Development of early vocational behavior: Parallel associations between career engagement and satisfaction

Journal of Vocational Behavior 90 (2015) 66–74

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Journal of Vocational Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb

Monograph

Development of early vocational behavior: Parallel associations between career engagement and satisfaction☆ Katja Upadyaya ⁎, Katariina Salmela-Aro Cicero Learning, Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Siltavuorenpenger 1-5, P.O. Box 9, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 16 May 2015 Received in revised form 23 July 2015 Accepted 24 July 2015 Available online 29 July 2015 Keywords: Career engagement Career satisfaction Study/work transition Developmental trajectories Young adults

a b s t r a c t The present five-wave longitudinal study examined the parallel development of career engagement and satisfaction among young adults over an eight-year period starting from the last stages of their secondary education and ending after the transition to higher education or working life. The research questions were analyzed with parallel process latent growth curve (LGC) modeling and growth mixture modeling (GMM). The study is part of the ongoing longitudinal Finnish Educational Transitions (FinEdu) study, and followed 826 participants from ages 17 to 25. The developmental dynamics showed that career engagement and satisfaction developed parallel, each predicting the changes in the other. Towards the end of secondary education, career engagement increased and career satisfaction decreased on the mean level; however, later on, after the transition to higher education/work, both processes leveled off. The GMM results also revealed the existence of two latent trajectory groups, one representing a high transitional and the other a low increasing trajectory of career engagement and satisfaction. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Increasing interest in positive psychology and career development has inspired research on well-being in different contexts, such as satisfaction and engagement in studies and work (Pinquart, Juang, & Silbereisen, 2003; Whitley, Huebner, Hills, & Valois, 2012). Engagement in studies/work is positively associated with learning (Salanova, Agut, & Peiro, 2005), self-esteem (Salmela-Aro & Upadyaya, 2012) well-being (Li & Lerner, 2011), and personal initiatives and innovativeness (Hakanen, Perhoniemi, & ToppinenTanner, 2008). Educational satisfaction, in turn, promotes psychosocial and academic functioning and adjustment to varying school environments (Huebner & Gilman, 2006), whereas work satisfaction promotes well-being (Rothmann, 2008) and reduces employee's intentions to quit their current job (Yalabik, Popaitoon, Chowne, & Rayton, 2013). Most studies in the field have examined study (Whitley et al., 2012) or work satisfaction (Truxillo, Cadiz, Rineer, Zaniboni, & Fraccaroli, 2012) separately, and although it has been proposed that vocational development begins in the early school years (Hartung, Porfeli & Vondracek, 2005; Orthner, Jones-Sanpei, Akos, & Rose, 2013), and that a successful study/work transition is a precursor of promising career development (Pinquart et al., 2003), research taking the aspect of vocational development into account is lacking. Moreover, previous studies have suggested that the underlying construct of engagement (e.g., experiences of energy, dedication, and absorption at studies/work) is the same for students and employees (Wefald & Downey, 2009). It has been shown that a continuum exists between study and work engagement, and that career engagement is reflected in one's subsequent wellbeing and educational outcomes (Upadyaya &

