Factor structure and reliability of the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form in Slovak adolescent sample

The Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale is a scale for measuring self-efficacy in the career decision-making process, and as such focuses on the process, rather than the content, of career decision-making. The aim of the study was to verify reliability and validity of the Slovak translation of the shortened version of the CDSE scale on a sample of 400 students finishing their primary education (13.86 years old on average). The reliability coefficient of the entire scale was sufficiently high (ωt = .92). Neither of the three a priori formulated models (one major factor, five correlated factors and five correlated factors forming one second-order factor) showed sufficient model fit. However, an exploratory analysis showed that the most plausible factor structure appears to be the one with 18 items loaded on one major factor. The convergent validity of the single-factor model was proved by the moderate relationship with general self-efficacy as a related construct. The results thus suggest that sparser 18-items Slovak translation may be suitable for measuring self-efficacy in the career decision-making process in the local environment.