EVALUATION AND VALIDATION OF A SCALE TO ASSESS LEVEL OF FEAR IN THE PROCESS OF JOB-SEARCH

Job-searching related fears have been previously studied through related concepts such as anxiety and emotional control. Though literature is scarce about job-search fears, some studies state that there are different kinds of fears in this situation which are related to success in job finding. The aim of the study is to create a scale to evaluate fears in job search. The final scale is made up of 29 items. The total sample, included 283 people and had an approximately equal distribution of men and women and their mean age was 27 years-old. Factor analysis (principal axes and oblimin Kaiser normalization) yielded six factors that accounted for the 60% of the variance. Total reliability of the scale was .93 (Cronbach's alfa). Reliability of each factor was equal or higher than .75. Factors are named fear of failure, fear of overwork, fear of selection processes, fear of not being able to develop one's talent at work, fear of unknown future and fear of making a bad impression on others. The study has shown the need to assess these kind of fears and to intervene through career guidance if they are high in order to increase job-seekers' chances of success.