A STUDY ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND CAREER ADAPTABILITY: NATIONAL AND GENDER DIFFERENCES

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI) as a predictor of career adaptability assessing the moderating roles of culture (country of origin) and gender. We position our research on Career Construction Theory (Savickas, 2005, 2013), on the theoretical tenets of action theory of career development (Young et al., 1996) and on culture propositions of Hofstede (1980, 2001). The sample in this study, is a convenience one and is made up of 349 undergraduate students from two universities (France and the other in Argentina), the results revealed that all 4 factors of Trait Emotional Intelligence were positively related to Career Adaptability. Our findings contribute to the career theory literature by enhancing the understanding of the predictors of career adaptability of young individuals in two different cultural contexts.