Martin, 1983). The Wrst dimension refers to the parents responsivity and the amount of aVection they display. The second dimension
refers to the degree of supervision parents undertake with their children. On the basis
of adolescents ratings of their parents on these two dimensions, four parenting styles
have generally been proposed: authoritative (warm and controlling), authoritarian
(hostile and controlling), permissive (warm and uncontrolling), and neglectful (hostile and uncontrolling).
Adolescents from authoritative families have the highest adjustment scores in
many areas, while adolescents from neglectful families have the lowest (e.g.,
Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, & Dornbusch, 1991). Kracke (1997) showed that
authoritative style is positively associated with exploration of self and environment
in middle adolescence. As far as we know, no research has studied the eVect of parenting styles on EA of late adolescents. Because authoritative parents show warmth

E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

155

toward and interest in their adolescents as well as laying down rules, they should
stimulate the late adolescent to search for educational and vocational information, in
order to foster the adolescents autonomy. Conversely, neglectful parents, who show
no interest in the adolescents school and career plans, and do not lay down rules,
would discourage their adolescents EA. We did not formulate any hypotheses about
the other styles because each theoretically involves underlying processes whose eVects
on career exploration and satisfaction counteract each other.
Anxiety is another factor which inXuences career exploration (Blustein & Phillips,
1988). According to the classical distinction made by Spielberger (1966), anxiety was
considered either a state or a general personality trait. The former is deWned in reference to a situation perceived as threatening. The latter emphasizes individual diVerences in the tendency to perceive situations as threatening. General trait anxiety is
deWned as a personality trait referring individual diVerences in the likelihood of experiencing state anxiety in most stressful situations. The speciWcs of the situational context are not taken into account in measures of the trait. However, some theorists
argue for a person-in-context perspective in the domain of vocational psychology
(Savickas, 2000) and personality traits (Endler, Parker, Bagby, & Cox, 1991). From
this perspective, individual diVerences in anxiety can be conceptualized in relation to
a speciWc threatening situational context, such as the vocational context. The tendency to experience anxiety in one type of threatening situation is relatively independent of the tendency to experience anxiety in other types (Endler et al., 1991).
The tendency to experience anxiety in relation to the vocational context was considered a form of social anxiety, since it concerns the individuals position as a student or professional in the society as a whole (Mallet, 2002). This position may be
more or less validating and more or less secure. Mallet (2002) showed that career trait
anxiety progressively increases in adolescence. At least three diVerent forms of career
trait anxiety were identiWed in this period (Mallet & Vignoli, 2005): fear of failing in
ones academic or professional career, fear that ones parents might be disappointed
in ones career choice, and fear of moving away from family and intimate relationships as a consequence of job or academic requirements.
The eVect of state anxietyanxiety aroused by career decision making and environmental explorationon the career exploration process of late adolescents was
examined by Blustein and Phillips (1988). Contrary to the authors hypothesis, state
anxiety aroused by exploration was found to promote late adolescents vocational
EA. The eVect of the contextual state anxiety aroused by exploration was interpreted
as being less salient than anxiety aroused by the career choices to which this EA
contribute.
As far as we know, no study has yet explored the inXuence of anxiety as a personality trait, with or without reference to a context, on the exploration process. Yet the
relation between trait anxiety and vocational exploration remains unclear. Trait anxiety might be expected to inhibit some types of EA, because trait anxiety is related to
cognitive hypervigilance (Eysenck, 1992). According to Eysencks theory, hypervigilance is a crucial characteristic of anxious individuals that can express in several
ways. In one of these ways, anxiety reduces the breath of attention and increases
attentional selectivity, especially when threatening or relevant information is local-

