Career Decision-Making Among Chinese-American Undergraduate Students: Cultural and Contextual Influences

The current study explored the personal and contextual influences that contribute to a Chinese-American undergraduate students' career decision-making process. The goal of the study was to determine if discrimination, personal interests, family conflict, and information seeking behaviors would significantly predict for one's level of career certainty. Furthermore, the study aimed to determine if one's level of self-construal would have a moderating effect between personal interests and family conflict upon levels of career certainty. A total of 121 respondents completed the online survey which contained a number of demographic items as wells as the following measures: Asian American Racism-Related Stress Inventory, Career Decision Scale, Asian American Family Conflicts Scale, Career Decision Self Efficacy Scale, and the Self Construal Scale. The data was analyzed via a Hierarchical MRC. The data indicated that interest (b = 1.648, t = 2.952, p < 0.01), information seeking behaviors (b = 1.439, t = 2.231, p < 0.05), and family conflict (b = 0.449, t = 2.126, p < 0.05) significantly predicted for career certainty. The data also indicated that levels of self-construal did not have a mediating or moderating upon the predictive variables and career certainty.