Peter Alexander Creed

• PhD
• Professor at Griffith University

Although cultural influences are a significant factor in career decision-making and progression, cultural orientations remain underexplored in career development research. This study investigated the relationship between underlying value patterns that define cultural orientation and career development among young adults. Latent profile analysis was...

Access to job and study resources is important to enhance workers’ and students’ career optimism, respectively. Yet, it is unknown how these resources foster career optimism in young adults who work and study. Drawing on conservation of resources and self-determination theories, we examined the relationships between job and study resources and subs...

Purpose This study aims to examine the anticipated and actual challenges encountered by occupational therapy and physiotherapy students during their first full-time professional placement and to understand the strategies they implemented to manage their multiple life roles. Design/methodology/approach Longitudinal qualitative research examined stu...

We tested a model in which discrepancy with parents’ career goals moderated the indirect path from young adults’ self-perceived career goal discrepancy to career indecision via negative emotions (regret and distress) and self-regulatory capacity. We surveyed 236 young adults (MAge = 21.77 years; 71.2% female), finding that parent discrepancy streng...

Being optimistic about their future employability can help to provide young people with certainty and independence. We examined the relationship of perceived future employability (PFE) and some career outcomes using the social cognitive career framework. Response (N = 449, 78% female, mean age 21.07 years), revealed that: (a) PFE was associated wit...

On the basis of self-regulation literature, we examined how and when career-related future time orientation predicted later perceived person–job fit. Using a sample of 233 students from one Chinese university, we found that baseline future time orientation related to person–job fit 12 months later via enhancing exploration and focused search. We al...

Access to job and study resources is important to enhance workers’ and students’ career optimism, respectively. Yet, it is unknown how these resources foster career optimism in young adults who work and study. Drawing on conservation of resources and self-determination theories, we examined the relationships between job and study resources and subs...

Informed by self-regulation theories, this study examines the role of positive career goal discrepancies, where young adults appraise their progress towards career goal outcomes as better than expected. The research investigates how person-specific factors, like career calling, and situational factors, such as career congruence with parents, relate...

Internal dissonance and disagreement with significant others over career goals can disrupt career progress. Based on goal setting and self-regulation theories, this study tested the relationships between self and parent career goal discrepancy (gap between what is desired and what is achieved) and career goal adjustment (career compromise and goal...

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for young people in the labor market. Based on an evolutionary life history perspective, we tested how and when perceived scarcity of job opportunities during the pandemic related to job search outcomes. Using a sample of Master’s student graduates (N = 1434; 40.2% female; mean age 25.6 years) fr...

To cope with demands of working while studying, students must structure the boundaries between these roles (e.g., integrate or segment them) to suit their preferences and circumstances. However, students differ on how well they do this, and we do not yet understand the factors that contribute to managing work and study well. We sought to determine...

The 9-item Career Distress Scale (CDS) was designed and validated to measure career-related distress in young people, including adolescents and young adults. Career distress is a common response to negative career experiences, such as struggling to identify a career direction, identifying career obstacles or setbacks, and having to give up on a des...

Managing boundaries between students’ work and study roles is crucial for success at university. Little research has examined the strategies used to manage these roles, the factors that relate to implementing them, and the outcomes associated with their use. Boundary management theory, an identity-based perspective, explains boundary management pro...

Although young people espouse a range of career values, the extent to which traditional career values inter-mix with protean values is unclear. We interviewed a group of young university students in Australia (N = 24, MAge 19.4 years; 50% young men) and examined the full range of traditional and protean values held. Employing applied thematic analy...

We assessed the underlying mechanisms through which career motivational conflict was related to career volitional action in young adults. We tested a model in which career motivational conflict (parent-child career incongruence and career goal progress discrepancy) was related to reduced career volitional actions (career decision self-efficacy and...

Much research has examined the association between precarious employment and wellbeing in adults, but little is known about this relationship in working students. Using a sample of 224 (MAge 21 years; 68% female), we assessed self-perceptions of job precariousness across four domains (i.e., job insecurity, remuneration, conditions, flexibility) and...