☆ The research reported in this article has been funded by grants from the Jacobs Foundation, the Finnish Work Environmental Fund (114417), and from the Academy of Finland (134931, 139168). ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: katja.upadyaya@helsinki.fi (K. Upadyaya), katariina.salmela-aro@helsinki.fi (K. Salmela-Aro).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.07.008 0001-8791/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Salmela-Aro, 2013b, 2015). It has been widely acknowledged that career engagement and satisfaction reflect important aspects of study/ work context-specific well-being (Warr & Inceoglu, 2012), and that these are mutually positively associated (Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002; Rayton & Yalabik, 2014). However, to the present authors' knowledge, no previous studies have examined the extent to which educational satisfaction transfers to work satisfaction and the extent to which the development of career engagement runs parallel to the development of career satisfaction over the transition from secondary education to higher education/work. Consequently, the present study aimed at investigating this. 1.1. Study and work engagement Research drawing on the work engagement literature (Hakanen, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2006; Salanova et al., 2005; Schaufeli, Bakker, & Salanova, 2006) has examined engagement as a phenomenon resembling flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), with reference to the dimensions of energy, dedication, and absorption during studies/work (Salmela-Aro & Upadyaya, 2012; Schaufeli, Salanova, Gonzalez-Roma, & Bakker, 2002). Flow refers to an experience which itself is so enjoyable that people tend to desire it, even at great cost, purely for the sake of the experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). However, the main difference between the concepts of engagement and flow is that flow refers to a short-term peak experience that is unlikely to occur in studies/work, whereas engagement is a more persistent state of mind. Of the three engagement dimensions, energy refers to high mental resilience and affects while studying/working, a willingness to invest effort in one's studies/work, and a positive approach. Dedication, in turn, is characterized by a cognitive sense of significance, enthusiasm, pride, and inspiration regarding school/work, and perceptions of studies/work as meaningful. Absorption is characterized by behavioral accomplishments, fully concentrating and being happily engrossed in one's studies/work, so that time passes quickly. These three dimensions are separate constructs of career engagement, although they correlate highly with each other (Salmela-Aro & Upadyaya, 2012; Schaufeli, Martinez, Pinto, Salanova, & Bakker, 2002; Schaufeli, Salanova, et al., 2002). During secondary education, in particular, developmental changes occur in engagement (Salmela-Aro & Upadyaya, 2012), whereas engagement in work remains relatively stable, even across job changes (Seppälä et al., 2014). These changes and stability may be explained by person–environment fit (Eccles & Roeser, 2009) and by the trait-like and occasion-dependent characteristics of engagement (Seppälä et al., 2014). For example, for most young adults their higher educational institution or workplace provides a good person–environment fit, often better than the fit in their previous, secondary educational institution (Upadyaya & Salmela-Aro, 2013b). For a small proportion of young adults, the opposite is true (Upadyaya & Salmela-Aro, 2013b). Further, work engagement seems to be rather a stable state of mind, with daily fluctuation explaining a smaller amount of the variance in work engagement (Seppälä et al., 2014). Thus, in particular when young adults enter working life and feel that their person–environment is good, it seems reasonable to assume that their stability in work engagement is also high. 1.2. Satisfaction with education and work Satisfaction with education/work describes a subjective, cognitive appraisal of one's overall positive experiences (Huebner & Gilman, 2006). Career satisfaction reflects a pleasurable emotional state during education/work, fulfilled needs, and important study/job values (Wefald & Downey, 2009), and includes one's affective reactions to education/job in general or to different aspects of these (e.g., environment, peers/coworkers, teachers/supervisors) (Truxillo et al., 2012). In addition, several context-free experiences (e.g., overall life quality, life satisfaction) and other context-specific experiences (e.g., satisfaction in family life, relationships) (Huebner & Gilman, 2006; Whitley et al., 2012) are positively associated with career satisfaction. Some previous studies have reported declines in one's educational satisfaction (Elmore & Huebner, 2010), whereas work satisfaction research has shown that approximately 25% of the variation in job satisfaction reflects stable characteristics, and that the remainder can be attributed to changing factors in the environment (Dormann, Fay, Zapf, & Frese, 2006). No previous studies, however, have examined the continuum between educational and work satisfaction in a longitudinal design, and thus knowledge is lacking on the extent to which satisfaction in education is transmitted to satisfaction in work later on. The present study aimed at filling this research gap. 1.3. Career engagement and satisfaction Career satisfaction and engagement are two distinctive positive dimensions of study/work- related well-being (Rothmann, 2008), with varying antecedents and outcomes (Christian, Garza, & Slaughter, 2011), and are important at all stages of one's education and working life (Truxillo et al., 2012). Career satisfaction focuses on the affective aspects and engagement on the behavioral, emotional, and cognitive aspects of education/work (Schaufeli, Martinez, et al., 2002; Schaufeli, Salanova, et al., 2002; Truxillo et al., 2012; Upadyaya & Salmela-Aro, 2013a). According to the broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001), students who are satisfied with their education and life, and experience frequent positive emotions, will exhibit adaptive coping behaviors, feel more engaged, and gain more resources which, in turn, will promote positive upward spirals of success at studies/work. Similarly, the demands–resources model (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001) postulates that high engagement in studies (Salmela-Aro & Upadyaya, 2014) and work protects against ill-being and burnout symptoms, and leads to well-being and higher life-, educational-, and work satisfaction (Upadyaya & Salmela-Aro, under review). Career satisfaction has typically been investigated as an outcome of engagement (Alarcon & Edwards, 2011), with high engagement resulting in high satisfaction in education/work (Elmore & Huebner, 2010; Giallonardo, Wong, & Iwasiw, 2010). Some studies, however, have shown that frequent experiences of positive emotions and satisfaction in school (Reschly, Huebner, Appleton, &

