Career adaptability and career choice satisfaction: Roles of career self-efficacy and socioeconomic status

Abstract

Based on career construction theory, this study examined the contribution of career adaptability to career choice satisfaction, with career decision-making self-efficacy as a mediator and socioeconomic status as a moderator. Nine hundred and fourteen Chinese final-year undergraduates were recruited. The results revealed that career adaptability directly influenced career choice satisfaction and indirectly through career decision-making self-efficacy, with some specific differences based on socioeconomic status. Particularly, the cooperation dimension of career adaptability was found to be negatively related to career choice satisfaction only among undergraduates with higher socioeconomic status. The findings have implications for research on career construction theory as well as for career education and counseling practices in universities.