Journal of Adolescence

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1 Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Adolescence journal homepage: A multi-dimensional measure of vocational identity status Erik J. Porfeli a, *, Bora Lee b, Fred W. Vondracek b, Ingrid K. Weigold c a Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and Pharmacy, Rootstown, OH 44272, USA b Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, USA c Department of Counseling, The University of Akron, USA abstract Keywords: Identity status Vocation Career Adolescence Young adulthood Measurement Establishing a worker identity is among the most central aspects of the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Despite its importance, few measures with acceptable psychometric and conceptual characteristics exist to assess vocational identity statuses. This study reports the development and evaluation of the Vocational Identity Status Assessment (VISA), which is derived from established conceptual models and includes career exploration, commitment, and reconsideration dimensions. Results show that the VISA exhibited metric invariance across a high school and university sample. Cluster analyses demonstrated that the VISA consistently resolved six identity statuses across the two samples, supporting the previously established achieved, moratorium, foreclosed, and diffused statuses along with two additional statuses termed searching moratorium and undifferentiated. The identity statuses predicted differences in participants work valences and well-being with the achieved and diffused statuses respectively exhibiting the most and least favorable characteristics. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research based upon these findings are offered. Ó 2011 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The present study describes the development and tests the psychometric characteristics of the Vocational Identity Status Assessment (VISA) for adolescents and young adults. This measure is based on Marcia s (1966) conceptualization of four identity statuses (i.e., achieved, moratorium, foreclosed, and diffused), as well as more recent extensions of the identity status model. The relationship of vocational identity to other identity domains has received little attention in the empirical literature, in part because of the absence of valid and reliable domain-specific measures of identity. Nevertheless, in spite of measurement limitations, some interesting findings have been reported that suggest that Erikson was correct in assigning a leading role to vocational identity development in the overall process of identity formation. For example, Skorikov and Vondracek (1998), while confirming earlier results that found that vocational identity was positively related to overall identity (Kroger, 1986, 1988), reported that advancement toward vocational identity achievement did not depend on prior advancement toward overall identity achievement. In fact, vocational identity development appeared to lead identity development in other domains. Another noteworthy finding was that the developmental progression in identity development proposed by Grotevant (1987) was confirmed for the vocational domain in a number of studies (e.g., Archer, 1989; Dellas & Jernigan, 1987; Kroger, 1988; Meeus, 1993; Skorikov & Vondracek, 1998). Few measures exist to assess the vocational identity statuses, and those that do tend to have conceptual or psychometric limitations (Skorikov & Vondracek, 2007b). While the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOM-EIS; Adams, * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ address: eporfeli@neoucom.edu (E.J. Porfeli) /$ see front matter Ó 2011 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi: /j.adolescence

2 854 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) Bennion, & Huh, 1989) faithfully applies Marcia s model, a subscale created to measure vocational identity status demonstrated marginal psychometric properties, primarily due to the low number of items in this subscale (Skorikov & Vondracek, 1998). On the contrary, the vocational identity subscale of My Vocational Situation (MVS) instrument exhibits excellent psychometric characteristics (Holland, Johnston, & Asama, 1993; Lucas, Gysbers, Buescher, & Heppner, 1988), but it is essentially a measure of career commitment and omits career exploration almost entirely. The centrality of work, coupled with the limitations in existing measures of vocational identity, suggests that the time is ripe for a new and improved measure. Background Rationale for development of a domain-specific (vocational) identity measure Most established identity status measures (e.g., Adams et al., 1989) are global in the sense that they involve items pertaining to many life domains (e.g., work, family, religion, and politics) and are based upon Marcia s (1966, 1993) twodimensional model of identity status, which includes dichotomized (i.e., high and low) exploration and commitment, yielding four identity statuses. The four statuses are identity achieved (high exploration and commitment), foreclosed (low exploration and high commitment), moratorium (high exploration and low commitment), and diffused (low exploration and commitment). Marcia s model presumes that most, if not all people begin in the diffused status and move toward the other three during the periods spanning childhood and adulthood. Recent research supports such a progression (Klimstra, Hale, Raaijmakers, Branje, & Meeus, 2010; Kroger, Martinussen, & Marcia, 2010) while other research argues against it (Berzonsky, 2003). The achieved status is thought to be the most advanced and preferred identity status because it describes people who are committed to roles that they have thoroughly explored. The moratorium status is believed to be a transitory status that most often leads to increased commitment and the achieved status. The foreclosed status is not preferable in most circumstances because it assumes commitment, often sourcing from external forces (e.g., the will of family members), in the absence of adequate exploration. This configuration of low exploration and high commitment presumably increases the probability that one s premature commitments will not suit one s identity as determined sometime later. Finally, diffusion is characterized by minimal exploration and commitment and can be characterized as a disengaged or drifting state. Progressing through identity statuses and toward the achieved status is associated with positive psychological adjustment (Balistreri, Busch-Rossnagel, & Geisinger, 1995; Chen, Sousa, & West, 2005; Marcia, 1980, 1993). There has not been complete agreement on the nature or number and kind of identity domains (e.g., work, family, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, and politics) contributing to one s global sense of identity, but almost all conceptualizations include the vocational domain. Erikson (1959), for example, insisted that the development of an occupational (vocational) identity was the most troublesome and difficult aspect of identity formation during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Indeed, half-a-century after Erikson s observation, establishing a worker identity and choosing a career are paramount tasks as youths make the transition to adulthood (Blustein, 1994; Blustein, Devenis, & Kidney, 1989; Blustein & Noumair, 1996; Vondracek, 1992). Various researchers have commented on the asynchronous nature of identity development across domains (e.g., Grotevant, 1987, 1993; Kroger, 1988; Kroger & Haslett, 1991; Lavoie, 1994; Skorikov & Vondracek, 1998; Waterman, 1985). For example, Waterman (1985) compiled a composite cross-sectional analysis of identity studies published in the 1970s and early 1980s and reported that the development of identity appeared to proceed at different rates across identity domains. Moreover, some identity domains, like ethnic identity, may be highly significant for some individuals and completely unimportant for others, highlighting the importance of the self in context in determining the salience of various identity domains (Vondracek, 1995). The importance of vocational identity development likely varies across contexts between and within societies, but in the context of industrialized countries, vocational development and acquiring a vocational (occupational) identity has been recognized as the most important task of adolescents and young adults. For example, Kroger (1993) reported that various cohorts of students in New Zealand considered their occupational choice to be centrally