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E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

ized. Conversely, when it is not known which aspect of the environment might contain a threatening stimulus or relevant information, anxious individuals increase
breadth of attention to facilitate detection of any threatening stimuli. According to
this theory, adolescents with high contextual trait anxiety (career anxiety) should
focus on vocational information which is easily discerned to be signiWcant, and then
should display more EA. Because academic and vocational information is not relevant information for adolescents with high general trait anxiety, those adolescents
should expand their breadth of attention to take in an environment wider than the
educational and vocational environments alone, to maximize the detection of signiWcant threatening information. The search for diversiWed information which is
aroused by general trait anxiety could interfere with the search for academic and
vocational information.
This study examined the relation between the three previous factors and career
exploration satisfaction (CES), that is, satisfaction with the EA that an individual
carried out several months before the transition. Given the previous deWnitions, we
speciWed the following hypotheses:
H1: General trait anxiety relates negatively, and career trait anxiety relates positively, to the frequency and diversity of adolescents EA.
H2: Attachments to mother and father relate positively to the frequency and
diversity of adolescents EA. Attachments to mother and father, in addition to the
hypothesized eVect of anxiety, account for the frequency and diversity of EA.
H3: Authoritative style relates positively, and neglectful style relate negatively, to
the frequency and diversity of adolescents EA. Authoritative and neglectful styles,
in addition to the hypothesized eVect of anxiety and attachments, account for the
frequency and diversity of EA.
H4: General trait anxiety relates negatively, and career trait anxiety relates positively, to CES.
H5: Attachments to mother and father relate positively to CES. Attachments to
mother and father, in addition to the hypothesized eVect of anxiety, account for
CES.
H6: Authoritative style relates positively, and neglectful style relates negatively, to
CES. Authoritative and neglectful styles, in addition to the hypothesized eVect of
anxiety and attachments, account for the CES.

2. Method
2.1. Participants
Two hundred and 83 high school students participated in the study. They ranged
in age from 16.5 to 20.8 with a mean age of 18.11 years (SD D 0.71). Thirty-three percent of the sample consisted of boys. The mean age of the boys was 18.02 (SD D 0.73)
and the mean age of the girls was 18.16 (SD D 0.70). The adolescents were of middleto-high socioeconomic status with no signiWcant diVerences between the family status

E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

157

of girls and boys. All of the participants were recruited in public high schools in the
south of France and were in their last year of high school. The school administrations
had asked whole classes to participate in a study on career guidance. All of the
students agreed to participate, and all had parental consent.
2.2. Measures
2.2.1. Attachment to parents
A French-validated brief version (Vignoli & Mallet, 2004) of Parent and Peer
Attachment Inventory (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987) was used to assess the degree of
the adolescents attachments to father and mother. The French version is a 14-item
self-report scale that assesses attachment to mother and to father separately with the
same items on a Wve-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (almost never or never) to
5 (almost always or always). The Inventory is composed of three speciWc subscales:
Trust (4 items, e.g., My mother respects my feelings), Communication (6 items, e.g.,
My mother encourages me to talk about my diYculties) and Alienation (4 items,
e.g., My mother doesnt understand what Im going through these days). Internal
consistency was high for each scale and subscale, ranging from .75 to. 91.
2.2.2. Measures of anxiety
Two scales were used to assess two types of anxiety: general trait anxiety and
career development anxiety.
2.2.3. General trait anxiety
General trait anxiety was assessed with the French version of the Trait Spielberger
Inventory (Bruchon-Schweizer & Paulhan, 1993). The scale consists of 20 items that
measure anxiety in general without reference to a particular context. Each item is
rated on a four-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (almost never or never) to 4 (almost
always or always). The
coeYcient for the scale was .89.
2.2.4. Career anxiety
Career development anxiety was assessed with the Future School and Career Anxiety Inventory (Mallet & Vignoli, 2005). This instrument, which is currently being
developed, assesses three dimensions of career anxiety: (a) fear of failing in ones academic or professional career (11 items, e.g., I keep feeling I wont be able to succeed
academically), (b) fear that ones parents might be disappointed in ones career
choice (10 items, e.g., I worry my parents dont understand my academic and career
plans), and (c) fear of having to leave the family and other intimate relationships as
a result of ones career development. The goal of these measures was to identify the
principal sources of adolescents anxiety about their future academic and vocational
careers, and to examine the eVects of those forms of anxiety on adolescents vocational behavior.
Only the Wrst two dimensions were taken into account in the present study. The
third dimension was of no interest, because the EA we considered was not expected
to be related to the possibility of moving away from family and friends. The internal

