| The relationships between the career transition experience, or career search self-efficacy and psychological distress, and the career transition outlook, or psychological resources in the career transition and regulatory focus, were examined. Participants were 191 college seniors who planned to graduate within a year. Most of the participants were within the age range from 21 to 23 with a few exceptions, and they were relatively equally distributed in gender. Majority of the participants were Caucasian Americans and they majored in a variety of fields. A survey method was used to collect data. Participants completed Career Search Efficacy Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory, Career Transition Inventory, Behavioral Inhibition System and Behavioral Activation System Scale as well as a demographic questionnaire. Due to missing data and multivariate outliers, 8 cases were excluded, leaving 183 cases. Bivariate correlation and canonical correlation analyses were used to investigate the relationships of career search self-efficacy, psychological distress, psychological resources in the career transition, and regulatory focus. Another set of bivariate correlation analyses and ANOVA was used to the relations of demographic characteristics to career search self-efficacy, psychological distress, psychological resources in the career transition, and regulatory focus.; The results indicated strong correlation coefficients between these variables. Canonical correlation analysis produced 2 significant canonical correlations. The first canonical correlation included low career search self-efficacy, high depression, and high anxiety in the career transition experience set and low psychological resources except decision independence and high promotion focus in the career transition outlook set. The second canonical correlation consisted of high anxiety in the career transition experience set and low confidence, low decision independence, and high prevention focus in the career transition outlook set. Demographic characteristics were selectively related to the variables of the career transition experience and outlook. The results suggested multidimensional processes in the career transition of college seniors. |