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Antaramian, 2008) or at work (Simpson, 2009) lead to broadened coping strategies and career engagement. Work engagement may also mediate the associations between job satisfaction and performance (Yalabik et al., 2013). Thus, in light of the recent research, the direction of the associations between career engagement and satisfaction remains unclear (Rayton & Yalabik, 2014). Consequently, the present study investigated the longitudinal parallel associations between career engagement and satisfaction. It was assumed that career engagement and satisfaction would show positive longitudinal associations across the transition from secondary education to higher education and work. Moreover, regardless of the positive correlations between career engagement and satisfaction it is possible that changes, reflecting the differing contexts of studies/work and the transition from secondary education to higher education studies and work, occur in their developmental trajectories. Thus, the present study hypothesized further that different latent trajectory groups of career engagement and satisfaction, reflecting person–environment fit (Eccles & Roeser, 2009) and experiences during studies, the vocational transition, and at work, will be identified. Based on the findings of some previous studies (Elmore & Huebner, 2010; Upadyaya & Salmela-Aro, 2013b) we expected to find at least two latent trajectory groups, one showing an increasing and the other a decreasing trajectory. 1.3.1. Schooling in Finland Compulsory comprehensive education in Finland lasts for nine years until the students are 16 years old. After that, approximately 50% of adolescents enter senior high schools and approximately 41% go to vocational schools (School Statistics, Central Statistical Office of Finland, 2010). Average academic achievement in the ninth grade is the minimum requirement for admission to senior high school. Both senior high schools and vocational education take three to four years to complete, after which students may apply to institutes of higher education. Approximately 39% of high school graduates start studying, 44% begin working, and 25% are studying and working one year after finishing high school, whereas 8% of young adults with a degree from a vocational school are studying, 69% are working, and 10% are both studying and working one year after their graduation. 2. Methods The data were drawn from the Finnish Educational Transitions (FinEdu) study, which recruited secondary school students in a medium-sized town (population = 88,000) in Central Finland. Students (N = 826) from 13 secondary schools (6 high schools and 7 vocational schools) participated in the study. The data collection and measurement times of the study are presented in Table 1. The first two years of measurements were carried out during each of the two secondary education years: the first at half a year after the transition to secondary education (Time 1) and the second one year later (Time 2). The third measurement was carried out two and a half years after Time 2 (Time 3), when most of the students had already finished their secondary education. The fourth and the fifth measurements were carried out two and four years after Time 3 (Time 4; Time 5). Consistent with the general population in Central Finland (Kuopion Lukiokoulutus, 2009), the majority of the participants (99%) were Finnish-speaking. The students most often lived with both parents (62%), or with their mother or father, either as a lone parent (25%), or living with her/his new spouse (11%), or with somebody else (1%). A total of 23% of the adolescents had siblings. The occupational distribution of the parents was as follows: 27% of the fathers and 20% of the mothers worked in higher white-collar occupations (e.g., doctors, teachers), 16.4% and 49% worked in lower white-collar occupations (e.g., clerks, salespersons), 36% and 17% had bluecollar occupations (e.g., cooks, bus drivers), 11% and 4% were private entrepreneurs, 1% and 2% were students, 3% and 2% were retired, and 5% and 6% had some other status (e.g., unemployed). The questionnaires (Times 1–2) were group-administered to the students in their classrooms during regular school hours, and at Times 3–5 were mailed to the participants. 2.1. Measures Career engagement was measured using the abbreviated version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, UWES-S (see Salmela-Aro & Upadyaya, 2012 for validity; (Schaufeli, Martinez, et al., 2002; Schaufeli, Salanova et al., 2002); see also Schaufeli et al., 2006). At Times 1–2, the inventory concerned engagement in studies, and at Times 3–5 it covered engagement in studies or work, depending on the participant's current situation. The scale consists of 9 items measuring energy (e.g., When I study/work, I feel that I am bursting with energy), dedication (e.g., I am enthusiastic about my studies/work), and absorption (e.g., Time flies when I'm studying/working) in relation to studies and work. The responses were rated on a 7-point scale (0 = not at all; 6 = daily), and a sum score was calculated to represent the participants' overall engagement in studies/work at each measurement time. Table 1 Measurement times of the study.