Background Research suggests that head‐mounted displays (HMD) can spark situational interest when they are used to provide science learning experiences that are not possible in traditional classroom settings. However, few studies have investigated the lasting effects of using HMDs in an authentic instructional intervention. Objectives We investiga...

We examined how mature-aged, non-traditional students (studying part-time, working full-time) managed their multiple roles by testing a serial, indirect effects model, in which student role congruence (i.e., extent to which students structure role boundaries to meet their own and others’ preferences) was related to study engagement, and where work-...

Purpose Using latent profile analysis, the authors explored the career profiles of young adult tertiary students ( N = 468, 73.9% women; mean age 20 years) to determine the relative importance of traditional career orientation (TCO) and protean career orientation (PCO) beliefs for them. Design/methodology/approach Young adults studying at universi...

Relatively little is known about how working students manage their dual roles of work and study. To extend this research, we examined the direct and indirect relationships between boundary flexibility-ability (the appraised capacity to modify a boundary of one role to accommodate better the demands of another role) and boundary flexibility-willingn...

Managing boundaries between roles is critical for healthy functioning and performance. However, little research has examined how working students manage their boundaries between study and work. The current study combined boundary management and future-self constructs to examine the salience of undergraduate students’ future-selves and the influence...

Researchers have assessed young people's outcomes when they do not meet their career goals, but little is known about the consequences when they do better than expected (positive discrepancies). We (a) tested the cross-lagged relationships between positive career goal discrepancies and the career-related outcomes of upward goal revision, career exp...

Little is known about the role that work organisations play in the career development of working students. We tested a serial effects model (N = 235; mean age 23 years; 70% female) with antecedents to organisational career growth (self-management, supervisor support, work demands, job-fit, job-relevance), and immediate (work-study conflict/facilita...

Using social-cognitive career theory as a framework, we investigated whether research self-efficacy and outcome expectations mediated between perceived research environment and research motivation (intrinsic, extrinsic, and failure avoidance) and interest in research. Participants were 290 Indonesian academics (48.8% female; mean age 43 years). Per...

Existing research on the effectiveness of career courses often lacks evidence on the comparative effects of different pedagogical formats. This study compared the effects of a flipped classroom approach to a traditional lecture-based approach for delivering a career course among Chinese undergraduate students. A longitudinal quasi-experimental fiel...

Background: Parents of infants identified with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) make decisions about managing their infant's hearing loss based on limited evidence and before knowing whether their infant will require additional support. Objectives: The decision-making processes of parents and clinicians regarding the management of UHL following new...

The aim of this scoping review was to map the existing literature to determine the extent to which boundary management approaches have been used to explain how university students manage the boundaries between their various roles. Using a systematic process, nine databases and grey literature were reviewed for potentially relevant studies. After ap...

The 15-item Positive Career Goal Discrepancy Scale was developed to assess emerging adults' appraisals of the extent to which their current career progress exceeds their set career goals. We generated 32 items based on a literature review, focus groups, and expert reviews, used EFA (N ¼ 244, M age 18.7 years; 65% women) to reduce the number of item...

We tested a work–study congruence model, in which student role congruence was related to student engagement and well-being via work–study conflict and facilitation. We found (251 working students; 70% female; mean age 24.68 years) greater congruence to be associated with better engagement and well-being, and conflict and facilitation to mediate par...

Optimistic perception of one’s future employability is critical for young people, being linked to motivation, behaviours, and well-being. We tested some antecedents and outcomes to perceived future employability (PFE) and their mediation effects. Responses (N = 324, 62.3% female, mean age 20.77 years) revealed that (1) career calling, strategies, p...

It is important for individuals to manage the boundaries between their different roles as this affects their personal functioning and wellbeing. Little is known, however, about how students manage their role boundaries between work and study. We tested a work-study boundary congruence model, in which student boundary congruence (i.e. the correspond...

Based on social cognitive career theory, we examined the mediating roles of job search self-efficacy and outcome expectations in the relationship between adolescent–parent career congruence and job search preparatory behaviors and investigated the influence of proactivity as a moderator in these direct and indirect relationships. Participants were...

