Design and Initial Validation of the Professional Interests Test for Vocational Guidance (TIPOV) in Chilean Secondary School Students

Abstract

This article presents the design and initial validation of a professional interests test, for vocational guidance purposes, aimed at Chilean public high school students. It covers professional interests, social cognitive career theory, and some considerations about the tests with which this construct is most frequently assessed. The construction of the instrument is described, addressing its 13 areas of interest. Then, the text covers its administration to a probability sample of 568 secondary school students who attend 14 public schools located in the Metropolitan and O’Higgins regions. To test the goodness-of-fit of the dimensional structure, a confirmatory factor analysis of the items was performed, using unweighted least squares estimation on the polychoric correlations matrix. Internal consistency was calculated using ordinal alpha and a concurrent validity analysis was performed. The instrument has adequate psychometric properties: good model fit, high internal consistency, and satisfactory concurrent validity. This test is recommended for evaluating professional interests in the target population thanks to several advantages: it is short, up-to-date, and easy to understand; in addition, it can be administered online, which facilitates the generation of automated reports. This can be greatly useful for supporting individual and group vocational guidance processes in educational institutions and for evaluating their intervention programs.