The purpose of this study was to reveal the influence of career decision-making self-efficacy and social support, which were the psychological and environmental factors influencing the career development of women, on career adaptability that is an att...
The purpose of this study was to reveal the influence of career decision-making self-efficacy and social support, which were the psychological and environmental factors influencing the career development of women, on career adaptability that is an attitude and also an ability, with which women hoping to get a job again after career discontinuity should be equipped while interacting with the changing environment in order to have a successful career. To this end, this study revealed the influence of the difference in career adaptability and career decision-making self-efficacy on career adaptability in accordance with the demographic characteristics and verified the moderating effect of social support in the relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy and career adaptability by targeting those women hoping to get a job again among the women who experienced career discontinuity due to pregnancy, childbirth, child-rearing and care of family members, etc. Through the results hereof, this study aims to provide data to be used for career counselling and consultation in order to allow those career-interrupted women to successfully get a job and conduct their career development continuously in the rapidly changing job environment.
The following research procedure was undertaken. The survey had been conducted for 10 days with a total of 400 female job seekers who were using the career support center for women located in the nation's 7 major cities having a high degree of distribution for the career-interrupted women by using tiered cluster sampling method. In the end, a total of 359 copies were used for the analysis. As for survey tool in this study, the questionnaire consisted of the four areas such as social support, career decision-making self-efficacy, career adaptability scale and demographic characteristics was utilized. As for data analysis, technical statistical analysis, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, multiple regression analysis, hierarchical multiple regression analysis and univariate analysis were conducted using the statistical program such as SPSS 21.
The results of study are as follows. First, there was a significant difference in career adaptability depending on academic background, birth region, school age of youngest child, degree of work support of a spouse (family member). It was found that those women living in the capital area with college degree or higher educational level who had a high degree of spouse (or family) support among the women having a child younger than school age or a child who graduated from high school had a relatively high degree of career adaptability. Second, the career decision-making self-efficacy of the career-interrupted women had a significant positive impact on career adaptability. Among the sub-factors of career decision-making self-efficacy, trust (future plan) about planning and executing for getting a job had the largest impact, followed by self-confidence as to career decision without regrets (setting objectives), self-confidence to explore jobs and conditions for the jobs that one is interested in (job information) and trust (problem-solving) about an ability to overcome career-related barriers. Third, it was revealed that social support was playing the moderating role in the relationship between the sub-factors of career decision-making self-efficacy of the career-interrupted women such as problem-solving, goal setting and career adaptability. With a higher social support that was recognized by the career-interrupted women, the positive impact that problem-solving had on career adaptability was mitigated further. In addition, the positive impact of goal setting on career adaptability was accelerated with a higher degree of evaluative, informative and materialistic support to be recognized by the career-interrupted women.
Through the results of this study, it was found that career decision-making self-efficacy and career adaptability, which were the important psychological factors for the career development of women, had a close relationship. Moreover, the social support to be perceived by the career-interrupted women was not only a factor to have a positive impact on career adaptability but also plays the role of adjusting the positive impact of problem solving and goal setting by career decision-making self-efficacy on career adaptability strongly or weakly. Thus, it was possible to deduct the implication that the career guidance by taking career decision-making self-efficacy and social support into consideration had a positive impact on the career adaptability of career-interrupted women. As a result, it is imperative to assist those career-interrupted women in the hope of getting a job again to develop an ability to overcome career related difficulties and also allow vocational counsellors to actively leverage the systematic relation network including the relevant institutions or support systems, etc. in addition to the personal relation network such as family, friends and neighbors in a scene of counselling to help those career-interrupted women set career goal. Moreover, it would be effective to arrange a meeting with successful role models or relevant professionals in the fields of interest or women having a successful career or assist the career-interrupted women to form a network between themselves. These measures would be effective for creating psychological and physical support. Through the aforementioned measures, they will be able to resolve career related problems by gathering specific job related information and setting career goals, sharing employment information and difficulties in the course of employment preparation and consoling each other psychologically.