Relieving career anxiety and indecision: the role of undergraduate students’ perceived control and faculty affiliations

Abstract

As educators and mentors, we often focus on helping undergraduate students make career decisions. However, there is also value in helping alleviate career anxiety and indecision, both of which impede decision-making and are not automatically resolved once a decision is made. This research examined the role of individual differences (age, gender, and perceived control) and learning environment variables (year in university, participation in an orientation program, and faculty affiliations) as predictors of undergraduates' (n = 844) career-related anxiety and indecision. Traditional individual difference variables like age and gender had little effect whereas perceived control (primary and secondary) predicted lower levels of career anxiety and indecision. The outcomes were not influenced by environmental factors such as year in university or completion of an orientation program, but students' self-reported faculty affiliation had significant effects. Students who were not affiliated with any specific faculty reported more indecision than students in arts, science, and professional faculties. Likewise, students in professional faculties had less career anxiety and career indecision than arts students. The implications of these results for potential interventions and future research are discussed.

Career indecision and career exploration among older French adolescents: The specific role of general trait anxiety and future school and career anxiety

“…Cognitive restructuring interventions (Keller, Biggs, & Gysberg, 1982;Daniels et al, 2011;Haynes, Perry, Stupnisky, & Daniels, 2009) have proven effective in helping counselees to reduce their anxiety about career decisionmaking behaviors. More specifically, interventions based on Attributional Retraining, designed to restructure beliefs, replace maladaptive, self-defeating attributions by adaptive, self-helping attributions, and improve perceived control (Daniels et al, 2011;Luzzo, Funk, & Strang, 1996a;Luzzo, James, & Luna, 1996b;Szabo, 2006) could reduce anxiety and facilitate career decision-making among anxious adolescents.…”

“…Fuqua et al, 1988;Hartman et al, 1985), as far as we know, few studies have explored the influence of different forms of career anxiety on career indecision or career commitment (Daniels, Steewart, Stupnisky, Perry, & Lo Verso, 2011;Fuqua & Hartman, 1983;Leong & Chervinko, 1996;O'Hare & Tamburri, 1986;Weinstein, Healy, & Ender, 2002). In these studies, the participants used a modified state anxiety scale (STAY inventory, Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Luschene, 1983) to indicate how they feel when they are thinking about being decided or undecided about their career, or a scale to indicate how worried they are about their career choice (e.g., Daniels et al, 2011). The assessment of anxiety corresponds to the uncertainty involved in choosing, or to anxiety about being in an undecided state.…”

Self‐Focused Attention and Career Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Career Adaptability

“…Given the unpleasant consequences of career anxiety, researchers have focused on its antecedents to provide effective interventions (Daniels, Stewart, Stupnisky, Perry, & LoVerso, 2011). One factor that could escalate anxiety and diminish capability for self‐regulation is self‐focused attention (Daniels et al, 2011; Feiler & Powell, 2016). Therefore, we examined self‐focused attention as it relates to career anxiety using a career construction model of adaptation (Savickas, 2013).…”

Ideal Careers Perceived by Education Major Undergraduates in Taiwan

“…Most undergraduate students report experiencing some amount of career related anxieties or indecision. This kind of negative emotion could affect students' commitment to their school work, and if the anxiety remains unresolved, students may be less committed to their career and experience less career satisfaction (Daniels, et al, 2011). Moynihan, et al (2003) also asserts that students who are more aware of their job searching skills and process were more efficient in converting interviews into job offers.…”