Association Between Personality Traits and Professional Behavior with Career Adaptability in Nursing and Midwifery Students

Background: Career adaptability enables individuals to navigate their career paths and address workplace challenges by gaining insight into themselves and their profession, empowering them to make informed decisions. This study was performed to reveal the association of nursing and midwifery students' personality traits and professional behavior with career adaptability.

Method: This cross-sectional study's sample consisted of nursing and midwifery students in the medical sciences of a state university in Tabriz (n = 210). The data were collected using the Student Information Questionnaire, Students Professional Behavior Questionnaire, Ten Item Personality Inventory, and Career Adapt-Abilities Scale. Descriptive tests and Pearson's correlation analysis were used for data analysis. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the variables that affect the career adaptability of students.

Results: The mean (SD) points on the personality trait sub-dimensions of nursing and midwifery students were highest in agreeableness 8.95 (3.03) and lowest in extraversion 7.54 (2.30). The mean (SD) on the Scale of Student's Professional Behavior and Career Adapt-Abilities Scale were 114.88 (14.14) and 97.22 (15.59), respectively. The statistically significant association between the personality traits, Student's Professional Behavior, with career adaptability scores were weak and moderate, respectively. The 3 regression models used to determine the variables that affect the career adaptability of nursing students were significant. Of the variables in the models, professional behavior, extraversion, and how to choose a field (voluntary or non-voluntary) significantly influenced the total score on career adaptability. And the greatest impact was related to the professional behavior (β = 0.373, P < 0.001).

Conclusion: The results showed a direct correlation between personality traits with career adaptability. Also, high professional behavior and the voluntary choice of study field can be effective on career adaptability. The results suggest informing the students to choose the right field and planning and carrying out the necessary interventions to provide the proper education on professional behaviors. In addition, creating opportunities to improve personality traits can help the students' career adaptability.