Measurement Times of Time of measurement Time 3 Time 4

Time 1

Time 2

N = 818

N = 749

Note. Dashed transition to higher education/work.

N = 611

N = 561

the Study. Time 5 N = 533

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Career satisfaction was measured with several questions concerning satisfaction and enjoyment in one's education (Time 1, four questions), education/work separately (Times 2–4, four questions on each), and education/work (Time 5, four combined questions) (e.g., “Are you satisfied with your current place of study?”; “How much do you enjoy your current job?”). The participants responded only to the study-related questions if they were currently mainly studying or only to the work-related questions if they were currently mainly working (except at Time 5 when the questions combined education and work). A small number of the participants (Time 2 N = 68; Time 3 N = 119; Time 4 N = 191) reported that they were both studying and working and rated both their study and work satisfaction. The responses were rated on a 5-point scale (1 = not at all; 5 = very much). Sum scores were computed to measure the participants' career satisfaction at each measurement time. 3. Statistical analysis To capture the simultaneous development of career engagement and career satisfaction, the results were analyzed, first, with parallel process latent growth curve (LGC) models (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2015). In these models, the mean levels of career engagement and satisfaction (intercept), their linear and quadratic growth (linear and quadratic slope), and individual variation across these scores were estimated. The intercepts were specified by setting the loadings of the five observed values of career engagement and career satisfaction to 1; the linear slope was specified by setting the loadings of the five observed values to 0, 1, 4, 6, and 8; and the time scores for the quadratic slopes were the squared values of the linear time scores. The residual variances of the observed variables were allowed to be freely estimated. Moreover, residual covariance was allowed across the processes at each time point. The statistical analyses were performed using Mplus (Version 6; Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2015) with the missing data method. Because the variables were skewed, we estimated the model parameters by means of a maximum likelihood robust (MLR) estimator, which is robust to the non-normality of the observed variables. Goodness-of-fit was evaluated using four indicators: χ2 test, Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI), Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), and the Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR). Next, the results were analyzed by means of growth mixture modeling (GMM; Muthén, 2001, 2004; Muthén & Muthén, 2000), which assesses heterogeneity over time through the identification of homogeneous subgroups (i.e., latent classes) of participants with similar developmental trajectories. The distinct latent trajectory classes were identified on the basis of the different growth factor means (i.e., the means of the intercept and the linear and quadratic slopes). No control variables were used in defining the latent trajectory classes. The GMM analyses were performed for different latent group solutions, and the resulting fit indices and class frequencies were compared. Five criteria were used to decide the final number of classes: (a) the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) and (b) the Akaike information criterion (AIC), according to which the model with the smallest value is considered the best model; (c) the Vuong–Lo–Mendell–Rubin (VLMR) test of fit, which compares solutions with different numbers of classes; (d) entropy values, which determine classification quality; and (e) the clarity and interpretation of the classes. 4. Results 4.1. Parallel process LGC model for career engagement and satisfaction The means, variances, Cronbach's alphas, and correlations between all the variables are shown in Table 2. In order to capture the simultaneous development of and associations between the growth factors of career engagement and satisfaction, a parallel process LGC model was constructed. The model included the initial level, linear slope, and quadratic slope factors separately for career engagement and satisfaction. The growth factors of the two processes were regressed to each other (e.g., the linear slope in one process was regressed to the intercept of the other process, and the quadratic slope in one process was regressed to the intercept and linear trend Table 2 Pearson correlation coefficients, means, variances, and Cronbach's alphas. CE 1 CE 1 CE 2 CE 3 CE 4 CE 5 CS 1 CS 2 CS 3 CS 4 CS 5 M Var Cronbach's α