important in their identity formation. Similar results have been reported in the United States (Schulenberg, Bachman, Johnston, & O Malley, 1994) and in Germany (Förster & Friedrich, 1996). Perhaps even more impressive is the observation that adults report that their vocation was the most important factor in their identity development and the arena of the most significant and earliest identity status transitions (Kroger & Haslett, 1991). In sum, there is support for the notion that vocational identity plays a key role in overall identity development in industrialized countries. Exploration and commitment are deemed to be the two central processes involved in progress through the (vocational) identity statuses (Marcia, 1966, 1993) and toward a career choice (Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996). Career exploration (Flum & Blustein, 2000; Jordaan, 1963, pp ; Patton & Porfeli, 2007) and career commitment (Blustein, Ellis, & Devenis, 1989; Creed & Patton, 2003; Diemer & Blustein, 2007; Germeijs & Verschueren, 2006) are generally perceived as favorable processes promoting the transition from the student to the worker role in most industrialized countries. Adolescents develop their vocational identity as they explore themselves and the working world and get ready to make commitments to both (e.g., crystallizing work choices and personal values and interests). Doing so is believed to improve the chances of establishing a suitable match between the person and the occupation and help the person remain committed to the process of preparing for the worker role despite the challenges or setbacks that may be faced during the preparation period (Super et al., 1996). The vocational identity literature indicates that establishing an achieved identity status is associated with enhanced selfesteem, adjustment, life satisfaction, competence, academic adjustment, and performance (Meeus Iedema, Helsen,

3 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) Vollebergh, 1999; Skorikov & Vondracek, 2007b; Vondracek, 1994). This pattern is also found in the global identity status literature (e.g., Meeus, 1996; Waterman, 2007). Vocational identity statuses may also be associated with one s general emotional, experiential, and motivational valence toward work. Previous research demonstrated that participants as young as the grade-school years exhibit distinct positive and negative emotional and experiential valences toward work (Porfeli, Wang, & Hartung, 2008). To the extent that adolescents perceive work as offering favorable experiences and emotions, they may be more or less willing to explore and commit to an occupational role and remain more or less doubtful and flexible about their choices. Contemporary models of identity status Recent empirical studies of global identity status have implications for the development of a new measure of vocational identity. Two specific avenues of advancement have occurred and are summarized in Table 1. The first avenue is termed here as the Luyckx model (Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers, & Soenens, 2006; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, & Beyers, 2006; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, Beyers, & Vansteenkiste, 2005). This model includes two dimensions of exploration (in-breadth and in-depth) and commitment (commitment making and identification with commitment), consistently resolving five statuses including the achieved, foreclosed, and moratorium statuses proposed by Marcia. This work also has led to a refinement of the diffused status into two statuses termed diffused diffusion and carefree diffusion. A subset of studies employing this model has also found a sixth status characterized as undifferentiated, with all exploration and commitment subscale scores at or near the mean (Luyckx et al., 2008; Luyckx, Vansteenkiste, Goossens, & Duriez, 2009). This work demonstrates that a new measure of identity status could benefit from refining Marcia s two dimensions of identity status into two subscales of exploration and two subscales of commitment, yielding five or six statuses. The second avenue, termed here as the Meeus and Crocetti model (Crocetti, Klimstra, Keijsers, Hale, & Meeus, 2009; Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, & Meeus, 2008; Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Crocetti, Schwartz, Fermani, & Meeus, 2010; Meeus, 1996), suggests that identity statuses are defined by three dimensions including commitment (akin to identification with commitment in the Luyckx model), exploration (akin to in-depth exploration in the Luyckx model), and reconsideration of commitment. Reconsideration, according to the Meeus and Crocetti model, involves releasing current commitments, comparing and contrasting alternative commitments, and a willingness to conduct in-breadth exploration. The research employing the Meeus and Crocetti model with mainly early and middle adolescent samples found that reconsideration contributed to the identification of Marcia s (1966) achieved, foreclosed, and diffused statuses (Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008). It also led to a refinement of the moratorium status into moratorium and searching moratorium statuses. The searching moratorium status reflected participants with elevated commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration and was compared to the moratorium-achievement-moratorium-achievement (MAMA) cycle (Stephen, Fraser, & Marcia, 1992), which characterizes individuals who vacillate between the moratorium and achievement statuses while establishing and refining their identity. Including reconsideration as a third dimension of the Marcia (1966) model may aid in resolving an identity status akin to the MAMA cycle. Age-based implications More than a decade ago, Meeus et al. (Meeus, 1996; Meeus et al., 1999) examined the empirical literature on identity statuses across adolescence and young adulthood and arrived at conclusions pertinent to the present study. First, many in the field had incorrectly assumed that the majority of identity development occurred in the years immediately following high school (i.e., the college years). Meeus (1996) urged researchers to focus their efforts on the high school years in light of evidence suggesting that identity development begins during that period. A related and important finding was that a significant fraction of the field, at least tacitly, endorsed the position that identity statuses could be identified during the early to middle adolescent period (Meeus, 1996; Meeus et al., 1999) despite statements (e.g., Marcia, 1980) suggesting that identity crises did not typically occur until late adolescence or early adulthood (see Meeus et al., 1999, p. 422, for a review of this literature). A new measure of vocational identity status should have the capacity to assess developmental change if it aims to be applicable across the adolescent and young adult periods, given that previous research has found these to be very active periods for identity development. Such a measure should be sensitive enough to find the regular progression of increasing fractions of adolescents in the moratorium status up to about an age of 19 years, followed by a steady decline thereafter, coupled with increasing fractions of those in the achieved status and decreasing fractions of those in the foreclosed and diffused statuses across the adolescent and young adult periods (Klimstra et al., 2010; Kroger, Martinussen, & Marcia, 2010). In brief, a measure of vocational identity status should be capable of assessing theoretically predictable status differences as well as developmental change. A seemingly contradictory requirement is that a measure of vocational identity status should also demonstrate measurement invariance with age. The common classification of measurement invariance is configural, metric, and scalar (Vandenberg & Lance, 2000). If configural invariance is achieved, the number of factors and the items loading on the factors of a measure are invariant across age periods (e.g., data from adolescents and young adults would demonstrate a similar factor structure). Metric invariance is achieved when configural invariance exists, and the size of the factor loadings is invariant across age. Finally, if scalar invariance is achieved, then metric invariance is established, and in addition, the means of the

