Career indecision and career exploration among older French adolescents: The specific role of general trait anxiety and future school and career anxiety

• We examine the relationship between older French adolescents' anxiety, career indecision, and career exploration
• Anxiety, career indecision, and career exploration were positively and significantly related to each other
• Personality-trait anxiety played a greater role in career indecision than career-emotion anxiety did
• Career-emotion anxiety played a greater role in career exploration than personality trait anxiety did
• Each form of anxiety mediated the relationship between career indecision and career exploration

This study examined the relationship between two forms of adolescent anxiety, career exploration and career indecision. Two-hundred and forty-two French senior high school students filled out a self-report questionnaire that measured career indecision, frequency of career exploration, general trait anxiety, and fear of failing in one’s academic and occupational careers. The results showed that adolescent career indecision and career exploration were positively and significantly related to general trait anxiety and career anxiety. Nevertheless, career anxiety accounted for an additional part of the variance in career exploration and, to a lesser extent, in career indecision. General trait anxiety accounted for an additional part of the variance in career indecision only. In addition, general trait anxiety and career anxiety mediated the relationship between career indecision and career exploration. The discussion focuses on the role of anxiety (personality trait anxiety or an emotion connected to one’s future) in career development. It also addresses the implications of these results for improving counseling practices.