Journal of Vocational Behavior 80 (2012) 692697

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Journal of Vocational Behavior

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb

Career adapt-abilities scale-France form: Psychometric properties and

relationships to anxiety and motivation
Jacques Pouyaud a,, Emmanuelle Vignoli b, Odile Dosnon b, Nolle Lallemand b
a

University of Bordeaux, Research Centre on Psychology, Health and Quality of Life (EA4139), F 330 Bordeaux, France
Research Centre on Work and Development (CRTD, EA4132), National Institute of Research in Work and Vocational Guidance, Conservatoire National des Arts et
Mtiers, Paris, France
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 5 January 2012
Available online 23 March 2012
Keywords:
Adaptability
Transition
Career
Development
Motivation
Anxiety

a b s t r a c t
The CAAS-France Form consists of four scales, each with six items, which measure concern, control,
curiosity, and confidence as psychosocial resources for managing occupational transitions, developmental tasks, and work traumas. Internal consistency estimates for the subscale and total scores ranged from moderate to good. The factor structure was quite similar to the one computed for combined
data from 13 countries. The CAAS France Form is identical to the International Form 2.0. Concurrent
validity evidence was collected relative to motivation and anxiety given that adaptability has been
identified as a meta-competency for career construction in information societies. Relations between
career adaptability and motivation measures were as predicted. However, they provide partial support to the relations between career adaptability and general or career anxiety.
2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS)- International Form 2.0 is a 24 items scale evaluating four adaptability resources
(4Cs= Concern, Control, Curiosity and Confidence) operating in career construction. Among the 18 countries that initially participated in the construction of the International Form 1.0, three of them were French speaking countries (France, Swiss and Belgium). Each
country was free to add new items or subscales to the initial form according to its particular context, but as a first step, in order to
construct a basic French Language Career Adaptability Scale that can be used for comparison, the choice was made not to add any
items or subscales for these three countries. A first translation of the 24 items in the International Form 2.0 was made by a practitioner
and researcher in counseling psychology that was familiar with English language and with the content of the scale. This first adaptation was then completed and double checked by other researchers and studies exploring the construction and validation of this first
scale were separately conducted in each of the three countries before constructing a specific shared form in a second step of researches. The purpose of this article is to report the first studies and development of CAAS in France.
While the CAAS-International Form 2.0 demonstrated excellent reliability and appropriate cross-national measurement equivalence (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012-this issue), its validity for use in France needs to be addressed by further analysis. The present article
describes the CAAS-France Form and reports its psychometric properties, including item statistics and internal consistency estimates.
In addition, we compare the factor structure of the CAAS-France to the multi-dimensional, hierarchical measurement model of the
CAAS-International, and provide some initial validity evidence for CAAS-France scores.
One of the main questions about the construct of adapt-ability as a meta-competency is its relations to personality traits, dispositional dimensions, and contextual resources. Our aim in this study was to define more clearly adaptability as a meta-competency, and
to explore concurrent validity of the measure. To explore concurrent validity of the career adaptability construct, we chose dispositional and contextual dimensions that can be seen as related to the career adaptability dimensions. Our aim was also to explore
the usefulness of CAAS-France for career counseling with adolescents. If 4C's are resources for career adaptability, then CAAS has to
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Jacques.pouyaud@u-bordeaux2.fr (J. Pouyaud).
0001-8791/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.021

