Trauma needs special attention during the sensitive period of adolescence, which already involves its own psychological challenges and vocational tasks. Coping with trauma requires adaptation. From the perspective of the career construction model of adaptation, career adaptability provides psycho-social resources that promote adaptation. Using this model, the aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between personality and post-traumatic growth via career adaptability. A total of 266 Iranian adolescents who had experienced the sudden death of a parent recruited. They then completed the Big Five Questionnaire, Post-traumatic Growth Inventory, and Career Adapt-abilities Scale. The results showed career adaptability partially mediated the relationship between neuroticism and openness and post-traumatic growth. In addition, the findings confirmed the full mediator role of career adaptability in the relationship between conscientiousness and post-traumatic growth. The results also indicated a direct relationship between extraversion and post-traumatic growth, but no relationship between agreeableness and post-traumatic growth. These results emphasized the essential role of career adaptability in empowering traumatized adolescents.
Keywords: Adolescence; Career adaptability; Personality; Post-traumatic growth; Trauma.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.