Occupational/Career Decision-Making Thought Processes of Adolescents of High Intellectual Ability

Abstract

Three competing models of the career decision-making thought processes of adolescents of high intellectual ability were tested in this study. Survey data were collected from 664 intellectually gifted Australian adolescents and analyzed using structural equation modeling procedures. The finally accepted, optimal model suggested that, regardless of cultural orientation, highly able adolescents may place importance on whether a future career will be interesting or enjoyable, which is a probable predictor of their attitudes toward careers and their eventual intentions to pursue particular careers. In addition, the model indicated that those careers considered interesting or enjoyable by intellectually gifted adolescents may also be intellectually stimulating.