Validation studies of the Career Advancement Inventory for individuals with psychiatric disabilities

Measuring the career development of individuals with psychiatric disabilities is essential for assessing their employment preparedness and the impact of educational and vocational supports and programs. The primary purpose of the two studies presented was to develop a shorter version of an established instrument, the Career Advancement Inventory (CAI), that assesses the psychological preparedness for careers and employment among individuals with psychiatric disabilities. The CAI was originally developed using a community-based participatory research approach and a combination of Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory resulting in a 111-item scale.

We utilized exploratory factor analysis, reliability coefficients, correlations, and t tests to assess the factor structure, reduce the number of items, and establish the norms of the CAI. Two diverse samples were included, an online sample (n = 500) and an in-person sample (n = 100) of individuals with psychiatric disabilities.

The resultant 52-item Career Advancement Inventory-Short Version has a five-factor structure and demonstrated excellent norms with high reliability and moderate to high concurrent, divergent, and known groups validity.

The Career Advancement Inventory-Short Version would be useful in assessing the career preparation of individuals with psychiatric disabilities and has implications for clinicians, rehabilitation providers, researchers, and educational and employment interventions for these populations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).