Abstract
In the field of vocational psychology, career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE) and career exploration (CE) are considered the crucial factors for developing a sustainable career. This study investigated the relationship between CDMSE and CE among Chinese high-school students, as well as the moderating effects of gender and school. From 2019 to 2021, 24,273 students from 13 different high schools were recruited in the study (male = 15,050, female = 9223; urban schools = 12,327, rural schools = 11,946). The results showed that (i) male students scored significantly higher than female students in both CDMSE and CE, (ii) students from urban schools scored significantly higher than students from rural schools in both CDMSE and CE, (iii) CDMSE positively predicted CE, and (iv) school moderated the relationship between CDMSE and CE, with the effect of CDMSE on CE stronger among rural school students; a moderating effect of gender was not found. These findings indicate that promoting CDMSE can lead high-school students, especially rural school students, to engage more in CE to ensure sustainable career development under the protean and boundaryless career orientation.
Highlights
Sustainable careers were defined as “the sequences of an individual’s different career experiences, reflected through a variety of patterns of continuity over time, thereby crossing several social spaces, characterized by individual agency, providing meaning to the individual” [1] (p. 7)
Time indicates the influences of various career activities and events occurring in the past, present and future; social space emphasizes the importance of external environments on sustainable careers; agency illustrates the impacts of individual differences on sustainable careers; and meaning represents that sustainable careers including both skills development and the meaning of career experiences [1,2]
(25 from career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE)-SF and 11 from Career Exploration Survey (CES)) on the corresponding latent constructs, and the convergent validity was investigated via the average variance extracted (AVE)
Summary
Sustainable careers were defined as “the sequences of an individual’s different career experiences, reflected through a variety of patterns of continuity over time, thereby crossing several social spaces, characterized by individual agency, providing meaning to the individual” [1] (p. 7). Sustainable careers were defined as “the sequences of an individual’s different career experiences, reflected through a variety of patterns of continuity over time, thereby crossing several social spaces, characterized by individual agency, providing meaning to the individual” [1] Time indicates the influences of various career activities and events occurring in the past, present and future; social space emphasizes the importance of external environments on sustainable careers; agency illustrates the impacts of individual differences on sustainable careers; and meaning represents that sustainable careers including both skills development and the meaning of career experiences [1,2]. High-school students are at the stage of exploration [6], which allows for diverse career exploration (CE) activities to promote career-related abilities to make crucial career decisions and identify their future career sustainability [7]. The whole world is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the considerable changes
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