The effect of family environment, personality, and self-efficacy on career indecision of college students
Abstract
The present study was designed to investigate the utility of Lent, Brown, and Hackett's (1994) social cognitive theory to the understanding of career indecision. The purpose of the study was to test a causal model of environment and person factors that incorporated key elements of social cognitive theory to career indecision of college students. By means of a structural equation model, hypotheses regarding specific direct and indirect influences among family environment constructs (i.e., family relationship, family structure), personality constructs (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness), self-efficacy constructs (i.e., technical-scientific self-efficacy, aesthetic self-efficacy), and career indecision (chronical indecision, developmental indecision, global indecision) were investigated. The sample included 268 university student participants who declare major undecided. Data were collected from major undecided students residing in the Midwest university. Cause-effect relations were analyzed for the entire sample and the male and female samples, by the method of the structural equation model using LISREL 8 to test the direct and indirect effects of model variables. Gender differences were found related to self-efficacy constructs as mediating the relation of family environment and personality to career indecision. Women reported no significant effect of family environment on career indecision directly and indirectly through self-efficacy. They reported a significant effect of personality on career indecision directly and indirectly through self-efficacy. Men reported a significant effect of family environment and personality on career indecision directly and indirectly through self-efficacy. Aesthetic self-efficacy was considered as an important cognitive factor mediating the women's educational and occupational choice behaviors. Technical-scientific self-efficacy was an important cognitive factor mediating the educational and occupational choice behaviors of men. Implication and further research for the relations among family environment, personality, self-efficacy and career indecision were discussed.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Kelly, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Educational psychology|Academic guidance counseling|Personality
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