A growing evidence base suggests the importance of goal-related intentional self-regulatory (ISR) skills for adolescents' sustained positive development, but there is little research that links teens' ISR skills to their actual goals. As career development is among the most critical goal domains during adolescence, we address this limitation by exploring the relations between youth ISR skills and their career aspirations and expectations. Using three waves of data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, we found general support for our hypotheses among a sample of approximately 16–18-year-old youth. Adolescents with higher levels of ISR skills were generally more likely to report career aspirations and expectations that were either identical, or if they differed, were similar in their required level of training, and/or their field or primary vocational interest classification. Because people with strong ISR skills focus their energies towards one or a small number of goals to provide structure and direction for their actions, these results suggest that youth with strong ISR skills may similarly practice a focused, goal-oriented type of career development. In addition to providing new lenses through which to examine career development theories (e.g., Holland, 1997; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2002), these results provide guidelines for future research and applied programs to promote adolescent career development.

越来越多的证据表明，与目标相关的故意自我调节（ISR）技能对于青少年持续积极发展的重要性，但是很少有研究将青少年的ISR技能与他们的实际目标联系起来。由于职业发展是青春期最关键的目标领域之一，因此，我们通过探索青年ISR技能与其职业理想和期望之间的关系来解决这一局限性。使用来自4-H积极青年发展研究的三波数据，我们在大约16-18岁的青年样本中发现了对我们假设的普遍支持。具有较高ISR技能水平的青少年通常更有可能报告自己的职业抱负和期望，他们所要求的培训水平相同或不同，和/或其领域或主要职业兴趣分类。由于具有较强ISR技能的人将精力集中在一个或少数目标上，以为自己的行动提供结构和方向，因此这些结果表明，具有ISR技能的青年可以类似地练习有针对性的，面向目标的职业发展。除了提供新的视角来检验职业发展理论（例如，Holland，1997； Lent，Brown和Hackett，2002）之外，这些结果还为未来研究和促进青少年职业发展的应用程序提供了指导。这些结果表明，具有较强的情监侦技能的年轻人可能会类似地练习有针对性的，面向目标的职业发展。除了提供新的视角来检验职业发展理论（例如，Holland，1997； Lent，Brown和Hackett，2002）之外，这些结果还为未来研究和促进青少年职业发展的应用程序提供了指导。这些结果表明，具有较强的情监侦技能的年轻人可能会类似地练习有针对性的，面向目标的职业发展。除了提供新的视角来检验职业发展理论（例如，Holland，1997； Lent，Brown和Hackett，2002）之外，这些结果还为未来研究和促进青少年职业发展的应用程序提供了指导。