Predictive Model of the Intent of Work-Family Multiple-Role Planning among Female University Students: Integration of Social Cognitive Career Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract

This study presents work-family multiple-role planning by female university students as a new approach to work-life balance. Accordingly, this study examines university years as a key time frame during which students establish their career paths. This study integrates the social cognitive career theory and the planned behavior theory to design and evaluate a model that explains the work-family multiple-role planning process; in addition, it develops an optimal model to predict the intentions of female university students in work-family multiple-role planning. This study has conducted a structural survey with 500 female university students. After inspecting the data, the responses of 435 participants were used in the data analysis (SEM) with SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0. The findings include the following. First, suitability of predictive model presents a satisfying fit. The major factors in this study’s model (parental support, subjective norms, attitudes toward multiple-role planning, career decision self-efficacy, and outcome expectations) are verified as direct and indirect predictors of the work-family multiple-role planning intent of female university students. Second, the strongest predictive factor for the work-family multiple-role planning intent is the social environment factor (subjective norms), indicating that the influence of social pressure on intent is relatively large. The predictive model formulated under this study’s integrated theoretical framework supplements existing research that focused on attitudes toward multiple-role planning as well as provides a more profound theoretical foundation on which work-family multiple-role planning behaviors can be better understood.