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E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

consistency was .87 and .86 for the two Wrst scales, respectively. Respondents indicated the extent to which they agreed with the statement on a Wve-point scale ranging
from 1 (not at all) to 5 (deWnitely). The correlation between the two scales was .39. The
scales correlated positively to the Spielberger general anxiety scale, i.e., .60 and .28,
respectively.
2.2.5. Parenting styles
The four parenting styles were assessed with a 29-item French self-report questionnaire (Bourcet, 1994). The authoritative scale includes 10 items (e.g., My parents
take my point of view into account), the authoritarian scale 7 items (e.g. My parents think I am too young to express my opinion when they are having a discussion), the permissive scale 6 items (e.g., My parents would always prefer letting me
make my own decision, rather than inXuencing me by giving me advice), and the
neglectful scale 6 items (e.g., My parents dont help me even when I need advice).
On a four-point Likert type scale from 1 (deWnitely wrong) to 4 (deWnitely right), participants rated the extent to which each proposal reXected their relations with their
parents. The internal consistency of these four scales was moderate to high: .79, .57,
.59, and .81, respectively.
2.2.6. Exploration process
A scale was constructed for French late adolescents to assess exploration of their
educational and vocational environments during the preceding 8 months. The EA
was assessed in two ways: (a) the frequency with which the adolescent had carried
out four diVerent types of EA (visiting career counseling centers, requesting information, reading brochures, seeking out information unrelated to career plans) and (b)
the diversity within each of those types of EA (the number of diVerent brochures
read, the number of diVerent people from whom vocational information was
sought). Participants responded to items on a Wve-point rating scale from 0 (never)
to 5 (very often). Frequency scores correspond to the mean scores of items ranging
from 0 to 5. Diversity scores correspond to the mean scores of the items to which the
students had responded at least once.
Each type of EA was assessed by several items. The items were submitted to a
principal component analysis followed by a varimax rotation. Contrary to the
hypotheses, the Wve-factor solution explaining 54.29% of the variance was better than
the four factor one. The Wve factors reXected respectively: (a) reading career brochures (5 items), (b) requesting vocational information from family members
(mother, father or others) (3 items), (c) requesting vocational information from
acquaintances (friends, teacher) (3 items), (d) visiting career counseling centers and
talking to professionals (counselors or other career development professionals) (5
items), and (e) seeking out vocational information unrelated to career plans (3 items).
The diversity and frequency of EA were both assessed by these same Wve factors. For
the frequency and diversity of EA, both speciWc scores corresponding to each of the
Wve dimensions and total scores were calculated.
The
levels of EA scales were modest: .65, .65, .58, .61, and .81 respectively, for the
frequency speciWc dimensions, and .79 for the total scale; .57, .61, .45, .51, and .83 for