4 Table 1 Summary of the identity status literature and the VISA. 856 Global identity status models Model Dimensions Identity statuses Measures Marcia Exploration Achieved Objective measure of ego (Marcia, 1966, 1993) B Low Foreclosed identity status (Adams, B High Moratorium Bennion, & Huh, 1989) Commitment Diffused B Low B High Luyckx (Luyckx et al., 2005; Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers, et al., 2006; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, et al., 2006) Meeus and Crocetti (Crocetti et al., 2009; Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008; Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Crocetti et al., 2010; Meeus, 1996) Exploration B In-breadth B In-depth Commitment B Commitment making B Identification with commitment Exploration B In-depth Commitment B Identification with commitment Reconsideration of commitment Vocational identity status Present study Career exploration B In-breadth career exploration B In-depth career exploration Career commitment B Commitment making B Identification with commitment Career reconsideration B B Career self-doubt Career flexibility Achieved Foreclosed Moratorium Diffused diffusion Carefree diffusion Undifferentiated Achieved Foreclosed Moratorium Searching moratorium Diffused To be explored in the present paper Ego Identity Process Questionnaire (EIPQ; Balistreri et al., 1995) Utrecht-Groningen Identity Development Scale (U-GIDS; Meeus & Dekovic, 1995) Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS; Meeus, 2001) Vocational Identity Status Assessment (Porfeli, 2009) E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011)

5 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) factors are invariant (e.g., adolescents and young adults exhibit the same factor structure and loadings and they do not exhibit mean differences on the factors). Previous research and theory suggests that a sound measure of vocational identity status would exhibit configural invariance. We expect the two groups (adolescents and young adults) to demonstrate the same factor structure given that the proposed measure includes identity processes that are known to be active for both groups. We would not expect, however, that such a measure would also exhibit scalar invariance, because this would lead to the expectation that adolescents as a group would not exhibit mean-level differences in identity processes relative to young adults. Previous research reviewed above clearly shows that career exploration and commitment tend to increase from the adolescence to young adulthood. We would thus expect an effective measure of vocational identity status to exhibit no more than metric invariance across the adolescent and young adult years. In addition, we would expect that the measure would demonstrate invariance in the number and type of statuses for adolescents and young adults so that the measure could then be used to demonstrate the regular progression in identity statuses discussed above In sum, if we succeed in constructing a measure with these characteristics, it would have the capacity to detect the regular developmental change leading to an increased likelihood of vocational exploration and commitment and decreased likelihood of vocational reconsideration, which could be used to translate into the language of identity statuses. Initial development of the VISA The VISA (Porfeli, 2009) was initially developed to assess the original identity status dimensions (career exploration and commitment), the two subscales of those dimensions reported by Luyckx, and the reconsideration dimension offered by Meeus and Crocetti. This work also was based on a more differentiated conceptualization of career exploration (in-breadth and in-depth) based on recently reported research (Gati & Asher, 2001; Patton & Porfeli, 2007; Porfeli, 2008; Porfeli & Skorikov, 2010). The original measurement model demonstrated adequate fit according to established criteria (Hu & Bentler, 1999). The internal consistency reliabilities of the original subscales ranged from.72 (career self-doubt) to.88 (specific career exploration). The initial test of the model demonstrated that using just the constructs from the Luyckx model yielded a two-cluster solution distinguishing those participants who were or were not exploring and committing to careers. When career self-doubt (an indicator of reconsideration from the Meeus and Crocetti model) was added to the cluster model, the solution reflected either two or four statuses with the two status solution suggesting that being more or less engaged in exploring and committing was associated with being less or more doubtful, respectively, and the four status solution reflecting the exploration and commitment pattern proposed by Marcia (1966), with self-doubt being elevated in the moratorium and diffused statuses. The four identity statuses predicted meaningful differences across several indicators of career development and adjustment, thereby supporting the validity of the measures and the four identity statuses derived from them. While the VISA showed a promising start, the inability of the measure to convincingly resolve more than two identity statuses signaled potential conceptual and/or methodological limitations that needed to be addressed. To address possible conceptual limitations, the construct of career reconsideration was expanded. This dimension of identity status is conceived here to be composed of at least two aspects. The first aspect is career self-doubt. Career self-doubt is characterized by doubt, uneasiness, and worry about one s current career choice and a sense that others share the same feelings and ideas. Self-doubt is a possible negative consequence of the process of working toward a career commitment, and it may hinder in-depth exploration and making and identifying with career commitments. Research has shown that adolescents who are actively experiencing an identity crisis exhibited increased doubt, confusion, and conflicts with others (Kidwell, Dunham, Bacho, Pastorino, & Portes, 1995), and those in the moratorium status (Hunsberger, Pratt, & Pancer, 2001; Porfeli, 2009) and the diffused status (Porfeli, 2009) experienced elevated doubt relative to the other two statuses. Moreover, personality characteristics associated with self-doubt, such as emotional instability (i.e., neuroticism), have been shown to interfere with career decision making (Jin, Watkins, & Yuen, 2009; Lounsbury, Hutchens, & Loveland, 2005; Lounsbury, Tatum, Chambers, Owens, & Gibson, 1999). Based upon past findings, individuals in the moratorium and diffused statuses are expected to exhibit elevated levels of doubt relative to the other three statuses. The second aspect of career reconsideration is career commitment flexibility, which is most aligned with the original conceptualization of reconsideration offered by the Meeus and Crocetti model (Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008). Career commitment flexibility is defined here as an active and ongoing consideration of alternatives and a recognition and acceptance that one s career choice, interests, and values might change in the future as a consequence of learning and experience. In the context of adults aged years typically changing jobs 10 times and a large proportion of these jobs ending within a year (U.S. Department of Labor, 2004), a flexible approach to identity formation may be adaptive (Savickas, 1997, 2002). Career commitment flexibility may be more prevalent and active for those who perceive themselves as being relatively early in the decision-making process. Adolescents who exhibit career flexibility may acknowledge that they still have much to learn and experience and are open to doing so. While career self-doubt centers on the negative consequences of working toward a career commitment and presumably contributes to a more reticent attitude toward work choices, career commitment flexibility connotes a more positive rationale for remaining uncommitted to a career. Career commitment flexibility is predicted to be positively associated with in-breadth career exploration and career self-doubt, and negatively associated with identification with career commitment making and identification with those commitments. The inability of the VISA to discern multiple identity statuses may also be partly due to methodological considerations. In the previous research on the VISA, the SPSS two-step procedure was used to identify an appropriate number of identity statuses (Porfeli, 2009). Some believe that use of the SPSS two-step procedure should be avoided in favor of using a k-means

