Abstract
The population of international students in South Korea is growing. During the career development phase, international students face unique challenges related to their bicultural identity and acculturation experiences. The present study examined the role of bicultural self-efficacy on mediating the relationship between acculturation and career decision-making self-efficacy for international students in South Korea. Responses from 120 international students in South Korea were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results showed that bicultural self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between acculturation to mainstream culture and career decision-making self-efficacy but did not mediate the relationship between acculturation to heritage culture and career decision-making self-efficacy. The implications for effective educational intervention for international college students’ career development were discussed based on the results.
Highlights
International students are enrolling in educational institutions in increasing numbers worldwide
The current study examined whether bicultural self-efficacy has a mediating effect on the relationship between acculturation to mainstream or heritage culture and career decision-making selfefficacy
The results indicate that bicultural self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between acculturation to mainstream culture and career decision-making self-efficacy, Research Question 1 was resolved
Summary
International students are enrolling in educational institutions in increasing numbers worldwide. In South Korea, the population of international students more than doubled in the 4 years between 2015 and 2019 (Korean Ministry of Education, 2019). Recent statistics from the Korean Ministry of Education (2019) show that 60,774 international undergraduate students are enrolled in university in South Korea, which is 2.6% of all higher education students in the country (2,346,674). In 2004, the Korean government initiated the “Study Korea” project to improve the global competitiveness of Korean universities by recruiting international students. The government initiated a new “Study Korea” project in 2012 and announced that Korean universities would aim to recruit 200,000 international students by 2020, the time frame was later extended to 2023 (Korean University Newspaper, 2015). In tandem with the government initiative, some universities in South Korea expanded their efforts to recruit international students in order to compensate for the loss of income that had resulted from an inability to meet their
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