Based on the life history perspective, this study tested a serial mediation model in which family socioeconomic status (SES) related to person–job fit via resource scarcity, career exploration, and goal persistence. We expected that when seeking employment, higher SES students would perceive lower resource scarcity, and, in turn, adopt more adaptiv...

Informed by a self-regulatory perspective, we tested a model (N = 233) in which job (e.g., autonomy), person (e.g., motivation), and study characteristics (e.g., engagement) predicted student job crafting, which, in turn, predicted work-study conflict and facilitation. Job, person, and study characteristics predicted task (46% of variance), cogniti...

Precarious employment has been increasing worldwide. Yet there are few scales suitable to assess it, and no scales to measure perceived job precariousness in working students who are particularly vulnerable. Using classic test theory, we generated 21 job precariousness items and had them reviewed by experts. In Study 1 ( N = 282, 63% female, mean a...

As there was no existing, psychometrically sound scale that directly assessed the discrepancies that young people experience between individual-set career goals and parent-set career goals, we developed and provided initial validation for a 15-item scale for use with young adults. In Study 1, items were developed, reviewed by experts, and administe...

Informed by goal-setting/self-regulatory theories, we tested the mediating role of career-related effort (i.e., goal striving) in the relationships between career-related indecision (i.e., goal ambiguity) and career-related stress (i.e., affect) and perceived employability (i.e., career-related attitude) and examined the effect of financial distres...

Based on a self-regulatory perspective, this study examined a serial mediation model in which meritocratic beliefs about social attainment were related to higher expected income via career goal clarity and goal persistence. In addition, we tested whether these potential relationships were stronger for young people from lower SES families. Using a s...

The 16-item Work Study Congruence Scale was developed to assess self-perceived congruence between work and study roles in university students. Items were based on student interviews and reviews by experts. Responses were subjected to Exploratory (Sample 1: N = 251, mean age 25 years) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (Sample 2: N = 260, mean age 23...

Abundant research has pointed to the importance of non-cognitive skills for success in life. This paper describes the development and validation of the “UiL”, designed to measure 19 non-cognitive skills that have been identified as being important for school children in Denmark. First, we describe the development of the scales, and then report a pr...

Informed by role boundary congruence, person–environment fit, and conservation of resources theories, this study tested a cross-sectional, moderated-mediation model of work–study boundary congruence in working tertiary students (N = 401). In this model, contextual supports (family and workplace) were associated with well-being, academic performance...

Emerging adulthood provides an extended period during which potential career identities can be explored and feedback obtained before making a commitment. We tested an identity control theory model of the self-regulatory responses that emerging adults might make to negative feedback regarding their career identity. We surveyed 335 Australian emergin...

There is a growing interest in the perceived research environment for higher education academics. As there is no existing, psychometrically sound scale that directly measures perceived research environment for higher education academics, we designed and validated the Perceived Research Environment Scale for use with this population. In Phase 1, ite...

Based on social cognitive career theory and general self-regulation theories, we examined the relationships between negative career feedback (on goal suitability and goal progress) and goal revision intentions (for goal disengagement and lowering career goals), and tested the mediating role of occupational self-efficacy and the moderating role of s...

Few studies have assessed potential underlying mechanisms related to vocational identity development. Informed by goal-setting and self-regulatory theories, this study (N = 286 young adults; mean age = 20.5 years) tested the relationship between vocational identity and career goal–performance discrepancy (i.e., the appraisal that unsatisfactory pro...

This study reports on development and initial validation of a scale to measure young adults’ perceptions of their future employability. Perceived future employability concerns young people’s perceptions of their future skills, experience, networks, personal traits, labor market knowledge, and institutional reputation at the time of completing their...

Based on social-cognitive and general self-regulation theories, this study examined the underlying mechanisms of the within-person relationship between negative career goal feedback and career-related stress. Using a sample of young adults and a weekly survey study with four measurements (212 observations), we found that negative feedback on career...

Parents or caregivers of children who are deaf or hard of hearing are required to make complex and rational decisions soon after the confirmation of hearing loss. Ways of facilitating decision-making have been a focus within the healthcare sector for two decades and shared decision-making is now widely viewed as the standard for good clinical care....