6 858 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) method (Clatworthy, Hankins, Buick, Weinman, & Horne, 2007). Others have outlined (Gore, 2000) and applied (e.g., Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008; Luyckx et al., 2005) a more elaborate approach to clustering that involves a determination of the appropriate number of clusters employing an iterative hierarchical and k-means procedure. This method yields an estimate of the reliability of the cluster solution across randomly split halves of the sample. We extended this method here to estimate reliability of cluster assignment across a high school and college sample, which supports our aim to construct a measure that is suitable for adolescents and young adults who are still preparing for an occupation. Aims and hypotheses of the present study The present study represents an effort to unify the identity status models of Luyckx and of Meeus and Crocetti through the further development and testing of the VISA. The specific aim was to construct a measure that could discern Marcia s (1966) predicted four vocational identity statuses and possibly refined moratorium and diffused statuses as well as an undifferentiated status on the basis of unique configurations of career exploration, commitment, and reconsideration. This aim was supported by three goals, including (a) testing the measurement model of the VISA, (b) determining the appropriate number of statuses resolved by the VISA through cluster analyses, and (c) assessing the validity of the identity statuses resolved by the VISA. We expected the sample to exhibit configural invariance and not scalar invariance across age groups because we expected that the university sample would exhibit more career commitment and exploration, but less career reconsideration, than the high school sample given the mounting societal pressure to establish an identity during the young adult years (Meeus, 1996). In a consistent manner, we predicted that the factors resulting from the measurement model could be used to establish a consistent set of identity statuses (i.e., clusters) across the two groups. Aligned with previous research on status progressions with age, we predicted that distribution of participants within the statuses would differ across the high school and university samples in a manner consistent with the university sample being more advanced in their identity development. It was predicted that a greater fraction of high school students would be assigned to the diffusion status, and a greater fraction of university students to the achieved status. In an effort to further validate the identity statuses derived from the VISA, and in light of the extensive literature demonstrating links between identity statuses and well-being (Waterman, 2007), mean differences in core self-evaluations (Judge, Erez, Bono, & Thoresen, 2003), depression, anxiety, and stress (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) across vocational identity statuses were examined. Positive core self-evaluations have been found to be associated with favorable work performance and attitudes (Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005), and mental health indicators like depression have been associated with poorer career development (Saunders, Peterson, Sampson, & Reardon, 2000; Skorikov & Vondracek, 2007a). We predicted that adolescents and young adults occupying the achieved and diffused statuses will exhibit the largest mean differences in their core self-evaluations, depression, anxiety, and stress, with the achieved status exhibiting the most favorable profile across these four indicators of well-being and the diffused status exhibiting the least favorable profile. Previous research with the first version of the VISA found that those participants in the achieved identity status exhibited a more favorable work valence relative to those in the diffused/disengaged status (Porfeli, 2009). Work valence is composed of belief about one s future work as it will be experienced on emotional and behavioral levels. Luyckx et al. (2010) assessed the relationships between global identity statuses and indicators of work engagement and burnout and found that identity achieved and diffused diffusion groups, respectively, demonstrated the most and least favorable profiles. The present study will explore possible differences in adolescents experiential and emotional valences toward work across the identity statuses identified with the revised version of the VISA. Adolescents in the achieved identity status are predicted to exhibit the most favorable work valence while their peers in the diffused identity status are predicted to exhibit the least favorable work valence. Differences among the other statuses revealed by the VISA will be assessed from more of an exploratory frame given that the number and nature of the statuses were not known a priori. Method Participants Participants were composed of two samples. One sample included 540 tenth and eleventh grade students who were randomly sampled from a mix of seven suburban and urban high schools in the Midwest. Of the high school participants who volunteered, 432 provided complete and usable data for the target measures in this study (M age ¼ 16.5 years, SD ¼.99). The sample was 55% female, 20% African American, 72% Caucasian, 2% Asian, and approximately 6% were another race or biracial. The other sample included 402 students attending a university in Northeastern Ohio. Of this total, 343 students provided complete and usable data (M age ¼ 21.7 years, SD ¼ 4.68). Of the 343 students, 74.6% were women (reflecting that the students were sampled mainly from psychology courses), 7.7% African American, 86.4% Caucasian, 1.7% Asian, and approximately 6% were another race or biracial. The university maintains a policy of open enrollment that permits any student with a high school degree to gain admittance; hence, the relative degree of cultural, economic, and academic achievement diversity of this sample may be greater than (or at least differ from) the diversity of students from universities that do not maintain such a policy.

7 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) Measures Vocational Identity Status Assessment (VISA) The VISA was created and employed in previous research (Porfeli, 2009; Porfeli, Lee, & Vondracek, 2010). The items were constructed on the basis of conceptual and empirical work distinguishing career exploration in-depth (i.e., specific career exploration) and in-breadth (i.e., diversive career exploration) (Gati & Asher, 2001; Patton & Porfeli, 2007; Porfeli, 2008; Porfeli & Skorikov, 2010) and the two broad forms of commitment, namely commitment making and identification with commitment (Luyckx et al., 2005; Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers, et al., 2006; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, et al., 2006). The VISA was originally developed by the first author to include 66 items, reviewed and edited by five experts in identity status research, and piloted on a sample of adolescents. Using these items, the VISA was constructed to consist of four subscales aligning with the exploration and commitment dimensions proposed by Luyckx and colleagues, but exclusively focusing on exploring and committing to work. The original version of the VISA also included one indicator of reconsideration, namely career self-doubt (Porfeli, 2009). The result of the analytic work on the original version led to the newest iteration of the VISA employed here (see Table 2), which includes some revised items across the five subscales and includes an additional subscale of reconsideration termed career flexibility (Porfeli et al., 2010). The VISA, therefore, contains thirty items, with 10 items for each of the three dimensions of career exploration, commitment, and reconsideration, and five items for each of the two subscales per dimension. All VISA subscales employed a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree). The subscales and validation measures are described in greater detail below. Table 2 VISA Constructs, Items, Parcel Assignment, and Factor Loadings Construct Items Parcel Std. Loading Career Exploration In-Breadth Career Exploration 1. casually learning about careers that are unfamiliar to me in order to find a few to explore further trying to have many different experiences so that I can find several jobs that might suit me thinking about how I could fit into many different careers learning about various jobs that I might like keeping my options open as I learn about many different careers In-Depth Career Exploration 1. identifying my strongest talents as I think about careers learning as much as I can about the particular educational requirements of the career that 1.70 interests me the most. 3. learning what I can do to improve my chances of getting into my chosen career trying to find people that share my career interests thinking about all the aspects of working that are important to me Career Commitment Career Commitment Making 1. I know what kind of work is best for me No other career is as appealing to me as the one I expect to enter I have known for a long time what career is best for me No one will change my mind about the career I have chosen I have invested a lot of energy into preparing for my chosen career Identification with Career Commitment 1. My career will help me satisfy deeply personal goals My family feels confident that I will enter my chosen career Becoming a worker in my chosen career will allow me to become 2.75 the person I dream to be. 4. I chose a career that will allow me to remain true to my values My career choice will permit me to have the kind of family life I wish to have Career Reconsideration Career Self-Doubt 1. Thinking about choosing a career makes me feel uneasy When I tell other people about my career plans, I feel like I am being 1.78 a little dishonest. 