Development and validation of a career adaptability scale for Chinese normal students from the perspective of the coupling of supply and demand

Given the urgent issue of teachers' difficulty in adapting to the needs of talent cultivation in the new era and the important role of normal students in future basic education, it is important to integrate career adaptability into the talent cultivation goals and curriculum goals of normal students to reshape and enhance their career adaptability. However, a psychometrically sound measure of the newly developed career adaptability that is in line with national policies, labor market demands, and normal students' practical needs is lacking. The study reported here developed and validated a 25-item Chinese version of the Normal Students' Career Adaptability Scale (NSCAS) with five factors. Exploratory (N = 301) and confirmatory (N = 1372) factor analyses indicated: (a) five types of career adaptability resources were supported; (b) a bi-factor model showed the best fit among the four competing models, in which the general factor explained more common variance than the five sub-factors; (c) good reliability and validity; (d) measurement invariance across origin, gender, and professional attribute groups. The findings supported the psychometric properties of the newly developed NSCAS. Therefore, this study provides a measure of normal students' career adaptability for future research and practice and highlights career adaptability as an important adaptability resource.