Development and Validation of a Chinese Five-Factor Short Form of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) is a widely used measure to assess career adaptability. The initial design covered four areas — concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. Recent research validated a 12-item version of the scale (CAAS-SF) and a five-factor version that includes the additional factor of cooperation (CAAS-5). The study reported here developed and validated a brief 15-item Chinese version of Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS-5-SF) to include five factors. Based on data obtained in Macao from a sample of 326 university graduates who had gained employment, it was found that the scale has good factor structure and internal consistency. Significant correlations between CAAS-5-SF and career success, as well as between cooperation subscale and social capital, provided evidence for convergent validity of the instrument and the cooperation subscale respectively. It was also found that CAAS-5-SF and CAAS-5 were strongly associated in their subscales and overall scale. Results suggested that CAAS-5-SF is a suitable alternative to CAAS-5 for research and practice purposes with Chinese speakers. Implications for research and practice are discussed.