We surveyed 413 Chinese university/college students (57.9% female; mean age = 19.01 years, SD = 1.13) and tested a self-regulation model. We hypothesized that three types of negative career feedback (on progress, on goal suitability, and on improvements needed) would relate to greater career exploration and career goal shifting via cognitive (self-...

Based on self-regulatory theories, this study examined the cross-sectional relationship between negative career feedback and the likelihood of career goal disengagement, and tested whether implicit theories about work moderated this relationship, using a sample of 184 young adults (MAGE = 19.44 years). We found that negative feedback was associated...

We examined the relationships between loneliness, interpersonal motives for Internet use, online communication, and friendships on Social Networking Sites (SNS) in emerging adults. Participants were 1st-year university students (N = 149; Mage = 20.33 years; SD = 2.51). Social and romantic (emotional) loneliness were indirectly related to the total...

We tested a model based on goal-setting and self-regulation theories of the cross-lagged relationships among negative career-related feedback, negative affect (career-related stress), and career goal revision (downward goal revision and goal disengagement). Participants were 409 Chinese university/college students (Mage 19 years; 58% female), who c...

Web-based lecture technologies are being used increasingly in higher education. One widely-used method is the recording of lectures delivered during face-to-face teaching of on-campus courses. The recordings are subsequently made available to students on-line and have been variously referred to as lecture capture, video podcasts, and Lectopia. We e...

The authors tested a model that considered goal orientation (mastery approach, performance approach, and performance avoidance) as an antecedent to vocational identity (career exploration and commitment) and included both career behaviors (career-related strategies) and affect (career distress) as outcomes of vocational identity. The authors also a...

We assessed the underlying mechanisms associated with career related stress in young adults by testing a model in which personal orientation (proactivity and interpersonal rejection sensitivity) was related to well-being (career distress and employability confidence), this relationship was mediated by career goal-performance discrepancy, and career...

Based on goal-setting theory, this study examined the relationship between negative career goal feedback and career-related stress, tested whether career goal?performance discrepancy operated as a mediator in this relationship, and assessed whether career goal importance strengthened the indirect effect of negative feedback on stress via discrepanc...

Cultural orientation and perceived career congruence with parents are potentially important influences on adolescent career development in collectivist contexts, but few studies have integrated these variables in a social cognitive-based model. We surveyed 337 Grade 10 students (53% girls, mean age = 15.9 years) from Central Java, Indonesia, and ex...

We surveyed Australian adolescents and parents to test differences and congruence in perceptions of adolescent career development tasks (career planning, exploration, certainty, and world-of-work knowledge) and vocational identity. We found that, for adolescents (N = 415), career development tasks (not career exploration) explained 48% of the varia...

Career goal feedback provides information about career goal suitability, adequacy of goal progress, and whether changes are needed to reach the goals. Feedback comes from external (e.g., parents, peers) and internal sources (e.g., self-reflection), and plays an important role in the career development of young people. As there is no existing measur...

Background: Simulation based learning environments are designed to improve the quality of medical education by allowing students to interact with patients, diagnostic laboratory procedures, and patient data in a virtual environment. However, few studies have evaluated whether simulation based learning environments increase students’ knowledge, intr...

Career distress is a common and painful outcome of many negative career experiences, such as career indecision, career compromise, and discovering career barriers. However, there are very few scales devised to assess career distress, and the two existing scales identified have psychometric weaknesses. The absence of a practical, validated scale to...

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a self-reporting tool: the hospitality employee’ satisfaction index. Design/methodology/approach – The 15-item instrument presented in this study was developed through an examination of the extant literature and seven focus groups representing the hospitality industry. The instrument...

The dual-process framework proposes that there are two main orientations that affect goal development and management. We examined this framework as an explanatory model for the development of career calling, using a sample of young adults (N = 213, M age 19.9 years). The model included goal orientation (assimilation and accommodation) as distal, tr...

We surveyed 601 Indonesian high school students (57.6% girls, mean age = 16.4 years) and investigated whether perceived career congruence between adolescents and their parents served as moderator between goal orientation (i.e., mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoid) and career aspirations. Hierarchical regression analyses sh...