E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

159

diversity speciWc dimensions, respectively, and .71 for the total scale. The speciWc
dimensions of EA were highly correlated with the global dimension: with correlations ranging from .57 to .75 for frequency, and from .37 to .76 for diversity. The Wve
speciWc dimensions of EA were slightly or moderately intercorrelated, with
correlations ranging from .08 to .49 and, from .12 to .34, for frequency and diversity,
respectively.
2.2.7. Career exploration satisfaction
Adolescents satisfaction with their own EA was assessed by three questions. Participants assessed the extent to which they were satisWed with (a) their own career
plans (planned for the next few months), (b) their feeling of being well informed, and
(c) their feeling of having learned something about possible academic and career
paths. For items (a) and (b), participants indicated how well they agreed with statements on a six-point rating scale, from 0 (not at all) to 5 (deWnitely), and for item (c)
they indicated how often they felt they had learned something about the vocational
area of interest, during the preceding eight months, on a Wve-point scale, from 0
(never or almost never) to 4 (very often). These questions were designed to measure
three independent aspects of CES. They are only slightly correlated, with correlations
ranging from .03 to .20. Accordingly, the results will be presented separately for each
question.
2.3. Procedure
Participants completed all questionnaires during one session, in the following
order: parenting style, anxiety, attachment, EA, and CES. They Wlled out the questionnaires in the presence of a counselor, in a classroom when there was no class in
session. At the beginning of the experiment, the participants were assured of the conWdentiality of the results. Participants were debriefed about the nature of the study
after Wlling out the questionnaires.
2.4. Statistical analyses
Hierarchical regression analyses were calculated to examine the extent to which
the frequency and diversity of exploration (total and speciWc scores) related to three
anxiety factors (general anxiety, fear of failing, fear of disappointing), attachment to
mother and father, and two parenting style factors (authoritative and neglectful). The
predictors were entered in diVerent blocks representing diVerent classes of processes.
The diVerent types of anxiety were considered one block. Attachment to mother and
father were considered a separate block, and two of the four parenting styles,
another. The two other parenting styles were not entered in the statistical analyses
because of their low correlation with EA and CES.
Anxiety related moderately to parent attachment in adolescence (e.g., Papini &
Roggman, 1992). To know if attachment, in addition to anxiety, accounts for EA and
CES, we Wrst entered anxiety and then attachment. Similarly, we entered parenting
style third because parent attachment related moderately to parenting style

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E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

(e.g., Vignoli & Mallet, 2004). The reason for doing these analyses was to test how well
parenting style predicted the frequency and diversity of late adolescents EA, beyond the
predictors (anxiety and attachment) already reported in previous studies. To compare
the two sexes, hierarchical regression was conducted separately for girls and boys.
Because our study is an exploratory one, an
level of .05 was used for all statistical tests.

3. Results
3.1. Preliminary analyses
Anxiety, attachment, and parenting style means and standard deviations for the
total sample and for males and females separately are reported in Table 1. The anxiety means indicate that the participants displayed moderate general trait anxiety,
Table 1
Means and standard deviations of measures of anxiety, attachment, parenting style, and frequency and
diversity of exploratory activity for males, females, and total sample
Boys

Girls

Total

SD

SD

SD

Anxiety factors
General anxiety
Fear of failing
Fear of disappointing

2.01
2.44
1.63

0.48
0.72
0.60

2.43
3.03
1.69

0.49
0.90
0.71

2.29
2.84
1.67

0.53
0.89
0.67

Attachment factors
Mother attachment
Father attachment

3.76
3.38

0.68
0.78

3.75
3.21

0.98
1.00

3.76
3.27

0.89
0.94

Parenting factors
Authoritative
Neglectful

3.28
1.70

0.36
0.51

3.31
1.62

0.58
0.61

3.30
1.65

0.47
0.58

Frequency of Exploration
Read brochures
Request information from family members
Request information from acquaintances
Visit Center and professionals
Seek information unrelated to carreer plans

1.61
1.64
1.62
1.22
1.24

0.81
0.88
0.79
0.65
0.94

1.86
1.82
1.86
1.41
1.51

0.76
0.87
0.83
0.68
0.94

1.78
1.76
1.78
1.34
1.42

0.78
0.94
0.82
0.68
0.94

1.45

0.47

1.68

0.56

1.60

0.54

0.74
0.77
0.77
0.63
0.70

0.29
0.33
0.29
0.27
0.40

0.81
0.80
0.83
0.68
0.76

0.21
0.29
0.26
0.27
0.36

0.78
0.79
0.81
0.66
0.74

0.24
0.30
0.27
0.27
0.38

0.71

0.19

0.77

0.17

0.75

0.18

Total
Diversity of Exploration
Read brochures
Request information from family members
Request information from acquaintances
Visit center and professionals
Seek information unrelated to carreer plans
Total

