Identifying subgroups of career decision-making difficulties in Chinese college students: a latent profile analysis

This study aimed to identify meaningful facets of career decision-making difficulties in the Chinese context and explore the effects of study engagement and ego-identity on subtypes of career decision-making difficulties. We applied latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify career decision-making difficulties facets using the 11 difficulty scale scores of the Chinese revised version of the Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ-C) among two Chinese samples (analysis sample: N = 593, age 21.51 +/- 1.49; replication sample N = 344, age 21.22 +/- 1.30). Five career decision-making difficulties profiles were identified and replicated: negligible (10.46%), lack of readiness (7.59%), moderate (47.05%), lack of information-general indecisiveness (7.76%), and salient (27.15%). In addition, we found that these profiles differed in socio-demographic characteristics, including gender, major, and grade. Using the logistic regression methods, results revealed that relationships between every profile and study engagement were more significant than those with ego-identity. Overall, the present study's findings suggested that Chinese college students' nature of career decision-making difficulties are heterogeneous, which will facilitate tailoring counseling interventions more sensitively for the specific client.