Calling and career preparation: Investigating developmental patterns and temporal precedence

• We investigated the developmental intersection of calling and career preparation.
• Calling showed parallel change over time with career decidedness and self-efficacy.
• Career planning was reciprocally related to presence of calling.
• Presence of calling preceded increase in career self-efficacy beliefs.
• Career decidedness preceded increase in presence of calling.

The presence of a calling and career development are assumed to be closely related. However, the nature of and reason for this relationship have not been thoroughly investigated. We hypothesized the existence of reciprocal effects between calling and three dimensions of career preparation and assessed the change of the presence of a calling, career planning, decidedness, and self-efficacy with three waves of a diverse sample of German university students (N = 846) over one year. Latent growth analyses revealed that the intercepts of calling showed a significant positive correlation with the intercepts of all career preparation measures. The slope of calling was positively related to those of decidedness and self-efficacy but not to planning. Cross-lagged analyses showed that calling predicted a subsequent increase in planning and self-efficacy. Planning and decidedness predicted an increase in the presence of a calling. The results suggest that calling and career preparation are related due to mutual effects but that effects differ for different career preparation dimensions.