Development and Validation of an Instrument to Assess Activism towards Environmental and Social Sustainability in Career Counseling

Abstract

Considering the recent attention to challenges regarding sustainability even within career issues, this study is aimed at providing the development and initial validation of the instrument “Thoughts, Feelings, and Actions about Whatever Does not go as It Should” (TFA) which may be used in career counseling and research activities to assess activism towards environmental and social sustainability in career guidance. With this aim, two different studies were carried out. In the first study, after having developed items and having examined content validity, the factorial structure and the reliability of the instrument was tested. The second study tested the discriminant validity with measures of career adaptability, propensity to sustainability in taking decisions about one’s future, and life satisfaction. Results showed good psychometric support for the TFA instrument for the Italian population. Moreover, the results obtained showed as the total score and the sub-factors score of TFA are related but distinct from the constructs considered, suggesting that workers with higher levels of these dimensions are characterized by greater career adaptability, propensity to sustainability in taking decisions about own future, and life satisfaction.