Career maturity: A latent means and covariance structure analysis of Daidalos: Development and Aging

Abstract

A latent means and covariance structure analysis was conducted to assess the construct validity and construct comparability in the measuring of career maturity across boys and girls. The career maturity inventory has been coined Daidalos. The sample consisted of 2,443 high school students recruited from one county in Norway. Of these, 1,132 were males, and 1,311 were females. The mean age of the participants was 17 years of age. Goodness-of-fit statistics provided support for a five-factor first-order model in which the factor loadings, factor covariances and item intercepts were invariant across groups. Additionally, ΔS-B χ2 was shown to be non-significant for the testing of invariance of the measurement model. Three significant differences in latent means were detected, with boys scoring higher on negative attitudes toward school or dropout intentions, and girls scoring higher on career uncertainty and need for world-of-work information. © 2008 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.