Career Exploration Self-efficacy Research Articles

Exploratory actions as mediators of the association between career exploration self-efficacy and decisional outcomes: Does exploration type matter?

This study used a short-term longitudinal design to test the social-cognitive model of career self-management's (CSM) theorized pathway in which exploratory actions mediate the association between career exploration self-efficacy and decisional outcomes. The study clarifies the role of exploratory actions in the decision-making process by distinguishing between self-exploration and environmental exploration. College students ( N = 136; 77% female; mean age = 18.71 years [ SD = 1.19]; 47% with undeclared majors) completed an online survey assessing self-efficacy for self-appraisal and self-efficacy for obtaining occupational information. A month later, they reported the frequency of their engagement in self-exploratory and environment-exploratory actions over the past month and completed measures of two decisional outcomes reflecting readiness to make career decisions (vocational identity and need for additional occupational information). The CSM's mediational pathway was supported with respect to self-exploration but not environmental exploration. I discuss implications for the CSM model and for career-development interventions.

Coping with unemployment in COVID-19: The role of employability beliefs in exploration self-efficacy

The new coronavirus global pandemic has caused accelerated and emerging changes in the labor market, including increased unemployment. We examined the associations between employability beliefs and career exploration self-efficacy of 1585 unemployed adult workers, in Portugal, who lost their job after COVID-19. Participants completed measures of employability beliefs consistent with striving, proactivity, flexibility, acceptance of challenges, optimism and autonomy dispositions, and of career exploration self-efficacy. Using multiple linear regression analyses, we found that employability dispositional beliefs established significant positive associations with career exploration self-efficacy, especially autonomy, striving and optimism. Implications of these findings for future research and practice are considered.