E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

161

fear of failing, and low fear of disappointing parents. To test for possible gender
diVerences, we used t tests. SigniWcant diVerences were found for males and females
on general trait anxiety scores, t (280) D 6.76, p < .0001, and on fear-of-failing
scores, t (280) D 5.55, p < .0001. There were no diVerences between males and
females on fear-of-disappointing scores. The attachment means indicate that participants showed moderate attachment to mother and father. There were no diVerences between males and females. The parenting style means show that adolescents
perceived their parents as displaying high authoritative style and low neglectful
style. No diVerences were found between males and females scores for the two
styles.
The EA means indicate that the adolescents displayed EA with low frequency and
high diversity (Table 1). SigniWcant diVerences were found for males and females on EA
frequency: for total scores, t (280) D 3.39, p < .001; for reading brochures scores,
t(280) D 2.60, p < .01; for request information from acquaintances, t(280) D 2.28,
p < .05; for visit to centers and discussions with professionals scores, t (280) D 2.22,
p < .05; and for seeking information unrelated to career plan scores, t(280) D 2.28,
p < .05. No gender diVerences were found for request information from family members.
Statistically signiWcant gender diVerences were also found on EA diversity scores: for
total scores, t (280) D 2.34, p < .05 and for reading brochures scores, t(280) D 2.34,
p < .05. No signiWcant gender diVerences were found on other EA diversity scores.
3.2. Predictors of the exploration process
3.2.1. Anxiety
The block including the anxiety factors related signiWcantly to the frequency and
diversity of girls EA total scores (see Table 2) but not to the diversity of boys EA
total score, R2 D .06, p < .06, also the R2 was close to the signiWcant level; they were
not related to the frequency of boys EA.
The anxiety factors related to all dimensions of EA (see Table 3). For girls, the
anxiety factors related signiWcantly to the frequency (R2 D .10, p < .001) and diversity
(R2 D .06, p < .05) of reading brochures, to the frequency (R2 D .07, p < .01) of seeking
vocational information from family members, and the diversity (R2 D .06, p < .01) of
those from whom it was sought, to the frequency of requesting vocational information from acquaintances (R2 D .06, p < .01), to the frequency (R2 D .05, p < .05) of visiting career counseling centers and talking to career development professionals, and to
the frequency of seeking out information unrelated to career plans (R2 D .10,
p < .001). For boys, the block including the diVerent types of anxiety did not relate to
the diversity of acquaintances from whom information was sought (R2 D .07, p < .08)
or to the diversity of career counseling centers visited and professionals consulted
(R2 D .07, p < .08), also the R2 was close to the signiWcant level.
The relations between general anxiety and the diVerent types of career anxiety, on the
one hand, and the exploration process, on the other, diVered for girls and boys. The relation also varies in function of the dimensions of EA. As we can see in Table 2, fear of
failing related positively to the frequency and diversity of girls EA. This type of career
anxiety related positively to the frequency of reading brochures, requesting vocational

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E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

Table 2
Standardized beta weights and R2 increase from hierarchical regression equations predicting the career
exploration process for girls
Career exploration process
Total frequency

Total diversity


Step 1 (anxiety factors)
General anxiety
Fear of failing
Fear of disappointing

Step 3 (parenting factors)

Authoritative
Neglectful

.20
.16

.10
.16

R2 Total

R increase

.35
.37
.01

Step 2 (attachment factors)

Mother attachment
Father attachment

R2 increase

.13

.31
.25
.03

.08

.08

.10
.14

.04

.09
.19

.03

.03
24

15

p < .05.
p < .01.
p < .001.
p < .0001.

