Examining the Structure of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale: The Cooperation Dimension and a Five-Factor Model

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS), a measure developed to evaluate an individual’s level of career adaptability, was initially validated as consisting of four factors (concern, control, curiosity, and confidence). The following study explores the structural validity of the CAAS when a fifth factor, cooperation, is included. Beyond examining the structural validity, we additionally conducted a cross-cultural validation of the five-factor model across American, Chinese, and Taiwanese samples. Our cross-cultural comparisons provided some support for the factorial equivalence of the five-factor Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS-5) in terms of the configural model. However, the results for the scalar model gave some indication of nonequivalence. Follow-up analyses showed that all items functioned similarly across groups, suggesting that small deviations in item functioning may have resulted in nonequivalence when aggregated to the scale level. Given the conceptual importance of cooperation’s inclusion, we contend that future research on career adaptability should explore the CAAS-5 further.