Cross-cultural validation of the career maturity inventory: a Korean form

As counselors become aware of the importance of providing culturally sensitive counseling, they can use evaluation and assessment to support client career development (Swanson & Fouad, 2014). For culturally sensitive career assessment, counselors should understand cultural factors, including the values and level of acculturation that may influence the career development process (Byars-Winston, 2014; Leong & Gim-Chung, 1995). To address this issue, this study developed and validated the Career Maturity Inventory: A Korean Form based on the Career Maturity Inventory - Counseling Form C (Savickas & Porfeli, 2011). Using Korean high students, this study validated the Korean version of the Career Maturity Inventory by translating it from English into Korean and then back from Korean into English. The structures of the two versions of the Career Maturity Inventory were comparable. This is meaningful because cross-culturally valid career inventories for adolescents who have different ethnic and cultural backgrounds create opportunities for evaluating career development and supporting career issues.