Browsing by Author "Davenport, Meghan"

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    How Do Skills Shape Trainee Perceptions of Effort and Interest in Training? A Lifespan Development Perspective
    (2023-11-28) Davenport, Meghan; Beier, Margaret E
    Due to a confluence of an aging workforce and technology change, individuals must engage in skill learning throughout the lifespan, often outside of the bounds of an employer. Based on lifespan development theories, people choose goals in response to the growth, maintenance, and decline inherent in aging (P. B. Baltes & Baltes, 1990; Carstensen et al., 1999). Therefore, a person’s existing skills’ alignment to training should impact how they judge the effortfulness and desirability of engaging in the training (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004). Age-related changes in motivational processes should impact how a person’s skill profile influences their effort perceptions and interest, which may differ between types of training (people-focused vs. things-focused skill training). I conducted a pilot study (N = 70, Mage = 40.1) and a focal study (N = 493, Mage = 39.1) of job-seeking adults ages 18-60. Participants self-reported their skill level across twenty skills, then reported their perceptions of how interesting and effortful four trainings seemed based on descriptions. A separate sample of 10 subject matter experts’ ratings of each of twenty skill’s relevance to each of the trainings were used to create four separate keys (one for each training). Each key was used to score participants’ skill profiles’ alignment to each training. I used multilevel modeling to analyze the data, which included responses related to each of the four trainings clustered within-person. A participant’s level of skill alignment was significantly negatively related to perceptions of effort required to learn from a training (γ = -0.171, p < .001), and positively related to their level of interest in the training (γ = 0.349, p < .001). Age interacted significantly with skill alignment to impact effort perceptions, such that older participants were more sensitive to their skill alignment to a training when judging its effortfulness (γ = -0.133, p < .05). Surprisingly, age did not significantly interact with skill alignment to affect interest in training and training type did not change the relationship. By integrating the job search, lifespan development, and motivation literatures, this work can inform potential interventions to improve career outcomes for jobseekers.