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693

be seen as a tool to develop these resources more than as an evaluation tool. For these reasons, we decided to explore the relations
between career adaptability, motivation in the educational environment, and anxiety in school context.
Motivation suggests that individuals are able to be involved in the present, engaged with the future, and have a capability to act
with confidence. The Questionnaire de Motivation pour les Situations de Formation (QMF-6; Forner, Deram, Herman, & Katheran, 2006)
is a motivation training questionnaire, often used by school and career counselors in France to explore the three dimensions of future
time perspective, need for achievement, and locus of control. On this base, the motivated person is then very close to the adaptative
individual who is conceptualized as (a) becoming concerned about the vocational future, (b) taking control of trying to prepare for
one's vocational future, (c) displaying curiosity by exploring possible selves and future scenarios, and (d) strengthening the confidence to pursue one's aspirations (Savickas, 2006). Based on this theoretical framework, CAAS-France scores would relate positively
to all the three motivation dimensions measured by QMF.
Comparison with anxiety in school context refers to another question. According to the classical distinction made by Spielberger
(1966), anxiety may be considered either as a state or a trait. Trait anxiety is a general personality variable referring to individual differences in the likelihood of experiencing state anxiety in stressful situations. The specific context is not taken into account in the measures of this trait. According to some theorists who argue for a person-in-context perspective in vocational psychology and in the
study of personality traits (Endler, Parker, Bagby, & Cox, 1991; Savickas, 2000), anxiety can be conceptualized in relation to a specific
threatening vocational context. Being generally anxious as a trait or situationally anxious about school failure as a state are both circumstances that can be seen as constraints in managing occupational transitions and constructing careers. For these reasons, we
expected negative relations between career adaptability measures and both trait and state anxiety. Because fear of failing relates to
the future school and career context, we expected more important relationships with state anxiety than with trait anxiety.
2. Methods
2.1. Participants
Participants included 609 11th grade students with a mean age of 16.60 years (SD= .88). The sample was composed of 57.47% females. All the adolescents were in their second to last year of high school, close to the transition from high school to university but in a
grade in which they were not forced to make career choices. They were recruited from public high schools. 60.8% of them pursued a
general school training, and 39.2% a technological school training. Public high schools were selected from 10 regions among the 22
metropolitan French areas. In contrast with the US sample, ethnic information cannot be collected in France.
2.2. Measures
The students volunteered to complete four measures for this study: the CAAS-France, a motivation scale, and two anxiety scales.
2.3. Career adapt-abilities scale-France form
The CAAS-International Form 2.0 contains 24 items that combine to form a total score which indicates career adaptability (Savickas &
Porfeli, 2012-this issue). Participants responded to each item employing a scale from 1 (not strong) to 5 (very strong). The 24 items are divided equally into four subscales that measure the adaptability resources of concern (e.g. Rflchir ce que sera mon avenir Thinking about
what my future will be like), control (e.g. Prendre la responsabilit de mes actes Taking responsibility for my actions), curiosity (e.g. Explorer
mon environnement Exploring my surroundings), and confidence (e.g. Dvelopper mes capacits Learning new skills). The item descriptive statistics and loadings from the confirmatory factor model appear in Table 1. The total score for the CAAS-International has a reported
reliability of .92, while the reliabilities of the subscale scores are .83 for Concern, .74 for Control, .79 for Curiosity, and .85 for Confidence. The
reliabilities are generally lower for this sample relative to the total international sample. The total score for the CAAS-France has a reliability
of .85, while the reliabilities of the subscale scores are .74 for Concern, .64 for Control, .66 for Curiosity and .78 for Confidence.
2.4. Motivation Formation Questionnaire (QMF)
Motivation in educational environments was assessed with the Motivation Formation Questionnaire (QMF; Forner, 2005; Forner et
al., 2006) that measures three variables: (a) need for achievement or desire for significant accomplishment, mastering of skills, control, or high standards (McClelland, 1987; Murray, 1953); (b) internal locus of control (Rotter, 1989); and (c) future time perspective
or present anticipation of future goals (Lewin, 1952; Nuttin, 2000). Participants responded to 25 items for each dimension on a scale
from 1 (definitely wrong) to 5 (definitely true). Internal consistency reliabilities for the sample employed in this study were .94 for the
QMF global score, .86 for Need for Achievement, .81 for Internal Control, and .92 for Future Time Perspective.
2.5. Trait Anxiety Inventory
General anxiety was assessed with the French version of the Trait Anxiety Inventory (Bruchon-Schweizer & Paulhan, 1993;
Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983). The scale consists of 20 items that measure anxiety in general without reference
to a particular context. Each item is rated on a four-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (almost never or never) to 4 (almost always or
always). Internal consistency reliability for the present sample was .88.