Table 3
Standardized  weights from hierarchical regression equations predicting the frequency (F) and diversity
(D) of career exploration processes for girls
Read
brochures

Request
information
from family
members

Request
Visit center
information
and
from
professionals
acquaintances

Seek
information
unrelated
to career plans

.21
.25
.02

.14 .24 .20 .24 .20

.06
.12
.07
.33 .27
.03
.10
.06
.02
.03

Step 1 (anxiety factors)

General anxiety
.22 .21 .30 .27
Fear of failing
.38 .25 .21
.17
Fear of disappointing .11
.08
.00
.09
Step 2 (attachment factors)
Mother attachment
.08
Father attachment
.08

.04
.04

Step 3 (parenting styles)

Authoritative
.07
Neglectful
.06

.06
.09

p < .05.
p < .01.
p < .001.
p < .0001.

.39
.28

.34
.26

.14
.08

.00
.04

.07
.12

.04
.06

.02
.03

.12
.07
.03
.35 .39 .12

.04
.09

.03
.16

.05
.23

.10
.19

.05
.07
.12
.15

E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

163

information from closely related people (family members and acquaintances) and seeking information unrelated to career plans (Table 3). It was not related to visiting career
counseling centers or talking to professionals. The fear of failing also related positively
to the diversity of brochures read, the diversity of family members from whom information was sought, and diversity of information unrelated to career plans sought (Table 3).
This type of anxiety was related neither to the diversity of acquaintances from whom
information was sought, nor to the diversity of career counseling centers visited.
The fear of disappointing parents related positively to the diversity of boys EA
total score ( D .22, p < .05), but not to its frequency. It was not related to girls EA.
This eVect was explained by the positive relation between fear of disappointing parents and request for information from acquaintances ( D .23, p < .05) and visits to
career counseling centers and talking to professionals ( D .28, p < .01).
General anxiety related negatively to the frequency and diversity of girls EA total
score (Table 2). This eVect was due to the negative relation between this type of anxiety
and all dimensions of the frequency and diversity of girls EA, with the exception of the
diversity of acquaintances from whom vocational information was sought (Table 3).
Finally, general anxiety related neither to the frequency nor to the diversity of boys EA.
3.2.2. Attachment
The attachment factors contributed signiWcantly to the prediction of the frequency
and diversity of girls (Table 2), but not of boys, EA. For the former, the attachment
to mother and father related positively to the total frequency and diversity of EA
scores (see Table 2). As expected, the attachment to mother and father related positively to the frequency of the request for information from family members (
R2 D .27,
p < .0001) the diversity of family members from whom information was sought
(
R2 D .21, p < .0001) (Table 3). However, it was not related to the other types of EA.
3.2.3. Parenting styles
The parenting style factors did not increase the amount of explained variance for the
frequency, also the R2 was close to the signiWcant level, and diversity of girls EA (Table
2). They were not related to boys EA. For girls, the neglectful style related negatively to the
frequency and diversity of EA (see Table 2). The authoritative style was not related to this
activity. Detailed analysis showed that the neglectful style related negatively to the frequency of request for information from family members (
R2 D.09, p<.0001), to the diversity of family members from whom information was sought (
R2 D.10, p<.0001), and to
the diversity of career counseling centers visited and talks with professionals (
R2 D.04,
p<.05) (Table 3). It related positively to seeking information unrelated to career plans.
3.3. Predictors of career exploration satisfaction
3.3.1. Anxiety
The anxiety factors related to the feeling of being well informed, for both girls and
boys (girls, R2 D .06, p < .01; boys, R2 D .17, p < .001), to the feeling of having learned
something about the vocational area of interest, for girls only (R2 D .05, p < .05), and to
satisfaction with career plans, for boys only (R2 D .29, p < .0001). Detailed analysis

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E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

Table 4
Standardized  weights from hierarchical regression equations predicting the feeling of being well
informed, of having learned something, of being satisWed with future career plans, for boys (n D 89) and
girls (n D 179)

Step 1 (Anxiety factors)

General anxiety
Fear of failing
Fear of disappointing
Step 2 (Attachment factors)
Mother attachment
Father attachment
Step 3 (parenting factors)
Authoritative
Neglectful