.59⁎⁎⁎ .30⁎⁎⁎ .32⁎⁎⁎ .30⁎⁎⁎ .50⁎⁎⁎ .38⁎⁎⁎ .07 .18⁎⁎ .13⁎⁎ 3.57 1.75 .94

CE 2

.36⁎⁎⁎ .29⁎⁎⁎ .29⁎⁎⁎ .31⁎⁎⁎ .55⁎⁎⁎ .07⁎ .12⁎⁎ .14⁎⁎ 3.44 1.75 .94

CE 3

.43⁎⁎⁎ .35⁎⁎⁎ .17⁎⁎⁎ .18⁎⁎ .49⁎⁎⁎ .24⁎⁎⁎ .21⁎⁎⁎ 4.27 1.26 .93

Note. CE = engagement; CS = satisfaction; 1–5 = Times 1–5. ⁎⁎⁎ p b .001. ⁎⁎ p b .01. ⁎ p b .05.

CE 4

.46⁎⁎⁎ .16⁎⁎ .18⁎⁎ .49⁎⁎⁎ .24⁎⁎⁎ .29⁎⁎⁎ 4.25 1.44 .94

CE 5

.14⁎⁎ .20⁎⁎⁎ .13⁎ .30⁎⁎⁎ .61⁎⁎⁎ 4.44 1.36 .94

CS 1

.47⁎⁎⁎ .21⁎⁎⁎ .14⁎⁎ .14⁎⁎ 4.11 0.79 .90

CS 2

CS 3

CS 4

CS 5

.09 .14⁎ .14⁎⁎ 3.90 0.58 .81

.24⁎⁎⁎ .11⁎ 3.90 0.75 .75

.32⁎⁎⁎ 3.85 0.68 .82

3.89 0.89 .93

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K. Upadyaya, K. Salmela-Aro / Journal of Vocational Behavior 90 (2015) 66–74 Table 3 Latent growth components of the parallel process LGC model (unstandardized estimates; standard error in parentheses). Growth components

Engagement

Satisfaction

Means Intercept Linear slope Quadratic slope

3.48 (0.05)a 0.19 (0.03)a −0.01 (0.00)b

4.07 (0.03)a −0.11 (0.02)a 0.01 (0.00)a

Variances Intercept Linear slope Quadratic slope

0.97 (0.10)a 0.02 (0.00)a 0*

0.29 (0.04)a 0.01 (0.00)a 0*

Residual variances Engagement/satisfaction T1 Engagement/satisfaction T2 Engagement/satisfaction T3 Engagement/satisfaction T4 Engagement/satisfaction T5

0.40 (0.07)a 0.53 (0.04)a 0.62 (0.04)a 0.61 (0.05)a 0.45 (0.07)a

0.64 (0.06)a 0.64 (0.05)a 0.84 (0.03)a 0.75 (0.04)a 0.66 (0.06)a

Note. 0* = fixed to zero. a p b .001. b p b .01.