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2.6. Fear of Failing Scale

Students responded to the Fear of Failing scale from the Future School and Career Anxiety Inventory (Vignoli, Croity-Blez, Chapeland,
De Fillipis, & Garcia, 2005). The scale measures Fear of Failing in one's academic or professional career with seven items (I keep feeling I won't be able to succeed academically). Respondents indicated the extent to which they agreed with each statement on a fivepoint scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (definitely). Internal consistency reliability for this sample was .78.
2.7. Procedures
Participants completed all the questionnaires in one session and in the following order: Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-France Form,
Motivation Formation Questionnaire, Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Future School and Career Anxiety Inventory. They were assured
about the confidentiality of the result at the beginning of the experiment and completed the questionnaire after volunteering to participate in the study. The study was conducted during school hours outside of the students regular class sessions. The students were
debriefed about the study after completion of the questionnaires.
3. Results
The CAAS-France item means frequencies show that the typical response was 3 (moderate) or 4 (strong). Skewness and kurtosis
values for the CAAS-France items ranged from (80. to .12) and (.96 to .24) respectively, but most of them were near 0, suggesting
that the items distributions conform to the assumptions required for confirmatory factor analysis for this data. Scale means and standard deviations for the CAAS-France appear in Table 1. Skewness and kurtosis values for the CAAS-France constructs ranged from
(.33 to .13) and (.32 to .15) respectively, suggesting that the scales distributions conform to the assumptions of correlationbased statistics for this sample. Furthermore, the four subscales correlated from .70 to .81 to the adaptability total score.
3.1. Conrmatory factor analysis
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that data for CAAS-France fit the theoretical model very well. The fit indices were
RMSEA= 0.046 and SRMR= 0.061 (Porfeli & Savickas, 2012-this issue), which conforms to established joint fit criteria (Hu &
Bentler, 1999). They compare favorably to the fit indices for the CAAS-International model which were RMSEA = 0.053 and
Table 1
Career adapt-abilities scale: items, standardized loadings, descriptive statistics.
Construct
Concern

Control

Curiosity

Confidence

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Construct
Adaptability

1.
2.
3.
4.

Item (rst-order indicators)

Mean

SD

Loading

Thinking about what my future will be like

Realizing that today's choices shape my future
Preparing for the future
Becoming aware of the educational and career choices that I must make
Planning how to achieve my goals
Concerned about my career
Keeping upbeat
Making decisions by myself
Taking responsibility for my actions
Sticking up for my beliefs
Counting on myself
Doing what's right for me
Exploring my surroundings
Looking for opportunities to grow as a person
Investigating options before making a choice
Observing different ways of doing things
Probing deeply into questions I have
Becoming curious about new opportunities
Performing tasks efficiently
Taking care to do things well
Learning new skills
Working up to my ability
Overcoming obstacles
Solving problems

3.37
3.66
3.18
3.33
3.08
3.70
3.28
3.99
3.90
3.88
3.71
3.56
3.15
3.47
3.35
3.18
3.14
3.51
3.80
3.68
3.69
3.60
3.41
3.45

1.05
1.05
0.92
1.03
1.00
0.95
1.21
0.94
0.93
0.98
1.10
0.96
1.07
0.93
0.93
0.97
1.08
0.98
0.90
0.91
0.81
0.87
1.02
0.95

.58
.47
.67
.58
.50
.52
.48
.51
.44
.61
.59
.46
.67
.50
.70
.58
.59
.45
.57
.49
.70
.73
.75
.67

Construct (Second-Order Indicators)

Mean

SD

Loading

Concern
Control
Curiosity
Confidence

3.39
3.72
3.31
3.60

.66
.61
.40
.63

.61
.77
.81
.88

*Note: All of the loadings are statistically significant at = 0.01.