Well informed

Learned something

SatisWed with career plans

Girls

Boys

Girls

Boys

Girls

Boys

.24
.03
.05

.48
.22
.15

.14
.27
.00

.08
.01
.16

.17
.02
.00

.43
.07
.15

.05
.02

.05
.03

.08
.14

.09
.01

.04
.00

.08
.09

.11
.11

.19
.04

.23
.02
.02
.06

.01
.02

.22
.07

p < .05.
p < .01.
p < .001.

showed that, for both boys and girls, general anxiety related negatively to the feeling of
being well informed about the vocational area of interest, and, for boys only, it related
negatively to satisfaction with career plans (Table 4). It was not related to the feeling of
having learned something about the vocational area of interest. Fear of disappointing
parents was not related to the various CES scores. For girls only, fear of failing was
positively related to the feeling of having learned something about the vocational area
of interest (Table 4). It was not related to the other CES scores.
3.3.2. Attachment
For girls, the attachment factors contributed to an increase in the amount of
explained variance for the feeling of being well informed about the profession
(
R2 D .05, p < .01). This eVect was due to a positive relation to attachment to mother
(Table 4). The attachment factors related neither to the feeling of having learned
something nor to satisfaction with career plans (Table 4). For boys, these factors did
not signiWcantly increase the amount of explained variance for CES.
3.3.3. Parenting styles
Parenting style factors did not signiWcantly increase the amount of explained variance for CES. However, for girls only, the authoritative style related positively to the
feeling of having learned something about the profession (Table 4).

4. Discussion
The purpose of this study was to clarify the respective contributions of three types
of factorsattachment to parents, anxiety, and parenting styleto the career explo-

E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

165

ration process and, secondarily, to career exploration satisfaction. The results supported our expectation that personality traits such as anxiety related to late
adolescents EA. This relationship varies in function of the type of anxiety. The
career anxiety trait relates to more EA. This Wnding conWrms the facilitative eVect of
contextual anxiety previously reported (Blustein & Phillips, 1988). However, in our
study, contextual anxiety was considered a trait. Such anxiety relates to the development of the ability to cope with the stress caused by school transition by being associated to more frequent and diversiWed EA. According to Eysencks (1992) theory
career trait anxiety decreases the processing of irrelevant informationin the present
study, all nonvocational informationand increases the processing of relevant information (vocational information). This process might foster and enhance the adolescents future vocational commitment. Contrary to contextual anxiety, general anxiety
inhibits EA, probably because it is not focused on the academic and vocational
future. The search for academic and vocational information might be disturbed by
the search for other information, intrusive and irrelevant, which this type of anxiety
arouses.
The types of career anxiety that play a role in EA diVer for girls and boys. Fear of
failing relates positively to the frequency and diversity of girls, but not of boys, EA.
It appears to be a more important factor for girls career identity development, and
probably for their career commitment as well. Fear of failing and, therefore, the perceived competence necessary in a particular vocational area, might play a greater role
for girls in determining their readiness to make a career choice. Therefore, anxious
girls explore more than others in order to make choices which correspond more
closely to their own perceived levels of competence.
Fear of disappointing parents related to the diversity of the EA of boys only. This
result probably reXects the fact that family expectations for career achievement are
higher for boys than girls. More speciWcally, boys are socialized by parents to choose
more prestigious and less traditional jobs than girls (Kracke & Noack, 1997). In addition, boys are generally expected to respect sex roles more than girls are, and are also
given more approval for doing so (Feinman, 1981). It is associated with greater selfacceptance, self-esteem, and popularity (Lamke, 1982; Massad, 1981). Boys might
therefore experience stronger pressure, especially from parents, to conform to sex
role stereotypes in their career orientation and future career choices. These strong
expectations and the fear of disappointing might promote the diversity of requests
for information from sources other than the family.
As expected, the results indicated that in a period of school transition, the more
late adolescents show secure attachment to parents, the more they explore the educational and vocational environments. Furthermore, attachment accounts for variation
in EA in addition to the contribution of anxiety. This result is consistent with Wndings on the inXuence of attachment on exploration (Felsman & Blustein, 1999; Ketterson & Blustein, 1997). The quality of the relationship between parents and
adolescents may provide emotional support which buVers the threatening eVect of
the period of transitional stress, and facilitates environmental EA (e.g., Bowlby, 1978,
1982; Larose & Boivin, 1998) and more speciWcally, vocational EA (Blustein et al.,
1995).

