Cambodian students' career exploration as a function of self efficacy, aspirations and family socioeconomic status

• Main Author: Sorita, Ann
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2015
• Subjects: Career development; Self-efficacy; Career changes; Social Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5086
• Institution: De La Salle University

The extent to which college students engage in career exploration is proximately determined by their career decision self-efficacy, but there also are other less proximate determinants including aspirations for social recognition, financial success, and community feeling and, family social status and material assets. Cambodian college students (n=208) survey responses were subjected to hierarchical regression analysis. Career decision selfefficacy significantly, positively predicted career exploration over and above the effect of general self-efficacy. Aspirations for social recognition and financial success significantly, positively contributed to the variance in career exploration over and above the contributions of general and career decision self-efficacy however, aspirations for community feeling did not. Thus, Cambodian students career exploration appears to be motivated by the recognition and wealth that they and their family would receive from society, rather than by community-oriented aspirations. Established as separable constructs through categorical principal component analysis, family social status and material assets were entered together in the hierarchical regression analyses. Over and above the previously entered variables, family assets only marginally, positively contributed to the variance in career exploration (p < .10) however, family social status did not. Neither family social status nor material assets moderated the effects of self-efficacy and aspirations on career explorations. Thus, the effects of self-efficacy and social recognition aspirations were the same across all levels of family social status and material assets. Results are discussed in light of social cognitive career theory.