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695

SRMR= 0.039 (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012-this issue Table 2, row M1b). The standardized loadings (see Table 1) suggest that the items
are strong indicators of the second-order constructs, which are in turn strong indicators of the third-order adaptability construct.
Comparing the CAAS-France hierarchical factor model to the model for the CAAS-International 2.0 indicated that the loadings of
first-order items on the second-order factors of adaptability were quite similar or slightly weaker in the France data. The most notable
differences were for Concern #2 (Realizing that today's choices shape my future), Concern #5 (Planning how to achieve my goals),
Control #3 (Taking responsibility for my actions), Control #6 (Doing what's right for me), Curiosity #2 (Looking for opportunities
to grow as a person), Curiosity #6 (Becoming curious about new opportunities) and Confidence # 2 (Taking care to do things well)
exhibiting a weaker loading in the France data. Of the second-order constructs, Concern exhibited the greatest difference in loading
between the France (.61) and international samples (.78), with the USA sample exhibiting a stronger loading. The loading for France
Control was .77 compared to .86 for International Form Control. The loading for France Curiosity (.81) and Confidence (.88) were similar or quite similar compared to .88 and .90 for the International form. The France mean scores were slightly lower than the International mean scores: France Concern (M = 3.39), International Concern (M = 3.79); France Control (M = 3.72), International Control
(M = 3.93); France Curiosity (M = 3.30), International Curiosity (M = 3.69); France Confidence (M = 3.60), International Confidence
(M = 3.93); and France Adaptability (M = 3.50), International Adaptability (M = 3.84).
3.2. Concurrent validity
To provide initial evidence for the validity of the CAAS-France scores, we correlated these scores to the motivation and anxiety
scale scores. The correlation coefficients reported in Table 2 show a consistent pattern of associations between the adaptability
score and the motivation and anxiety scores with all six correlations being significant at = .001 level. Need for Achievement,
Locus of Control and Future Time Perspective related positively and moderately to adaptability score while Trait Anxiety and Fear
of Failing related negatively to adaptability score, respectively moderately and weakly. There were no significant relation between
Curiosity and Fear of Failing or Trait Anxiety, and only weak correlations with Motivation subscales. Confidence is moderately related,
positively to motivations subscales, and negatively to General Anxiety. The strongest relation of adaptability was between Concern
and the motivations subscales. The weakest relation was Concern to the Fear of Failing scale.
4. Discussion
Based on the results of the statistical analyses reported herein, we concluded that CAAS-France performs quite similarly to the
CAAS-International Form 2.0 in terms of psychometric characteristics and factor structure. The total scale and four subscales each
demonstrated moderate to good internal consistency estimates and a coherent multidimensional, hierarchical structure that fits
the theoretical model and linguistic explication of career adaptability resources. These results should bolster confidence in the conclusion that the CAAS-France and CAAS-International 2.0 function similarly.
The results indicated a significant positive relation between career adaptability and motivation. This association provides evidence
that these two psychosocial constructs function as expected. Career adaptability and motivation both relate strongly to contextual
aims. Only Curiosity scale appears to be less correlated with motivation. This result can be interpreted by the fact that curiosity as
the ability to explore possible selves and future scenarios could be a more specific resource for career adaptation, than Concern, Confidence and Control which appear to be more generalized.
Concerning relations between the two forms of anxiety and career adaptability, the results provide partial support for our hypothesis. Even if the two forms of anxiety are globally negatively related with adaptability global score, all the adaptability dimensions do not participate to this effect. Curiosity and Concern did not relate with Career Anxiety. These results can be interpreted by
considering that anxiety as a state or a trait can limit the ability of the individual to construct resources in order to adapt, but this
limitation concerns mainly an ability to go through action (to be confident and to control) and less an ability to think of oneself in

Table 2
Correlation matrix and reliabilities (in the diagonal) of the CAAS-France, motivation (need for achievement, locus of control, future time perspective), general
anxiety and fear of failing constructs.
1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

Concern
Control
Curiosity
Confidence
Adaptability
Need for Achievement
Locus of Control
Future Time Perspective
Motivation global score
General Anxiety
Fear of Failing

.74
.31
.29
.42
.70
.47
.41
.62
.61
-.23
.00

Note: Sample sizes reported in parentheses. p b .05.

p b .001.