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E. Vignoli et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 67 (2005) 153168

However, some results diVered from previous Wndings on the relation between
attachment and exploration. First, attachment related to girls but not boys EA. This
result suggests, as previous theories and empirical studies have shown (e.g., Erikson,
1972; Josselson, 1987; Palladino-Schultheiss & Blustein, 1994), that close relationships might play a greater role in identity development for women than for men, this
sex eVect being mediated by exploration in our study. The inXuence of family is probably more salient for girls than for boys, because boys are systematically socialized
for occupational roles (Guichard & Huteau, 2001; Kracke & Noack, 1997). Second,
attachment related only to the EA which occurred in interaction with family members. It did not relate to other aspects of exploration, as attachment theory led us to
expect (Bowlby, 1978, 1982).
The parenting style hypotheses were partially supported. The more neglectful the
families were, the less frequently did adolescents request information from family
members and the less diversiWed were their visits to career counseling centers and
talks with professionals. This is consistent with the idea that these adolescents perceive parents and others as uninterested in their lives, and conWrms their lowest
adjustment scores in many areas (e.g., Lamborn et al., 1991). The fact that this eVect
was limited to girls conWrms the importance of interpersonal relations in the identity
formation of girls as compared to boys. Contrary to our hypothesis, authoritative
families did not signiWcantly relate to the frequency and diversity of late adolescents
EA as this was reported for middle adolescents (Kracke, 1997). The small relation or
absence of relation between of parenting styles and EA may be a consequence of
their entrance in the regression analyses after the attachment variables.
As expected, general trait anxiety related negatively to some CES scores although
speciWc anxiety such as the fear of failing, attachment to mother and authoritative
style related positively to some of them. The results support the hypothesis that
secure attachment, authoritative style and career anxiety related positively to psychological adjustment, and that general anxiety related negatively to it. Given the abovementioned results of the study, it is possible that factors such as frequency and
diversity of EA could play a mediating role among attachment, parenting style, some
types of anxiety and CES scores. While that hypothesis was not the focus of the present study, it might be interesting to test it with longitudinal studies.
As a whole, the results conWrmed the role of relational factors in career development and, by extension, in human growth and development as this is posited by the
relational approach (e.g., Blustein, Palladino-Schultheiss, & Flum, 2004; Flum, 2001).
The results have implications for counseling practices. Counselors could assess an
adolescents personality characteristics and the qualities of relationships with his/her
parents in order to identify the positive or negative relational inXuences on exploration activity and satisfaction. They could gear their approaches to these factors so as
to help them improve and diversify some of their EA. The improvement of EA might
then lead to greater CES and less anxiety. Because the EA of girls and boys is inXuenced by diVerent factors, counselors should not deal with girls and boys in the same
way.
This study has a number of limitations. One is the modest contribution of each
factor to EA and CES. This suggests that other factors, such as contextual factors

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167

and other individual characteristics, might also contribute to explaining the exploration process and career satisfaction. In addition, as was suggested earlier (Flum &
Blustein, 2000; Savickas, 2000), an analysis of the interaction of these two types of
factors in future studies might lead to a deeper understanding of the exploration and
career development processes. Furthermore, we cannot infer causal relations among
variables, because all questionnaires were completed in one sitting. Another limitation of the study is the absence of some eVects that may be attributed to the small size
of male sample. Despite these limitations, the study oVers substantial empirical support for the contribution of relational factors to the career exploration process and
CES of French late adolescents.

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