Literature Review

Many researchers seek to understand how and why college students make decisions regarding their post-college lives.

Students’ participation in career development activities such as formal internships, jobs, and volunteering may affect their post-college decisions. The mentoring and counseling they receive, as well as skill-building they undergo during college, could also affect their plans for the future.

Abrahamson examined the relationship between anxiety, self-efficacy and career interests. The career interests variable of the study was measured by the Strong Interest  Inventory which is a career interest assessment used to determine possible career areas of interest to an individual. The study concluded that measurements of self-efficacy and anxiety combined better predicted career interests, as opposed to using measurements of self-efficacy alone. This suggests that anxiety is an important factor in determining career interests. In terms of self-efficacy specifically, Abrahamson found that general self-efficacy scores are positively correlated with career skills self-efficacy scores suggesting that a more global sense of self-efficacy is related to career search self-efficacy . Abrahamson also found that anxiety and self-efficacy are negatively correlated,as are anxiety and career skills confidence. This suggests that a low level of confidence in career skills is correlated with a high level of anxiety which is then correlated with low self-efficacy. 

Study Conducted at Small Lutheran, Liberal Arts College in the Midwest.

The study described in this paper examines the hypothesis that students who begin the career search process earlier have higher levels of self-efficacy and more positive attitudes regarding the career search process.

Method

The study relied on a random sample that was distributed through an online, self administered survey questionnaire. The survey contained questions from the research team about participants’ reported attitudes, beliefs and plans toward career planning, their demographic information as well as questions from another research team that studied the measures, students take to prepare themselves for post-graduation life.

Measures and Variables

The central variables in hypotheses are students’ attitudes regarding the post-graduation planning process, their self-efficacy, and the timing of their post-graduation planning process. We measured attitudes with a series of Likert-scale questions that asked whether students felt confident in their future career, vocation, financial stability and plans; for example, They asked the students to indicate their level of agreement with the statement, “I feel confident about the post-graduation planning process.” Questions regarding students’ feelings of excitement and anxiety also contributed to the Anxiety-Excitement Spectrum Index. In addition to anxiety and excitement, the survey asked students to indicate their feelings of preparedness for their future career and vocations (e.g. “I feel prepared for my vocation after college”). They measured self-efficacy by combining responses on Likert-scale questions that ask whether students felt they have the capabilities, resources and tools to accomplish their long- and short term goals. The responses to these questions formed into a Self-Efficacy Index. Lastly, They compared the Anxiety-Excitement Spectrum and Self-Efficacy indices with the timing of students’ post-graduation planning.

Results

We hypothesized that students who begin the career planning process earlier 1) have higher levels of self-efficacy and 2) have more positive attitudes.

The present study examined the time of onset of post-college planning and the relationship with students’ attitudes and self-efficacy regarding their post-college lives. Our results show no correlation between when students begin planning for a career and their levels of self-efficacy, but there are statistically significant results showing association between when students begin planning for a career and their attitudes.