Problem-Solving Skills and Career Aspirations: The Role of Identity Acquisition and Self-Understanding in Italian Students

Adolescence is a critical developmental period in which individuals are required to orient themselves toward the future and construct a coherent life plan, including educational and career aspirations. Future orientation is closely linked to identity development and self-understanding, which allow adolescents to integrate past, present, and anticipated future selves. Among the personal resources supporting this process, problem-solving skills play a key role by enabling effective coping with challenges and informed, goal-directed decision-making. This study examined the association between problem-solving skills and adolescents’ aspirations for an ideal occupation, and tested whether this relationship was mediated by identity acquisition and self-understanding, with attention to gender differences. Methods: A quantitative study design was adopted. Participants were 2443 Italian adolescents (aged 15–19 years) attending upper secondary schools. They completed self-report measures assessing perceived problem-solving skills, identity acquisition, self-understanding, and aspiration for an ideal occupation. Two multigroup mediation models were tested using structural equation modeling, examining identity acquisition and self-understanding as mediators and comparing pathways across genders. Results: Problem-solving skills were indirectly associated with stronger aspirations toward an ideal occupation through identity-related processes. Identity acquisition mediated this association only among females, whereas self-understanding emerged as a significant mediator for both females and males, with partial mediation among females and full mediation among males. Conclusions: Overall, although constrained by the crosssectional design, the findings are consistent with the notion that problem-solving skills contribute to future-oriented career aspirations chiefly by promoting identity coherence and self-clarity. These findings highlight the importance of integrating problem-solving training with identity-focused interventions in educational and career guidance programs, while considering gender-specific developmental pathways.