The transition from school to vocational training is a developmental task whose completion is central to the ongoing career path. Until recently, the role played by emotions in the process of searching for apprenticeship positions has hardly been researched. The following paper uses the concepts of the Action Phase Model of Developmental Regulation (Heckhausen, 1999b) and Control-Process-Theory (Carver & Scheier, 1990) to derive predictions about the function of affective reactions during the apprenticeship search. These were tested using the data from a longitudinal study (N = 363) for the tenth grade at the Realschule (Secondary School in Germany up to GCSE level). Structural equation models showed that the students' application processes were correlated with their negative apprenticeship-specific affects. In contrast to unspecific measures of dispositional mood, there was evidence for the goal-specific negative affect as the mediating variable between the point in time when success in the application process was achieved and the subsequent application cycle. Even after controlling for gender, mathematics grades, and the social class of the areas served by the schools, the negative affect proved to be predictive for an increase in application activity during the second half of tenth grade. Implications of the findings are discussed. © Hogrefe Verlag Göttingen 2005.
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