Career choices involve an orientation towards the future and the propensity to planning. The ‘mental picture’ of the past, present and future was defined by Savickas as time perspective. The present paper reports the findings of two studies examining time perspective in Italian adolescents. The first study surveyed 498 students aged 11–14 years, and the second, 657 students aged 15–18 years. Results from the first study showed higher levels of time perspective in girls and in older participants. The second study, however, confirmed these differences for gender only. Socioeconomic status (SES) showed little relationship to time perspective in both age groups. It also emerged that time perspective is positively related to school achievement and negatively to career indecision.

People's ideas about work can greatly affect the ways in which they characterize their own work experience and their lives. The first aim of the present study was to analyze the concept of work in individuals with mild or moderate intellectual disability working in competitive or sheltered work settings and, second, to compare the notions of work of individuals with mental retardation with nondisabled adults and young adolescents. The study therefore examined 48 participants with mental retardation, 48 nondisabled adults of the same chronological age, and 48 nondisabled adolescents of the same mental age as the participants with mental retardation. A semistructured interview assessing participants' concepts about work was administered. Qualitative and quantitative analysis results are discussed. No differences emerged for individuals with MR working in competitive or sheltered work contexts, but were conversely observed among participants with mental retardation, same chronological age adults, and same mental age young adolescents.

To analyze the conception of work and its relationship with the various indices of progress in career development, we administered a structured, open-ended questionnaire that explored beliefs about working among a sample of Italian high school students considering university options. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, we found that the majority of students considered work as a means to an end; a smaller proportion of students viewed work as a source of psychological satisfaction. The quantitative analyses revealed that students who considered more than one dimension of work in their internal constructions tended to rely on more adaptive means of career decision making. The results are discussed in light of previous research and current perspectives in career development theory.