The reliability and validity study of the Turkish version of the Planned Happenstance Career Inventory

The purpose of this research is to adapt Planned Happenstance Career Inventory into Turkish through validity and reliability studies and to determine the measurement invariance across gender. Data collection was conducted through Career Locus of Control Scale, Career Calling Scale, and personal informationa form developed by the researcher along with the Planned Happenstance Career Inventory. Following the back translation method for Turkish adaptation of Planned Happenstance Career Inventory, dataset was evaluated in two studies. In the first study, Explanatory Factor Analysis was designed with data collected from 324 undergraduate students (172 female, 152 male). As a result of the Explanatory Factor Analysis, the original 5 factor model was maintained, thus there appeared a need for item extraction for 6 of the items and a new inventory with 19 items was obtained. In the second study, Confirmatory Factor Analysis was done with 668 (346 women, 322 men) undergraduate students. Afterwards, measurement invariance, criterion validity, and Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient were calculated. Consequently, it is found that Planned Happenstance Career Inventory supports gender based measurement invariance and criterion validity. Reliability coefficients for subscales are calculated as; persistence .86, flexibility .73, optimism .80, risk taking .73, curiosity .61. Total Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of the inventory is .86. As a result, it is concluded that Turkish Form of Planned Happenstance Career Inventory is a reliable and valid measurement instrument for Turkish culture. Keywords: Planned Happenstance, validity, reliability, measurement invariance