of the other process). The fit of the final parallel LGC model was moderate (χ2(33, N = 826) = 118.25, p = 0.00, CFI = .93, TLI = .91, RMSEA = .06, SRMR = .07; Table 3; Fig. 1). The results showed that career engagement first increased and then leveled off, and career satisfaction first slightly decreased and then leveled off. Second, the initial level of career engagement negatively predicted the linear slope and positively predicted the quadratic trend of career satisfaction. Similarly, the initial level of career satisfaction negatively predicted the linear slope and positively predicted the quadratic slope of career engagement. Moreover, the linear trends of both processes positively predicted the quadratic slopes of the other parallel process.1 4.2. Growth mixture models for career engagement and satisfaction The purpose of the GMM analyses was to find out whether distinct latent trajectory classes (groups of homogeneous subjects) could be identified such that each class would display a different career engagement and career satisfaction trajectory over time (Muthén, 2001; Muthén & Muthén, 2000). Table 4 shows the different fit indices for the compared growth mixture solutions. Because the two-class solution was theoretically meaningful and the goodness-of-fit indices indicated that the second latent group was necessary, the two-latent-group solution (Fig. 2) was considered the best model. Table 5 gives the estimated values for the latent growth components (e.g., means and variances) in the two groups. The first latent group (87%) was characterized by a very high initial level of career satisfaction (e.g., which at the beginning of the study referred to educational satisfaction), which slightly decreased over the transition to higher education/work, and a high level of career engagement (e.g., which at the beginning of the study referred to study engagement), which increased over the transition. The second latent group (13%) was characterized by a low initial level of career satisfaction and a very low level of engagement, both of which increased over the transition to higher education/work. In both groups, after the transition, the level of career engagement remained higher than the level of career satisfaction. 5. Discussion The present study investigated the parallel longitudinal associations between career engagement and satisfaction. To the authors' knowledge, this study was the first in the field to investigate the continuum between educational and work satisfaction and its parallel development with career engagement over an eight-year period using both variable- and person-oriented approaches. Young adults were followed up starting from age 17 until age 25 during which time they transited from secondary education to higher education or work. The results showed that during their secondary education, the young adults' career engagement increased and career satisfaction decreased; however, after the transition to higher education/work, both processes leveled off. A high initial level of engagement slowed the decrease in career satisfaction during the transition to higher education/work, whereas a high initial level of satisfaction slowed the increase in engagement. The results for the parallel process GMM further indicated that two latent trajectory groups could be identified, one representing a high transitional and the other group a low increasing trajectory of career engagement and satisfaction. 1 In order to examine whether the same model would show the same fit for young adults who were working, studying, or not working nor studying full-time at Time 3–Time 5, a series of multigroup analyses (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2015) were performed. The results indicated that those young adults who were not studying nor working at Time 3 had a slightly lower level of study/work engagement over time than those young adults who already had transitioned to studies or work (Wald χ2(20 = 7.23, p b .05)). At Time 4 and Time 5 the number of young adults who had not yet transitioned to studies/work or who were studying/working at Time 3 but were not currently studying/working was too small (N b 70) for the analyses. No other statistically significant differences emerged between the groups.

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Fig. 1. The results of parallel process LGC model (standardized estimates) for career engagement (CE) and career satisfaction (CS). Note. ***p b .001; **p b .01; *p b .05.