New scales measuring assimilation and accommodation (cf. the dual-process framework) were developed for use with young adults. Experts reviewed 41 items which were then administered to 235 young adults (Mage = 22; 72% female). Exploratory factor analyses reduced these to two 10-item scales, which demonstrated high internal consistency (α > .90). Co...

We tested the across-time relationships between the person-based resources of assimilation (or goal pursuit) and accommodation (or goal adjustment) and two well-being outcomes (satisfaction with career progress and life satisfaction), and assessed if these relationships were mediated by self-perceptions (perceived goal attainability and optimism)....

The study tested a model that considered goal orientation (mastery approach, performance-approach, and performance avoidance) as an antecedent to vocational identity (career exploration and commitment), and included both career behaviors (career-related strategies) and affect (career distress) as outcomes of vocational identity. Consistent with dyn...

We tested a cross-sectional, moderated-mediation model of career identity in young adults (N = 667, 72.9% female, mean age = 20 years). In this model, career preparatory activities (career exploration and planning) were associated with perceptions of future employability and career distress. These relationships were mediated by career identity, and...

We surveyed 168 young adults (83% male; mean age = 24 years), who worked for a large electronics manufacturing company in Indonesia, on two occasions, six months apart, on measures of protean career orientation, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intention-to-quit, and tested the relationships between protean career orientation and th...

We tested a model based on the dual-process framework that assessed the relationships among personal resources, career goal appraisals, career attitudes, and career goal management, which have not been previously assessed together. The model (tested on a sample of 486 young adults: 74% female, M age = 22 years) proposed that personal resources (ass...

The reformulated learned helplessness (RLH) theory and its associated construct of explanatory style have been tested extensively using the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ: Peterson et al., 1982) against outcomes such as depression. However, support for the RLH theory is best described as inconclusive. This is because: (a) the causal-locus d...

We tested a role-conflict, depletion, and enrichment model, in which work-based benefits (enabling resources, psychological rewards, and psychological involvement) and work-based demands (time-, strain-, and behaviour-based demands, and hours worked) were antecedents to work–university conflict and work–university facilitation, which, in turn, were...

Medical trainees are at risk of psychological distress due to training workload demands. Dropping out of medicine has hidden and real costs to both the public and the individual. Using quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this study assessed differences in stress and coping strategies between those serious and not serious about dropping out...

We surveyed 175 university undergraduates and assessed whether career compromise was associated with career distress and perceptions of employability (employment demand and employment confidence), and tested whether core-self evaluations and social capital buffered the effects of career compromise. Career compromise was associated positively with c...

Informed by a goal setting and self-regulation perspective, we tested a model of perceived career goal-progress discrepancies (i.e., perception of progress made towards achieving career goals relative to where one should be if the goals were to be attained), which proposed that negative feedback from significant others predicts career goal-progress...

We surveyed 355 junior doctors (first 4 years of post-university training; 69% female, mean age ¼ 28 years) from multiple hospital and practice locations and used an online questionnaire to assess their training-related demands (academic stress, concern about training debt, and hours worked), academic burnout, and personal resources (operationalize...

The Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale – Short Form (CDSE-SF) is one of the most frequently used instruments to assess individual levels of career-related self-efficacy. The present study used the partial credit model within the framework of item response theory to examine the content, structural, substantive, and generalizability aspects of valid...

The Attributional Style Questionnaire [1] is a widely used scale that measures explanatory style when investigating the construct validity of the Reformulated Learned Helplessness Theory [2]. Despite its wide use, it has never been demonstrated to have satisfactory reliability or validity [3]. To address this, Travers, Creed, and Morrissey [4] succ...

Theory-based longitudinal research on career calling is sparse. In a two-wave, cross-lagged panel design we assessed Hall and Chandler’s (2005) calling model of psychological career success using 216 young adults (M age = 20.44 years, SD = 2.54). We tested if changes in career calling over time were associated with changes in goal-directed effort (...

Using social cognitive career theory, we examined the relationships between parental variables (parental career expectations, adolescent–parent career congruence) and adolescent career aspirations and career actions (planning, exploration) in a sample of Grade 10 Indonesian high school students. We found good support for a model that revealed vario...

