Protocol for a scoping review on career indecision and career indecisiveness among high school and vocational education students

Introduction Rapid social, political, technological, and economic transitions, high rates of uncertainty and youth unemployment, increased incidence of mental health problems in adolescence, and schools overwhelmed by the needs of students, underline the importance of delving deeper into career indecision and the adolescents who find it more difficult to work on their life projects. This scoping review aims to map the evidence on the constructs of career indecision and indecisiveness in adolescents, to identify its measurement instruments, the variables related to it, and the intervention programs implemented. Method A search of the databases PsycINFO, Medline, ERIC, Web of Science (WOS), Scopus, Psicodoc, Dialnet, and an additional complimentary search in the Journal of Vocational Behavior will be conducted. Two reviewers will independently screen abstracts and full-text studies for inclusion. They will include any empirical peer-reviewed articles in English or Spanish, from 2007 to 2023, focused on career indecision, career indecisiveness, career decision-making difficulties, or emotional and personality-related aspects of career decision-making difficulties. Participants will be in high school or initial and medium vocational education. A qualitative analysis will be synthesized to describe the variables that define and predict career indecision and indecisiveness following the CIPP-C model, how they are being measured, and which variables are the main focus of career guidance and intervention programs and their effectiveness. Ethics and dissemination No primary data will be collected, therefore a formal ethics review is not necessary. The results of this review will be presented at relevant conferences and published in a peer-reviewed journal. Keywords: career guidance, career decision-making, career indecision, career indecisiveness, scoping review