AI Insight
This study examined career adaptability patterns among 1,437 primary and secondary school teachers in Guangzhou, China, identifying three distinct profiles: relatively lower adaptability, moderate adaptability with stronger control, and high adaptability. The research found that most Big Five personality traits were associated with higher career adaptability, teachers with non-teaching majors showed greater adaptability, and teachers in the high adaptability profile demonstrated significantly better mental health outcomes. The findings suggest that shared adaptability resources across multiple dimensions are important for teacher career adaptation.
Why it matters
These results can inform teacher training and professional development programs by highlighting the importance of fostering career adaptability skills and identifying which personality traits and background characteristics are associated with better career adaptation. Understanding these profiles may help educational administrators support teachers' mental health and career satisfaction more effectively.
In this era of educational and career pathways fragmentation and unpredictability, fostering and sustaining career adaptability has become a major concern. This study contributes to the advancement of research on career adaptability by adopting a person-centered approach and applying the career construction model of adaptation framework in a cross-sectional design on primary and secondary school teachers’ career adaptation in Guangzhou, China (N = 1,437). This study aimed to (a) identify distinct profiles of career adaptability based on different combinations of its four facets, (b) examine the associations of profile membership with sociodemographic characteristics, Big Five traits, and mental health. Latent profile analyses revealed a 3-profile solution, namely, relatively lower adaptability, moderate adaptability with stronger control, and high adaptability profiles. The findings showed that most Big Five traits were associated with higher career adaptability profiles, and teachers with non-teaching majors were more likely to belong to the high adaptability profile. Inversely, the agreeableness trait predicted membership only in the moderate adaptability with stronger control profile, rather than in the high adaptability profile. Moreover, differences in mental health were found between the three profiles; teachers with high adaptability profiles showed significantly higher levels of mental health. These findings suggest that level effects are predominant in career adaptability profiles in this Guangzhou teacher sample, suggesting that shared adaptability resources are associated with adaptivity and adaptation.