Career Adaptability, Hope, and Life Satisfaction: an Analysis of Adults with and Without Substance Use Disorder

Considering that adults with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) experience many barriers and challenges in designing and living a satisfactory life, based on Life Design paradigm, this study aimed at analyzing the direct and indirect effect of career adaptability, through hope, on life satisfaction in a sample of individuals with SUD compared to a sample of individuals without SUD. In this study, a sample of 185 adults with and 185 adults without SUD was involved and different measures to assess career adaptability (Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Italian Form; Soresi, Nota, & Ferrari; 2012), hope (The Adult Hope Scale) and life satisfaction (The Satisfaction with Life Scale) were used. Multigroup structural analyses were conducted to test the group differences in the direct and indirect effects model hypothesized. Results showed that career adaptability is indirectly, through hope, related to life satisfaction across two groups. These results have important implications for practice and emphasize the need to promoting career adaptability and hope in people with SUD to improve their life satisfaction that is an important diagnostic and outcome criteria in substance use disorder issues.