3. People who really know me seem doubtful when I share my 2.66 career plans with them. 4. I doubt I will find a career that suits me I may not be able to get the job I really want Career Flexibility (Newly added in the present study) 1. My work interests are likely to change in the future What I look for in a job will change in the future I will probably change my career goals My career choice might turn out to be different than I expect I need to learn a lot more before I can make a career choice. 2.65

8 860 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) The career exploration dimension In-breadth and in-depth career exploration. These subscales include 10 items assessing two dimensions of career exploration, namely career exploration in-breadth and in-depth. Each set of items begins with, When you explore careers, to what extent do you agree with the following statements? Right now I am. Higher scores indicate greater levels of in-breadth and indepth exploration, respectively. The career commitment dimension Career commitment making and identification with a career commitment. These subscales include 10 items, which assess two dimensions of commitment. The first dimension is an indication of the extent to which participants had committed to an occupation, and the second reflects the degree of their identification with that commitment. Higher scores indicate greater levels of commitment and identification, respectively. The career reconsideration dimension Career self-doubt. This subscale includes 5 items and was inspired by identity status research suggesting that doubt is an important indicator of experiencing an identity crisis, particularly for those participants in the moratorium status. The scale assesses the extent to which participants are uncertain about their career choice and about becoming a worker, with higher scores reflecting greater self-doubt. Career commitment flexibility. This new subscale of the reconsideration dimension has 5 items that assess the degree to which a participant expects and is open to changes in themselves and their career choice in the future. Higher scores reflect greater flexibility. Validation measures Core self-evaluations (high school sample only). This construct was assessed with a measure of a basic, fundamental appraisal of one s worthiness, effectiveness, and capability as a person (Judge et al., 2005, p. 304). Core self-evaluations are defined as a composite of self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, neuroticism, and locus of control (Judge et al., 2003). The wording of the items was slightly modified to be more appropriate to the age range of participants in this study (e.g., Sometimes, I do not feel in control of my work was changed to be Sometimes, I do not feel in control of my life ). Participants responded to the items on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree). Judge et al. (2005) reported acceptable internal consistency estimates (a was between.83 and.87 across several samples). Depression, anxiety, and stress (university sample only). These aspects of adjustment were assessed with the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). This forty-two-item version of the measure includes depression, physical arousal, and distress subscales. Participants were asked to respond to the series of items considering how much they applied to them over the past week. The Likert scale ranges from 0 (did not apply to me at all) to3(applied to me very much, or most of the time). This measure has received extensive support in the literature as a valid measure of the target constructs with internal consistency estimates of.97,.92, and.95 for the three scales respectively (e.g., Antony, Bieling, Cox, Enns, & Swinson, 1998), but appears to be limited for use on adult samples only (Patrick, Dyck, & Bramston, 2010). Work valence: positive and negative work affectivity and experiences. These scales are revised and expanded versions of scales employed with grade-school children to assess their work valences (Porfeli et al., 2008). The six positive and seven negative affectivity items begin with When you are an adult doing your job, how often do you think you will feel. Each item is an emotion that was identified by the emotion literature to be pertinent to the work context. Example positive affectivity items are happy and proud, and example negative affectivity items are disgusted and defeated. The 8 positive and 8 negative work experience items begin with When you are an adult doing your job, how often do you think you will. Each item reflects a common experience within the work context. Example positive work experience items are succeed at work and get really interested in your work, and example negative work experience items are get really tired at work and be assigned too many work tasks. Participants responded to the items on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always) and total scale scores were computed as an average of the item scores. The internal consistency across both samples for the positive and negative affectivity (a ¼.80 and a ¼.86, respectively) and positive and negative experience items (a ¼.78 and a ¼.75, respectively) in the current study were acceptable. Analytic plan The present study is a test of the psychometric characteristics of the VISA. The aim of the analytic plan was to (a) test the factor structure of the VISA and its invariance across age, (b) determine the appropriate number of statuses

9 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) resolved by the VISA and the stability of this solution across age groups, and (c) test the validity of the identity statuses resolved by the VISA across age groups. The analytic method is partly based on a protocol employed to test the Meeus and Crocetti (Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008; Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Meeus, 1996) and the Luyckx (Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers, et al., 2006; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, et al., 2006; Luyckx et al., 2005) models. This analytic method is enhanced by employing item and parcel approaches to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and a more contemporary means of assessing measurement invariance in CFA models. The overall analytic plan is divided into assessments of (a) the measurement model of the VISA, (b) the appropriate number of statuses resolved by the VISA through cluster analyses, and (c) the validity of the identity statuses resolved by the VISA. Results The measurement model: assessing fit and invariance across age Multivariate outliers (about 1% of the sample) were identified via Mahalanobis distance estimates and removed. Absent outliers, descriptive univariate statistics and bivariate correlations were computed for all of the VISA items and parcels (available upon request) separately for the high school and university samples and suggested that the items and parcels exhibited an approximate normal distribution. The item and parcel correlations were generally in the expected directions, stronger within than between constructs, and those within constructs were statistically significant and of a meaningful magnitude. In sum, this pattern of associations generally supported the hypothesized structure of each scale and the interrelationships among the scales. We then proceeded to test the measurement model of the VISA and its invariance across age. To conduct these tests, we computed CFA models for the VISA using item and parcel approaches (Atlas & Overall, 1994) and then we tested the measurement invariance across the high school and university samples. We employed item parcels in order to facilitate a comparison between the results here to those reported in previous research using the same method (e.g., Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008; Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Luyckx et al., 2005). Employing item parcels (i.e., combining a set of items into a smaller subset of parcels) with CFA is known to yield more stable factor loadings, diminished measurement error terms, and improved normality relative to items (Marsh, Hau, Balla, & Grayson, 1998), and simulations suggest that, under the condition that a set of items represents one underlying factor, items and parcels behave similarly in a CFA model (Alhija & Wisenbaker, 2006). On the contrary, other research finds that parceling may be inappropriate for use with items that may be best modeled as multi-dimensional because parceling this set of items may yield overinflated fit indices, thereby obscuring the true number of factors represented by the items (Bandalos, 2002) and falsely suggesting measurement invariance across groups (Meade & Kroustalis, 2006). Computing the item and parcel models permitted a comparison of the measurement model fit employing a conventional approach and an approach used in relatively recent identity status research. The item and parceled measurement models were examined with CFA and multi-group CFA (Jöreskog, 1971) using AMOS 16. The first block in Table 3, termed Six Factor Vocational Identity, begins with the results from the item-level CFA, which involved modeling the data for all the participants. The combination of the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) suggests that the measurement model fits the data in an adequate fashion, particularly given that the model involves 30 indicators and 6 factors. This conclusion is partly supported by simulation studies demonstrating a known bias toward diminished fit in CFA models that involve a larger number of indicators (Nasser & Wisenbaker, 2003). Table 3 Fit indices for multi-group confirmatory factor model of career commitment, exploration, and reconsideration. Model c 2 df CFI RMSEA SRMR Δc 2 (Δdf) ΔCFI ΔRMSEA Six factor vocational identity a. Combined group a ** b. Multi-group b unconstrained ** c. Multi-group configural invariance ** * (24).001 c.000 c d. Multi-group metric invariance ** ** (45).005 c.000 c e. Multi-group scalar invariance ** ** (75) c Parceled six factor vocational identity a. Combined group a 81.4** b. Multi-group b unconstrained 129.3** c. Multi-group configural invariance 135.9** (6).000 c.001 c d. Multi-group metric invariance 192.4** ** (27).008 c.004 c e. Multi-group scalar invariance 234.2** ** (39) c Note. CFI ¼ Comparative Fit Index; RMSEA ¼ Root Mean Square Error of Approximation; SRMR ¼ Standardized Root Mean Square Residual. * p <.05; ** p <.001. a N of combined group ¼ 775. b N of high school sample ¼ 432; N of university sample ¼ 343. c ΔCFI and ΔRMSEA less than cutoffs (.01 and <.05, respectively) suggested by Cheung and Rensvold (2002).

10 862 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) Following the fit of the combined model within the first block in Table 3, results from a series of tests employing the multigroup CFA models are reported. These tests are aligned with the commonly used terms configural, metric, and scalar invariance (Vandenberg & Lance, 2000). The degree of invariance was assessed with two approaches. The first involved the changes in chi-square (Δc 2 ) as a consequence of increasing constraints on the measurement model and whether or not those changes were statistically significant (French & Finch, 2006). These results are included given that they are considered the most typical test of measurement invariance. More recent research on the validity of this test suggests that it may be too strict (Byrne, 2010). The second approach to testing measurement invariance involved computing the change in the Comparative Fit Index (ΔCFI) and the change in the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (ΔRMSEA). The results of these tests are contained in the last two columns in Table 3. The full explanation and rationale behind this approach is beyond the scope of this paper, so the reader is referred to work by Cheung and Rensvold (2002). This work suggests that ΔCFI.01 and ΔRMSEA.05 reflects an equivalent measurement model across groups at a ¼.01 (Cheung & Rensvold, 2002). While we report both types of tests to permit the reader to consider the results from the traditional test, we will base our conclusions on the results from the more recently developed tests employing ΔCFI and ΔRMSEA. The results of the traditional tests (see column entitled Δc 2 (Δdf)) suggest that the measurement model does not exhibit configural invariance across the high school and university samples at even the minimal level. Applying the more recent criteria (see columns entitled ΔCFI and ΔRMSEA) leads to the conclusion that the VISA exhibits metric invariance but does not exhibit scalar invariance across age. This means that the pattern and the magnitude of factor loadings are equivalent across the high school and university samples, but the means differ as expected across these two groups. The second block in Table 3, termed Parceled Six Factor Vocational Identity, replicates the approach used in the first block, but now all analyses are conducted on item parcels to be consistent with previous identity status research (e.g., Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Luyckx et al., 2005). Whereas the previous analysis employed thirty items with five items per factor, this approach involves randomly combining the five items into two parcels (three items in one and two in the other) and then computing all the models outlined above for the item-level multi-group measurement models. In other words, the parcel approach substantially diminishes the number of estimates computed, and as a consequence, it has the effect of increasing the probability that the model fit will be improved relative to the item approach (Nasser & Wisenbaker, 2003). In this case, the fit of the measurement model employing all the participants and, as indicated by the CFI, RMSEA, and SRMR, is quite good and improved relative to the item-level approach reported above. Moreover, the multi-group CFA results suggest that the high school and university samples exhibit equivalent measurement weights using the traditional (Δc 2 ) and more recent criteria discussed above (ΔCFI and ΔRMSEA). Finally, the high school and college samples exhibited metric invariance but not scalar invariance. The net of the results reported in Table 3 suggest that the measurement model adequately fits the data for the entire sample and exhibits metric invariance across the high school and university samples. The fit indices from the parcel approach also compare well to those reported in previous identity status research using the same approach (Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers, et al., 2006). Table 2 contains the item factor loadings for the final model. The VISA items appear to assess six underlying constructs representing subscales of the career commitment, exploration, and reconsideration dimensions, and the configuration of these items relative to the factors and the metric of the loadings appears to remain invariant across the high school and university years. The six subscale scores were created by computing the mean response from the set of item indicators so that subscale scores could be interpreted on the basis of the original scale of the items. The descriptive statistics by age group are reported in Table 4 and reveal that both age groups tend to exhibit commitment, exploration, and self-doubt at levels above the midpoint of the Likert scales around agree and disagree and trending toward agree and commitment flexibility below the Table 4 Correlations between indicators of identity statuses by age group. M SD a High school sample Commitment 1. Commitment making *.48*.10.11*.39* 2. Commitment identification *.33*.28*.16* Exploration 3. In-depth exploration *.21* In-breath exploration * Reconsideration 5. Self-doubt * 6. Commitment flexibility University sample Commitment 1. Commitment making *.49*.08.38*.39* 2. Commitment identification *.09.45*.29* Exploration 3. In-depth exploration *.30*.15* 4. In-breath exploration *.43* Reconsideration 5. Self-doubt * 6. Commitment flexibility Note: High school sample, N ¼ 432; University sample, N ¼ 343. *p <.05.