The reformulated learned helplessness (RLH) theory and its associated construct of explanatory style have been tested extensively using the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ [3]) against outcomes such as depression. However, support for the RLH is best described as inconclusive. This is because: (a) the internality dimension is poorly defined...

Using social cognitive career theory as a framework, we examined the longitudinal effects of proximal parental contextual influences on career aspirations and actions in a collectivist context. We used a sample of 954 Indonesian high school students and measured parental career expectations, adolescent-parent career congruence, self-efficacy, outco...

We tested a cross-sectional, mediation model of career calling, in which career calling was associated positively with life satisfaction and perceptions of future employability, and these relationships were explained by the self-regulatory mechanisms of work effort, career strategies, and emotional regulation. Using a sample of 664 emerging adults...

Career goal discrepancy, which is at the heart of goal-oriented, career models of motivation and agency, is the perceived gap between an individual’s career goal (i.e., future self or situation) and the progress being made toward achieving that goal (i.e., current self or situation). There are no existing scales that assess this construct. To progr...

Junior doctors are at risk of work-related burnout and mental health problems due to training workload demands and responsibilities. This study investigated the predictors of work-related burnout and depressive symptoms in junior doctors. Participants were 349 Australian doctors in postgraduate years 1–4, who completed a web-based survey assessing...

Career calling, a salient career goal that is personally meaningful and oriented towards helping others, is a developmental construct that is especially important for emerging adults when making career decisions and setting career goals. As no existing measure reflects the developmental aspect of career calling, we devised an age-appropriate measur...

Person–organization (P–O) fit has attracted much attention as an important workplace and career variable, but there is little consensus regarding conceptualization, operationalization, and the criteria used to measure it. Values congruence, personality congruence, knowledge–skills–abilities, and goal congruence are recognized as separate aspects of...

Participants were 181 university students who completed measures of career development (self-efficacy, perceived barriers, distress, planning, and exploration) and goal adjustment capacity (disengagement and reengagement). We expected (a) that when contemplating unachievable goals, those with a higher capacity to adjust their goals (i.e., to diseng...

We used two studies to evaluate, modify, and provide initial validation for a revised Academic Hardiness scale. First, 16 experts rated scale items for content validity and identified two problematic questions. Second, confirmatory factor analyses with 300 Grade 10 students (46% boys, age range 14–17) identified a 17-item version to be the best fit...

Goal engagement in young adults is variable. We recruited university students to test whether general personal characteristics (educational ability, core self-evaluations, and well-being; study 1, N = 195) and career adaptive variables (career confidence, exploration, and planning; study 2, N = 152) facilitated career goal engagement. Goal engageme...

We surveyed 280 students (61% girls; M = 15.3 years) and, in the context of goal setting theory and self‐regulation, tested a cross‐sectional model in which goal orientation (learning, performance–prove, performance–avoid) was viewed as an antecedent to self‐efficacy and outcome expectations, self‐efficacy and outcome expectations were tested as an...

Although there is a growing interest in the discrepancy between parents and their adolescent children in relation to career expectations, there is no existing, psychometrically sound scale that directly measures adolescent–parent career congruence or incongruence. This study reports the development and initial validation of the Adolescent–Parent Ca...

The authors surveyed 130 first-year university students (80% female; mean age 20.5) and assessed (a) the level of career compromise they reported between their ideal and enrolled university programs, (b) their career-related strategies, (c) their perceptions of employability, and (d) their career-related distress. The authors tested a model that pr...

The authors surveyed 186 first-year university students and assessed their level of career compromise associated with making the transition to university. Compromise was operationalized as the discrepancy between the job characteristics of ideal and expected occupations. The authors also assessed career well-being (satisfaction, distress), action b...

Multiple theories and models (e.g., attachment theory, rejection sensitivity) suggest that relationship expectations, such as views of others as trustworthy, reliable and supportive, are important outcomes of relationship experiences. We used a new measure to assess children's (N = 837, age 9 to 13 years) optimistic and pessimistic relationship exp...