Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

This study is to develop career exploration behavior scale for undergraduate students and to identify reliability and validity for the scale so that it can identify subtypes of career exploration behavior and distribution of subtypes of career exploration behavior based on gender, grade, career adap...

This study is to develop career exploration behavior scale for undergraduate students and to identify reliability and validity for the scale so that it can identify subtypes of career exploration behavior and distribution of subtypes of career exploration behavior based on gender, grade, career adaptability, and career decision-making. To achieve its purpose, the following steps have conducted for the study.
First, literature review, interview, and open-ended questionaries conducted to identify a concept of career exploration behavior and its components that reflect characteristics of Korean undergraduate students. career exploration behavior is composed of Career Enrichment Behavior(CEB), Career Specification Behavior(CSB), and Career Congruence Assessing Behavior(CCAB). CEB consists of two subcomponents such as Self Enrichment Behavior(SEB) and Vocation Enrichment Behavior(VEB), and CSB consists of two subcomponents such as Self Specification Behavior(SSB) and Vocation Specification Behavior(VSB). 63 preliminary items were chosen based on literature review, interview, open-ended questionaries, existing career exploration behavior scales, and expert evaluation.
Second, 5 components(SEB, VEB, SSB, VSB, CCAB) and 32 items were identified after a pilot test with 375 undergraduate students and exploratory factor analysis.
Third, through the main research conducted with 811 undergraduate students nationwide and the following confirmatory factor analysis, 25 items of the hierarchical second-order factor model were determined. career exploration behavior is composed of CEB(9 items), CSB(10 items), and CCAB(6 items). CEB consists of two subcomponents such as SEB(5 items) and VEB(4 items), and CSB consists of two subcomponents such as SSB(6 items) and VSB(4 items).
Forth, The construct validity and concurrent validity were found acceptable as the career exploration behavior scale developed in this study was found to be positively correlated with other instruments such as Career Exploration Behavior(Choi, 2003), Career Preparation Type inventory for Korean College Student(K-CPTI), which were designed to assess similar constructs. Moreover, cross-validation was also verified with 323 undergraduate students for the hierarchical second-order factor models.
Fifth, it was tested whether the career exploration behavior scale of this study measures the same constructs in different gender group(male vs. female). A latent mean analysis by gender showed no significant difference in the levels of career exploration behavior.
Sixth, the reliability of the career exploration behavior scale was analyzed. Cronbach α for the career exploration behavior scale was .93, ranging from .842 to .896 for the three components of career exploration behavior, and from .766 to .881 for their subcomponents. The 3-week test-retest reliability for the correlation analysis was .838, ranging from .752 to .807 for the three components of career exploration behavior, and from .776 to .831 for their subcomponents, showing stable reliability despite the passage of time.
Seventh, career exploration behavior subtypes based on the level of subconponents of career exploration behavior were identified according to distribution of gender and grade, the level of career adaptability and career decision-making.
Lastly, implications and application of the career exploration behavior scale developed in this study and career exploration behavior subtypes were discussed.

Keyword