11 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) midpoint and trending toward disagree. The correlation matrices suggest that constructs within the three dimensions generally exhibit stronger correlations than do constructs between dimensions, lending more credibility to the overall conceptual model. The exception to this trend is that commitment making, commitment identification, and in-depth exploration exhibit a cluster of moderately sized correlations (Kline, 2004), which suggests that in-depth exploration may be strongly tied to the process of committing to a career (Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008). There is also a consistent pattern of weak to moderate negative correlations between the reconsideration subscales and the commitment and exploration subscales. This suggests that increased reconsideration may thwart identity development and/or vice versa. The results in Table 4 also demonstrate that the university sample generally demonstrates slightly stronger correlations than does the high school sample. The means of the six subscales were compared across the high school and college samples via ANOVA to ascertain the extent of the difference between the two groups. Taking a developmental perspective would suggest that the university sample would exhibit more commitment making, commitment identification, and in-depth exploration and less in-breadth exploration, flexibility, and doubt than the high school sample given their closer proximity to the age when adolescents make the transition to adulthood and establish work roles. This hypothesis was confirmed for all of the constructs except commitment making (results not tabled, but available upon request). The eta-squared estimates revealed, however, that the differences were generally quite small to the point of being almost trivial given that no more than 2% of the variance in the six subscales was explained by age group. The cluster model: Identifying identity statuses and invariance in statuses across age With the measurement model of the six subscales established for the entire sample, the model exhibiting metric invariance across the high school and university samples, and the differences between the means of the two samples being in the predicted directions, statistically significant but small, the next step was to ascertain the appropriate number of clusters (or identity statuses) to characterize the six subscales. While there are many different approaches toward conducting exploratory cluster analysis, the approach espoused by Gore (2000) has been used in the identity status literature recently (e.g., Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008; Luyckx et al., 2005). This approach involves multiple steps and iterations within steps, and is, therefore, complex and computationally intensive. The cluster models were conducted on the entire sample and then were conducted using a multi-group approach to discern cluster model consistency across and within the high school and university samples. We also assessed the relative frequencies of participants occupying the clusters by the high school and university samples to satisfy the age-based hypotheses. In the first step, subscale scores were standardized (M ¼ 0, SD ¼ 1), and these transformed items were subjected to hierarchical cluster analyses employing Ward s method and Euclidean distances. Gore (2000), Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al. (2008), and Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus (2008) suggest choosing a solution that is most consistent with a priori theoretical predictions (e.g., number of clusters and pattern of subscale scores within clusters), parsimony of the cluster solution (i.e., choosing solutions with a minimum number of clusters), and the capacity of the cluster to explain the variance in the variables used in the cluster solution with 50% explained variance for each variable being the target. We examined the results from the hierarchical cluster analyses for the combined sample and for the high school and college samples independently and concluded that solutions ranging from four to nine clusters were more or less satisfactory for the whole sample and across the high school and college groups. The range of solutions from the first step was then subjected to a second set of tests involving an iterative k-means cluster analysis. This procedure begins by randomly assigning the sample into two groups. The cluster centers of each group from the first step are used as initial cluster centers for a series of k-means analyses that assign participants to clusters ranging from four to nine. Then, another set of k-means analyses are computed for each group, but in this case, the cluster centers from the opposite group are used to assign participants to the clusters. The two sets of k-means yield two sets of cluster assignments per group. The sets within a group are then compared via Cohen s kappa (Cohen, 1960) to determine the reliability of cluster assignment, or in other words, the degree to which participants in each group are assigned to the same cluster given different initial cluster centers. This entire second set of tests also was conducted by comparing the high school and university participants. The net of these results is depicted in Fig. 1. As the number of clusters increases from four to nine, the mean explained variance of the items used to define the clusters increases from 47% to 64%. Cohen s kappa, as computed by the random split groups and high school versus university split groups (see thinner lines in Fig. 1), tends to increase from four to six clusters and then declines beyond this point. The mean kappa for the random and school split approaches was computed and is depicted as a thicker line in Fig. 1. The trend depicted by the mean kappa line reveals that the maximum mean kappa of the random and school-level splits is 65% and is reached at six clusters. The six-cluster solution typically explains about 58% of the variance in the variables used to define the clusters. These results suggest substantial agreement across the random split and school-level samples (Fleiss, 1981; Landis & Koch, 1977) and demonstrate that the six-cluster solution explains an adequate amount of variance in the variables used to compose the clusters (e.g., >50% of the variance explained; see Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008). These results led us to conclude that the six-cluster solution was the most satisfactory solution, which leads to the inference that the three dimensions as indicated by six subscales can be used to identify six identity statuses. The means of the six subscales of the career commitment, exploration, and reconsideration dimensions by cluster membership for the entire sample and for the high school and university samples are depicted in Fig. 2. This figure also

12 864 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) Fig. 1. Cohen s kappa and explained variance across a range of cluster solutions. includes identity status labels suggesting that Marcia s four identity statuses are confirmed along with two additional statuses entitled searching moratorium and undifferentiated. The searching moratorium pattern is most like a pattern of the same name discovered within the Meeus and Crocetti model and is composed of participants who exhibited a pattern of more commitment and exploration and elevated reconsideration. We interpret this pattern to be reflective of adolescents and young adults who may be vacillating between the achieved and moratorium statuses in a manner akin to the moratoriumachievement-moratorium-achievement (MAMA) cycle proposed by Marcia (1993). The second additional group is characterized as undifferentiated and represents more than 20% of the sample. This group is most like the undifferentiated pattern discovered within the Luyckx model and exhibits a profile of scores across the six subscales that vacillate around the mean for the entire sample, but the shape of the pattern is most reflective of the achieved pattern. Relative to the achieved pattern, undifferentiated participants score closer to the mean on commitment, exploration and reconsideration; hence, their profile Fig. 2. Patterns of career commitment, exploration, and reconsideration for the six identity cluster solution.

