Anxiety and self-efficacy as sequential mediators in US college students' career preparation
Anxiety and self-efficacy as sequential mediators in US college students' career preparation
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DOI：
10.1108/et-07-2017-0096
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发表时间：
2018-01-01
影响因子：
3.6
通讯作者：
Kanaya, Tomoe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Deer, LillyBelle K.;Gohn, Kelsey;Kanaya, Tomoe
目的——与前几代人相比，现在的美国大学生对职业规划的焦虑程度更高，这给大学提供有效的职业发展机会带来了压力。研究一致发现，提高职业相关的自我效能感对提高大学生的职业相关行为尤其有效。然而，这些研究并没有解释焦虑对认知、中介途径（包括自我效能）的潜在负面影响。因此，本文的目的是确定焦虑是否在大学生自我效能感与求职意向的关系中起序贯中介作用。设计/方法/方法——目前正在寻找工作或实习的参与者被招募参加一个关于职业发展准备的在线研究。参与者完成了一项求职行为“测验”，并被随机分配到“无反馈/控制”和“假正反馈/实验”两组。然后评估他们的职业决策、自我效能和状态-特质焦虑，以及他们参与求职行为的意图。通过序贯的中介通路分析，确定焦虑是否在自我效能感与求职行为的关系中起中介作用。研究结果-假设的顺序中介模型具有统计学意义。更具体地说，被随机分配接受积极反馈的参与者的焦虑水平明显低于对照组的参与者。反过来，较低的焦虑水平导致显著较高的自我效能水平和显著较高的求职意向。实际意义——这些发现对那些与大学生或任何可能在求职过程中面临焦虑的人群打交道的从业者和教育工作者有直接的意义。更具体地说，这些都强调了降低焦虑的重要性，以便在职业准备过程中显著提高参与度。独创性/价值——目前，很少有研究（如果有的话）考察焦虑对职业相关自我效能感和职业发展的潜在中介影响。此外，还没有研究采用实验方法来检验焦虑、自我效能感和职业准备之间的多重途径。
Purpose - Current college students in the USA are reporting higher levels of anxiety over career planning than previous generations, placing pressure on colleges to provide effective career development opportunities for their students. Research has consistently found that increasing career-related self-efficacy is particularly effective at increasing career-related behaviors among college students. These studies, however, do not account for the potentially negative impact of anxiety on cognitive, mediational pathways, including self-efficacy. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to determine if anxiety plays a sequentially mediating role in the relationship between self-efficacy and job search intentions among college students.Design/methodology/approach - Participants who were currently looking for a job or an internship were recruited to participate in an online study regarding career development preparation. Participants completed a job search behaviors "quiz" and were randomly assigned to either a "no feedback/control" condition or a "false-positive feedback/experimental" condition. Their career decision-making self-efficacy and state-trait anxiety were then assessed, as well as their intentions to engage in job search behaviors. A sequential mediational pathway analysis was performed to determine whether anxiety plays a mediational role in the relationship between self-efficacy and job search behaviors.Findings - The hypothesized sequential mediational model was statistically significant. More specifically, participants who were randomly assigned to receive positive feedback experienced significantly lower levels of anxiety than participants in the control condition. In turn, lower levels of anxiety led to significantly higher levels of self-efficacy and significantly higher levels of job search intentions.Practical implications - These findings have immediate implications for practitioners and educators who work with college students or any population that may be facing anxiety regarding the job search process. More specifically, these underscore the importance of lowering anxiety in order to lead to significantly higher levels of engagement in the career preparation process.Originality/value - Currently, few studies ( if any) have examined the potential mediating impact of anxiety on career-related self-efficacy and career development. Furthermore, no study has incorporated experimental methodology to test multiple pathways between anxiety, self-efficacy, and career preparation.