2
.64
.37
.50
.73
.17
.29
.15
.24
-.39
-.25

.66
.49
.72
.18
.16
.15
.19
-.07
-.07

.78
.81
.33
.33
.30
.38
-.31
-.17

.85
.40
.41
.42
.49
-.34
-.16

.86
.59
.60
.86
-.25
-.02

.81
.47
.78
-.53
-.23

.92
.86
-.20
.04

10

11

.94
-.37
-.04

.88
.51

.78

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the future (to be concerned, and to be curious). One explanation of this result is that career anxiety is focused on future school and
career failure whereas career adapt-abilities are competencies that the individuals developed more generally to cope and organize
their school and career future (without thinking in terms of failure).
The correlation matrix also provides support for the concurrent validity of the CAAS subscales. The Concern Subscale correlated
most highly to future time perspective. Concern involves a planful attitude toward the future. The correlation of concern to trait anxiety
was negative, as it should be since populating the future with events and plans reduces anxiety. The Control Subscale correlated most
highly to internal locus of control, as one would expect. It also had the strongest inverse relation to trait anxiety and an inverse relation
to fear of failing. The Confidence Subscale correlated most highly with both need for achievement and internal locus of control, with
inverse relations to trait anxiety and fear of failure. This pattern of correlations supports the distinctions asserted for the CAAS scales.
The Curiosity Subscale did not have any other pertinent measure to which to compare it. For this purpose, the study would have needed
to include a scale to measure curiosity in general, career exploration attitudes, or information-seeking behavior. The Curiosity Subscale
correlated equally and weakly to the three motivation scores and was unrelated to trait anxiety and fear of failing.
More generally, these results suggest possibilities for future use of CAAS both for researchers and practitioners. For researchers, further analyses must be made to explore links between career adaptability and other constructs (for example: creativity) and more stabilized characteristics such as intelligence in order to establish a nomological network for adaptability. For
practitioners, the question is not how to use the CAAS to measure career adaptability. The important issue involves constructing
and testing interventions that increase adaptability resources when CAAS scores indicate that they may benefit from further
development.
Based on the results reported herein, the CAAS-France appears ready for use by researchers and practitioners who wish to experiment with measuring and developing adaptability resources among students. Further research will examine its validity for use with
employed adults. However, given the success of the CAAS-International when used with employed adults, we believe that researchers
may begin to use the scale with adults who are anticipating occupational transitions. The next step will be the further development of
the French language version of CAAS, still fitting with CAAS-International, completed with specific items corresponding to world of
work, socio-economic and cultural situation in France.
Appendix A. Career adapt-abilities scale-France form

Nom

Age:

Homme ou Femme

Les noncs suivants dcrivent la manire dont on peut se prparer des changements dans sa
trajectoire scolaire ou professionnelle (quil sagisse du passage de lcole au monde du travail
ou dun emploi un autre). Nous avons tous diffrents atouts pour nous prparer ces
changements.. Merci d'indiquer quels sont les vtres en utilisant lchelle suivante:
5 = J'ai une trs forte capacit de
4 = J'ai une forte capacit de
3 = J'ai une certaine capacit de
2 = J'ai une assez faible capacit de
1 = Je n'ai pas du tout la capacit de
Factors
Concern

Control

Curiosity

Confidence

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Items
Rflchir ce que sera mon avenir
Me rendre compte que mes choix d'aujourd'hui engagent mon avenir
Me prparer mon avenir
Devenir conscient des choix de formation et de profession que je dois faire
Planifier la faon d'atteindre mes objectifs
Me sentir concern par mon parcours professionnel
Rester optimiste
Prendre moi-mme mes dcisions
Prendre la responsabilit de mes actes
Dfendre mes convictions
Compter sur moi-mme
Faire ce qui est bon pour moi
Explorer mon environnement
Chercher les occasions de progresser en tant que personne
Explorer les options avant de faire un choix
Observer diffrentes manires de faire les choses
Aller au fond des questions que je me pose
Devenir curieux de nouvelles opportunits
Me montrer performant dans ce que j'ai faire
Prendre soin de bien faire les choses
Acqurir de nouvelles comptences
Dvelopper mes capacits
Surmonter les obstacles
Rsoudre des problmes

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