Relationships Between Career Indecision, Search for Work Self-Efficacy, and Psychological Well-Being in Italian Never-Employed Young Adults

Authors

  • Maria Maddalena Viola
    Department of Psychological, Educational and Training Sciences, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
  • Pasquale Musso
    Department of Psychological, Educational and Training Sciences, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
  • Sonia Ingoglia
    Department of Psychological, Educational and Training Sciences, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
  • Alida Lo Coco
    Department of Psychological, Educational and Training Sciences, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
  • Cristiano Inguglia
    Department of Psychological, Educational and Training Sciences, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy

Abstract

Although different studies have investigated career choices as cognitive acts of decision-making, non-cognitive components also play an important role. The study tries to develop an empirically based model of career decision-making process linking cognitive (search for work self-efficacy - SWSE) and non-cognitive (psychological well-being - PWB) components. In particular, the study investigates, among 148 never-employed Italian young adults, to what extent the relationship between SWSE and career indecision in terms of lack of readiness (LoR) can be explained by their common relationship with PWB. Results highlighted that SWSE is negatively associated with LoR when considered in absence of PWB. However, when PWB was included in one comprehensive model, it was positively associated with SWSE and negatively related to LoR. Moreover, the presence of PWB nullified the negative association between SWSE and LoR, meaning that PWB shares a large extent of variance with these variables. Implications are discussed in the light of theoretical expectations and limitations.