Effects of the deliberate decision-making style on career Decision-Making processes and coping with regret after high school

Abstract

This study examined how the factors associated with high school students' decisionmaking styles affect their choice-of-university behaviors and goal achievement behaviors to pass the entrance examinations and analyzed the effects of this decision-making style and affiliations on their emotions and ability to cope with regret after graduation. We surveyed 318 senior high school students and followed up with them for six months after graduation. In Study 1, to clarify the relation between these factors and behaviors, the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that two types of sub processes were active during the career decision-making processes: the choice-behavior decision-making process and the goal-achievement-behavior process. In Study 2, students who tended to have the high-deliberate style when deciding to take admission to their affiliation felt less regret and disappointment about their affiliation. These investigations stress the importance of high school students being encouraged to deliberate carefully about their academic future.