The Undecided Student: Effects of Combining Levels of Treatment Parameters on Career Certainty, Career Indecision, and Client Satisfaction

Academic Motivation and Social Support: Mediating and Moderating the Life Satisfaction and Learning Burnout Link

Background

The phenomenon of university students' learning burnout has attracted the research of many scholars because of its typicality. This study aims to explore the relationship between life satisfaction, academic motivation, social support and learning burnout among university students and its underlying mechanisms.

Methods

A total of 1917 university students participated in this cross-sectional study. Research instruments included the Adolescent Student Life Satisfaction Scale, University Students' Academic Motivation Questionnaire, Adolescent Learning Burnout Scale and Adolescent Social Support Scale. The data analysis comprised descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, and assessment of multicollinearity through Variance Inflation Factor (VIF). Advanced analyses were conducted using Model 4 for mediation and Model 1 for moderation from the PROCESS macro.

Results

(1) life satisfaction significantly and positively predicts academic motivation; (2) academic motivation significantly and negatively predicts learning burnout; and (3) life satisfaction significantly and negatively predicts learning burnout; (4) academic motivation partially mediates the effect of life satisfaction on learning burnout; and (5) social support plays a moderating role in the effect of academic motivation on learning burnout.

Discussions

These results illuminate the complex web of relationships among life satisfaction, academic motivation, social support, and learning burnout. The partial mediating role of academic motivation underscores its significance in the link between life satisfaction and learning burnout. Additionally, the moderating impact of social support emphasizes its role in ameliorating or exacerbating the effects of academic motivation on learning burnout.

Conclusion

These findings can help researchers and educators better understand the underlying mechanisms between life satisfaction and learning burnout. Meanwhile, the results of the study can provide practical and effective operational suggestions for preventing and intervening in university students' learning burnout and improving their academic motivation.

Effects of a Career Exploration Intervention on Students’ Career Maturity and Self-Concept

This study investigated the effects of a career exploration intervention (CEI) on career maturity and self-concept among Malaysian high school students, using a true experimental design (pretest–posttest with a control group). One hundred thirty-nine high school students in Malaysia were recruited and randomly assigned to receive either a CEI or no intervention. Multivariate analyses of covariance showed significant differences in career maturity and self-concept between the experimental and control groups. Career maturity and self-concept were enhanced immediately after the CEI, and the effects were retained after 4 weeks. Students’ evaluation and feedback on the intervention were also collected. Research and practice implications are discussed.

Assessing College Students' Satisfaction With Their Academic Majors

A six-item measure of global satisfaction with one's major, the Academic Major Satisfaction Scale (AMSS), was developed and validated. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested a unidimensional structure. The measure had high internal consistency and distinguished between students who remained in their majors versus those who changed majors during 1- and 2-year periods. AMSS scores were positively associated with career decision self-efficacy and negatively associated with career choice anxiety and generalized indecisiveness. AMSS scores were also associated with indices of socially desirable responding, but social desirability did not account for the relationships between major satisfaction and the career decision-making variables. Implications for theory and ideas for using the AMSS in research and practice are presented.

Psychological Distress, Perceived Family Conflict, and Career Development Issues in College Students of Color

We tested a hypothesized path model that examined the relationships among psychological distress, perceived family conflict, and various career-related constructs in a sample of 329 African American, Asian American, and Latino/Latina American college students. Across each subsample of participants, we found that greater levels of psychological distress predicted higher levels of career indecision, which in turn was associated with lower career certainty and greater perceived family conflict. Lower levels of perceived family conflict predicted high career aspiration for all three subgroups. Higher career certainty predicted greater career aspiration for Asian American students, but this relationship was not significant for African American and Latino/Latina American students. Implications of the findings for career counseling practice and research are discussed.

Does Expert Advice Improve Educational Choice?

This paper reports evidence that an individual meeting with a study counselor at high school significantly improves the quality of choice of tertiary educational field, as self-assessed 18 months after graduation from college. To address endogeneity, we explore the variation in study counseling practices between schools as an instrumental variable (IV). Following careful scrutiny of the validity of the IV, our results indicate a significant and positive influence of study counseling on the quality of educational choice, foremost among males and those with low educated parents. The overall result is stable across a number of robustness checks.

Effectiveness of Career Counseling and the Impact of the Working Alliance

This study analyzes the role of the working alliance on the life satisfaction and career decision difficulties of clients participating in career counseling in Switzerland. The study also compares these career counseling clients to a group of students who did not seek counseling, to explore the overall effectiveness of a face-to-face career counseling intervention, using a pre—post design. Results indicated that the working alliance was positively associated with clients’ satisfaction with the intervention and with the final level of their life satisfaction. Working alliance was also negatively associated with the final levels of career decision difficulties. Moreover, clients’ career decision difficulties significantly decreased and their life satisfaction increased throughout the intervention. These findings suggest that working alliance represents an important variable to better understand career interventions’ underlying mechanisms. Moreover, face-to-face career counseling is effective considering career-specific as well as broader, life-related indicators.