5.1. Parallel development of career engagement and satisfaction Partially in accordance with our expectations and previous cross-sectional research (Elmore & Huebner, 2010; Simpson, 2009), the results showed that career engagement and satisfaction were positively associated over time. However, developmental changes occurred in these associations: during secondary education, the initial level of career satisfaction was higher than the initial level of engagement, however, after the transition to higher education or work, engagement slightly increased while satisfaction slightly decreased, resulting in a higher level of engagement than satisfaction. These results, indicating that at the beginning of their higher education studies or career young adults become increasingly engaged in their studies/work (Upadyaya & Salmela-Aro, 2013b), may reflect changes in person–environment fit (Eccles & Roeser, 2009). During educational and work transitions, simultaneous changes occur on both the individual and contextual levels such that the fit between the young adult and the educational institution/ workplace is repeatedly reassessed (Eccles & Roeser, 2009). Young adults may find their new career environment more relevant and interesting, and hence a better fit with their study/job values and goals (see also Sortheix, Dietrich, Chow, & Salmela-Aro, 2013), which manifests as an increase in their post-transition engagement. However, at the same time study- and work-related demands may be high, thereby decreasing young adults' career satisfaction (Jonge et al., 2001; Karatzias, Power, Flemming, Lennan, & Swanson, 2002). It is also possible that despite being highly engaged after the transition to work, the availability of good jobs for young adults is limited (e.g., the jobs on offer may be below their expectations and present a low level of challenge), manifesting as a decrease in job satisfaction. Moreover, during secondary education support from various resources (peers, teachers, parents) increases educational satisfaction and engagement (Rosenfeld, Richman, & Bowen, 2000). However, after the transition to a new educational institution/workplace young adults are faced with wider social networks and may find it more difficult to establish new sources of social support, which may manifest as lower career satisfaction. Moreover, our results contribute to the broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001) by showing that although the overall associations between career engagement and satisfaction were positive and their development was parallel, changes nevertheless occurred in the overall levels of these variables. Thus, in the future it would be important to examine the combined consequences of career engagement and satisfaction and whether the changes in their overall levels affect well-being, adjustment, and performance.

Table 4 Fit indices for the compared growth mixture models. Model

BIC

ΔBIC

AIC

Entropy

VLMR

Difference in the number of parameters

p value

One group Two groups Three groups

15,459.95 15,407.16 15,359.43

15,361.50 15,270.61 15,184.77

15,313.73 15,204.34 15,100.02

0.78 0.72

−7625.87 −7559.17

12 12

.00 .38

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Fig. 2. Estimated growth curves for career satisfaction and engagement in the two latent trajectory classes.

5.2. Latent trajectory groups of career engagement and satisfaction Next, two latent trajectory groups of career engagement and satisfaction were identified, namely a high transitional (87%) and a low increasing group (13%). These results partly supported our expectations as the high transitional group was described by high initial level of career satisfaction, which slightly decreased over the transition to higher education/work and then leveled off, and by a relatively high initial level of career engagement, which increased over the transition and then leveled off. The low increasing group was described by a low initial level of career engagement which increased strongly over the transition and then leveled off, and a relatively low initial level of career satisfaction which also increased and then leveled off. Furthermore, the results added to the previous literature by showing that regardless of the initial level of engagement and satisfaction, the developmental changes that occur in career engagement and satisfaction are similar across different homogeneous latent trajectory groups. These results further suggested that the transition to higher education/work promoted positive changes, as shown by the fact that their satisfaction and engagement in the low increasing group rose to the same level as that of the high transitional group (see also Upadyaya & Salmela-Aro, 2013b). Thus, regardless of the high challenges presented by the study/work transition, all the young adults in this study were highly engaged in their subsequent higher education studies/work and experienced relatively high career satisfaction. During secondary education the high transitional and low increasing groups showed greater differences in their respective levels of career satisfaction and engagement than after the transition to higher education/work, when both engagement and satisfaction became increasingly similar between the groups. These results are partially in line with previous findings that changes are more typical in study engagement (Salmela-Aro & Upadyaya, 2012) and educational satisfaction (Elmore & Huebner, 2010), whereas work engagement (Hakanen, Peeters, & Perhoniemi, 2011) and work satisfaction (Dormann et al., 2006) tend to be relatively stable

Table 5 Estimation results of the final parallel process growth mixture model with two latent groups (unstandardized estimates; standard errors in parenthesis). Growth components

