Goal Engagement During the School– Work Transition: Beneficial for All, Particularly for Girls Claudia M. Haase University of Jena, Germany Jutta Heckhausen University of California, Irvine Olaf Ko ¨ ller Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany The school-to-work transition presents a substantial regulatory challenge for youth in modern societies. Based on the action-phase model of developmen- tal regulation, we investigated the effects of goal engagement on transition outcomes in a high-density longitudinal study of noncollege-bound German adolescents (N 5 362). Career-related goal engagement was important for attaining a desired career goal (i.e., apprenticeship) for girls who generally faced unfavorable employment opportunities. For boys, goal engagement did not predict the attainment of an apprenticeship. Goal engagement was nonetheless beneficial for well-being, predicting positive affect for both girls and boys. This effect was not mediated by attainment of an apprenticeship. The findings elucidate the role of goal engagement under structural and temporal constraints and suggest possible avenues for intervention. The school-to-work transition is a central milestone in the transition from adolescence to adulthood in many societies (e.g., Blustein, 1999; Lent & JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, 18(4), 671–698 r 2008, Copyright the Author(s) Journal Compilation r 2008, Society for Research on Adolescence Requests for reprints should be sent to Claudia M. Haase, Center for Applied Develop- mental Science, University of Jena, Am Steiger 3/1, D-07743 Jena, Germany. E-mail: claudia. m.haase@uni-jena.de