A Correlation Study On Perfectionism, Career Decision-making Self-efficacy And Career Indecision In College Students

Career indecision,which means inability to make a decision about the vocation one wishes to pursue,influences graduates'mental health and career development a lot. This research focuses on the relationship among career indecision, perfectionism and career decision-making self-efficacy. Data were collected by means of there questionnaires of Career Decision-Making Scale(CDS), Chinese version of Frost's Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS) and Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy-Short Form(CDMSE-SF) from 419 senior students and undergraduates from 7 colleges in Beijing. The major findings were as follows:1. There was significant difference in career indecision between different genders and different types of universities. Males'indecision level was higher than females, and students of ordinary universities were higher than those of key universities. There was no significant difference between senior students and undergraduates.2. Gender and grades had no main or interactive effects on the total score of career decision-making self-efficacy. But there was grade difference on accurate self-appraisal dimension(F=3.92,P<.05), that senior students had higher self-appraisal self-efficacy than undergraduates. There was gender difference on planning dimension(F=6.68,p<.01), that males had higher planning self-efficacy than females.3. Males scored higher than females on the total score of perfectionism and its four dimensions: concern over mistakes, parental expectations, personal standards, doubts about actions. But females scored higher on organization dimension.4. Career indecision was related to the total score of perfectionism and its four dimensions, which were concern over mistakes, parental expectations, personal standards and doubts about actions, and negatively related to organization dimension.5. The dimensions of accurate self-appraisal and goal-selecting of career decision-making self-efficacy could negatively predict career indecision.6. The results of stepwise multiple regression analyses demonstrated that career indecision were significantly predicted by type of universities, gender, concern over mistakes, goal-selecting self-efficacy, doubts about actions, and organization dimensions.7. Adaptive perfectionism could negatively predict career indecision(F = -.14,p<.01), and maladaptive perfectionism could predict career indecision(F =.39,p<.01), and career decision-making self-efficacy partly mediated the relationship between adaptive perfectionism, maladaptive perfectionism and career indecision.