High transitory (87%)

Low increasing (13%)

Engagement

Satisfaction

Engagement

Satisfaction

Means Intercept Linear slope Quadratic slope

2.11 (0.27)a 0.70 (0.11)a −0.05 (0.01)a

2.67 (0.15)a 0.39 (0.10)a −0.03 (0.01)b

3.72 (0.06)a 0.11 (0.03)a −0.00 (0.00)

4.31 (0.04)a −0.20 (0.03)a 0.02 (0.00)a

Variances Intercept Linear slope Quadratic slope

0.78 (0.11)a 0.01 (0.00)a 0*

0.10 (0.03)b 0.00 (0.00)b 0*

0.78 (0.11)a 0.01 (0.00)a 0*

0.10 (0.03)b 0.00 (0.00)b 0*

Residual variances Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Time 4 Time 5 Note. 0* = fixed to zero a p b .001. b p b .01.

0.66 (0.09)a 0.96 (0.09)a 0.84 (0.08)a 0.81 (0.10)a 0.67 (0.10)a

0.36 (0.05)a 0.36 (0.04)a 0.56 (0.05)a 0.48 (0.04)a 0.61 (0.07)a

0.66 (0.09)a 0.96 (0.09)a 0.84 (0.08)a 0.81 (0.10)a 0.67 (0.10)a

0.36 (0.05)a 0.36 (0.04)a 0.56 (0.05)a 0.48 (0.04)a 0.61 (0.07)a

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characteristics of a person. The present results add to these previous findings by showing that despite the initial differences in developmental trends, post-transition the latent trajectories became increasingly similar for both subgroups. These results further suggest that experiences of young adults in their new educational institutions/workplaces are similar across the different latent trajectory groups, at least with respect to career engagement and satisfaction. These results may reflect person–environment fit, adaptation (Eccles & Roeser), and the increased demands of the young adults' new educational institutions/workplaces (Jonge et al., 2001). 6. Limitations This study had several limitations. First, the focus was on young adults facing the transition from secondary education to higher education/work. Thus, the results can be generalized only to the same age group. It is possible that the associations between career engagement and satisfaction would have been different had different age groups been studied. Second, our results only described the associations between overall career engagement and satisfaction, whereas it is possible that variation exists in the associations between the different career-engagement dimensions (e.g., vigor, dedication, and absorption) and career satisfaction. Third, as the young adults transitioned from secondary education to higher education studies/work, the measures used in the present study were adjusted to their new life situation. This might have affected the results, thus, the findings might have been different had the measures been the same across the waves. Fourth, the experiences measured by the concepts of engagement and satisfaction are similar to each other, and may reflect a single underlying factor (Wefald & Downey, 2009), a notion which may partly explain the strong associations found between career engagement and satisfaction in the present data. However, other studies have yielded quite different results (Rothmann, 2008), and thus these associations need to be examined further, also taking into account developmental changes and various educational and work transitions in career satisfaction and engagement. Further, causal inferences are limited, owing to the possibility that other, unmeasured variables, such as job demands, resources, social support (Jonge et al., 2001), and parenting styles (Elmore & Huebner, 2010) may have contributed to the results. 7. Conclusions This study broadens the results of the previous studies by showing that continuums exist between educational and work satisfaction and study and work engagement. Moreover, these continuums closely interact with each other over the transition from studies to work, highlighting the importance of examining these two context-specific characteristics in the same study. Two homogeneous latent trajectory groups were identified according to the level and changes in their career engagement and satisfaction, namely a high transitional and a low increasing group. These results indicate that various study/work transitions offer young adults opportunities for change and that the majority of them adapt well to these transitions. Most young adults seem to be highly motivated and engaged in their higher education studies/work, although career satisfaction was found to decrease over the transition. It is possible that supporting young adults' job crafting would increase their person–job fit (Lu, Wang, Lu, Du, & Bakker, 2014) and job satisfaction (see also Truxillo et al., 2012). 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