The purpose of this study was to analyze the structural effects of psychological capital and family support on employment preparation behavior among Chinese university students and to verify the mediating effect of career decision-making self-efficacy...
The purpose of this study was to analyze the structural effects of psychological capital and family support on employment preparation behavior among Chinese university students and to verify the mediating effect of career decision-making self-efficacy in this relationship. In addition, this study sought to comprehensively examine the applicability and explanatory scope of the research model by analyzing differences in structural paths according to gender, grade level, and academic major.
In recent years, China has experienced a rapid expansion of higher education along with a continuous increase in the number of university graduates. However, the creation of high-quality jobs has not sufficiently kept pace with this expansion. As competition in the youth labor market intensifies and career uncertainty increases, Chinese university students are experiencing growing employment anxiety and psychological burdens. Employment preparation behavior has therefore been discussed not merely as an individual choice but as a phenomenon influenced by both psychological resources and socio-environmental factors. Based on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), this study conceptualized psychological capital as an individual internal resource, family support as an environmental support factor, career decision-making self-efficacy as a cognitive mediating variable, and employment preparation behavior as a behavioral outcome variable, and empirically examined the structural relationships among these variables.
To achieve these objectives, a survey was conducted with 1,200 Chinese university students. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 30.0 and AMOS 30.0. The measurement instruments included scales of psychological capital, family support, career decision-making self-efficacy, and employment preparation behavior.
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to verify the reliability and validity of the instruments. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to examine direct and mediating effects, and the bootstrap method was applied to test the significance of indirect effects.
Furthermore, multi-group structural equation analyses were conducted to examine measurement invariance and structural path differences according to gender, grade level, and academic major. The major findings of this study were as follows. First, both psychological capital and family support had significant positive effects on career decision-making self-efficacy. Specifically, students who perceived higher levels of positive psychological resources, such as self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience, and who recognized greater emotional, informational, evaluative, and material support from their families demonstrated higher levels of career decision-making self-efficacy. Second, career decision-making self-efficacy had a significant positive effect on employment preparation behavior. This finding indicates that students with stronger beliefs in their ability to successfully perform career-related tasks participated more actively in various employment preparation activities, including job information searching, career planning, competency development, and actual job application activities. Third, psychological capital and family support exerted not only direct effects on employment preparation behavior but also indirect effects through career decision-making self-efficacy, confirming a partial mediating effect. In other words, individual psychological resources and family environmental support promoted
employment preparation behavior by enhancing career decision-making self-efficacy.
Fourth, the results of the multi-group structural equation analysis revealed significant differences in several structural paths across gender groups, whereas no significant differences were found across grade-level groups. For academic-major groups, most structural paths were invariant, although a limited difference was identified in the path from psychological capital to employment preparation behavior.
This study is academically significant in that it verified the relationships among psychological capital, family support, career decision-making self-efficacy, and employment preparation behavior through an integrated structural model grounded in SCCT. In particular, this study empirically identified the effects of positive psychological resources and family environmental support on the formation of employment preparation behavior among Chinese university students and structurally confirmed the mediating role of career decision-making self-efficacy. Furthermore, by conducting multi-group analyses according to gender, grade level, and academic major, this study extended the explanatory scope of research on university students’ employment preparation behavior by simultaneously examining the applicability of the research model and structural differences across groups. The findings of this study may serve as foundational data for developing university career counseling programs, employment support policies, and student-centered counseling and educational programs. In particular, the results suggest that strengthening psychological capital and establishing family-based support systems should be considered together in order to promote employment preparation behavior among university students.