Pessimism, Defensive Pessimism, Avoidant Coping, and Career Indecision in High School Students: A Model Test

Abstract High school years constitute one of the critical periods for individuals' career choice and career development. Based on this, it is essential to identify the factors that negatively affect students' career decisions and to intervene against them. This study aimed to contribute to the literature by testing a model that predicts pessimism, defensive pessimism, and avoidant coping to explain career indecision. 778 high school students (587 girls, 191 boys; Mage = 16.4 years, SD = .52) participated in this study, and students completed self-report measures of the above-mentioned constructs. The results showed that pessimism and career indecision were significantly related, with defensive pessimism and avoidant coping supporting a significant serial mediation model between pessimism and career indecision. These results provide substantial empirical evidence and recommendations that suggest promising ways to reduce career indecision in adolescents, pessimism, defensive pessimism, and avoidant coping.