13 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) also can be considered less differentiated and more normative. Thinking in terms of the classic 2 2 identity status table reflecting high and low levels of commitment and exploration that yield the classic four identity statuses, this group would be situated in the center of this table but leaning more toward the achieved status. This status is supported by a few studies employing the Luyckx model that have found a similar pattern termed undifferentiated (Luyckx et al., 2008, 2009). A chi-square was computed to discern differences in the frequency of the identity statuses across the high school and university samples. Similar to the developmental hypothesis pertaining to the six subscale scores, with the university students expected to be more advanced than the high school students, we predicted that the university students would be more likely to occupy the achieved and diffused statuses when compared with the high school students. The results supported this hypothesis, c 2 (5, N ¼ 775) ¼ 28.46, p <.001. These results also demonstrated that a greater fraction of university students occupied the foreclosed status and a smaller fraction occupied the searching moratorium status relative to the high school sample. In other words, university students disproportionately occupied the statuses exhibiting higher levels of commitment and lower levels of reconsideration relative to the high school students. Validation tests: Relationships between identity statuses and validation measures Predictive validity tests were conducted by employing the six identity statuses as predictors of participants work valences along affective and experiential dimensions and indicators of well-being. The general hypothesis was that identity achieved participants would exhibit a more positive and less negative work valence and identity diffused participants would exhibit the reverse pattern. Results consistent with this hypothesis would support the validity of the VISA. The four ANOVA models that were computed suggested that identity statuses are associated with mean differences across all four of the work valence variables, with achieved and diffused participants exhibiting the largest differences (Table 5 and Fig. 3). Post-hoc contrasts (employing Bonferroni and Tukey estimates) demonstrated that the largest and statistically significant mean differences were exhibited between the achieved and diffused groups, the foreclosed and diffused groups, and the achieved and searching moratorium groups (available upon request). The pattern of the means of the work valence variables by the identity statuses suggested that the achieved participants generally have a more favorable and less unfavorable view of their future work lives while the reverse was observed of the diffused participants. The foreclosed group was most like the achieved group. The moratorium, searching moratorium, and undifferentiated identity status groups exhibit a similar pattern of work valences with the positive aspects generally hovering around the grand mean. The ANOVA models for well-being demonstrated that the achieved group exhibited the most favorable characteristics, and the searching moratorium and diffused groups exhibited the least favorable well-being. It should be underscored that the indicators of well-being differed for the high school and university samples. The high school students completed an assessment of their core self-evaluations, and the university sample completed the DASS, which provides indications of participants depression, anxiety, and distress. The results are, therefore, reported separately for the two samples, and the expected direction of effects is reversed given that core self-evaluations are scaled such that higher scores reflect increasing favorability and the DASS is scaled in an unfavorable direction (Table 5 and Fig. 3). All the indicators of well-being, except stress, exhibited statistically significant differences across the identity status groups. The post-hoc contrasts (employing Bonferroni and Tukey estimates) suggested that well-being differed most between the achieved and diffused groups and between the achieved and searching moratorium groups. Discussion This study supports an elaboration of Marcia s (1966) two-dimensional model of global identity status by confirming that career exploration, commitment, and reconsideration, derived from the Luyckx (Luyckx et al., 2005; Luyckx, Goossens, Beyers, et al., 2006; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, et al., 2006) and Meeus and Crocetti models (Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008; Table 5 Predictive validity of the VISA: means (standard deviations in parentheses) and ANOVA results. Positive work affectivity Negative work affectivity Positive work experiences Negative work experiences Core selfevaluations Depression b Anxiety b Stress b a Achieved 4.53 (.45) 1.68 (.49) 4.50 (.46) 2.62 (.67) 3.95 (.58).56 (.79).53 (.58).90 (.80) Searching 4.29 (.56) 2.13 (.68) 4.06 (.57) 3.00 (.64) 3.35 (.55).80 (.95).74 (.77) 1.17 (.99) moratorium Moratorium 4.08 (.48) 2.03 (.60) 4.16 (.41) 2.75 (.57) 3.64 (.61).64 (.62).60 (.63).86 (.69) Foreclosed 4.36 (.42) 1.80 (.56) 4.37 (.39) 2.60 (.52) 3.83 (.50).47 (.57).49 (.48).84 (.61) Diffused 3.78 (.54) 2.29 (.71) 3.75 (.57) 2.83 (.50) 3.21 (.50).79 (.69).79 (.73) 1.00 (.66) Undifferentiated 4.16 (.46) 1.94 (.52) 4.14 (.46) 2.72 (.47) 3.57 (.60).37 (.40).34 (.38).70 (.53) Grand mean 4.14 (.54) 2.00 (.63) 4.13 (.53) 2.75 (.56) 3.57 (.60).56 (.64).55 (.59).86 (.68) F 33.22* 15.47* 34.36* 5.18* 18.93** 4.13** 5.08** 2.44 h N *p <.05, **p <.01. a High school sample only. b University sample only.

14 866 E.J. Porfeli et al. / Journal of Adolescence 34 (2011) Fig. 3. Patterns of anticipated work valences and well-being by identity status. The positive affectivity and experiences lines almost entirely overlap as do the depression and anxiety lines. Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Meeus, 1996), aid in identifying multiple vocational identity statuses. Participants who were assigned to the resulting vocational identity statuses exhibited predictable differences in work valences and well-being. These findings support work toward unifying Luyckx and Meeus and Crocetti models into one measurement model of identity status. The correlational and multi-group confirmatory factor analyses employing the six constructs across the high school and university samples support the conclusion that the VISA measures two distinct manifestations of exploration, commitment and reconsideration. The cluster analyses of the VISA suggested that it can reliably identify six groups reflecting Marcia s four identity statuses plus two other statuses termed searching moratorium and undifferentiated (see Fig. 4). While the members of the searching moratorium status expressed levels of exploration and commitment akin to those in the achieved status, they differed from members of the achieved status in that they expressed the highest levels of career self-doubt and flexibility. This status is most consistent with the MAMA cycle (Stephen et al., 1992) and the searching moratorium status found within the Meeus and Crocetti model (Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, et al., 2008). This status is depicted as a double-headed arrow in Fig. 4 to reflect its presumed dynamic nature. Members of the undifferentiated status group differed from the others because their pattern was almost completely normative (i.e., at or around the mean) for all six indicators and is most consistent with the undifferentiated status identified within the Luyckx model (Luyckx et al., 2008; 2009). Those participants classified as belonging in the achieved, moratorium, foreclosed, and diffused statuses exhibited career exploration, commitment, and reconsiderationpatterns consistent with Marcia s identity status framework and previous empirical work within the Luyckx and Meeus and Crocetti models. Of all the patterns, the achieved and undifferentiated patterns were most similar, but the achieved group expressed commitment, exploration, and reconsideration at levels that were less attenuated than the undifferentiated group. The results from the CFAs, combined with the cluster analyses, suggested that identifying and measuring distinct dimensions of commitment, exploration, and reconsideration may aid in refining the vocational identity status framework. The addition of searching moratorium and undifferentiated vocational identity statuses could better align vocational identity status research with innovations occurring within the global identity status literature. The psychometric results also suggest that the VISA may be used to enhance future studies aiming to employ one or more of the career exploration, commitment, and reconsideration constructs as More Commitment Less More Achieved Searching Moratorium Exploration Undifferentiated Less Foreclosed Diffused Fig. 4. Identity status model: An elaboration.