Relationship between Strength Knowledge and Career Preparation Behavior of College Students: Mediating Effect of Career Decision Self-Efficacy

This study carried out for verifying the mediation effect of career decision self-efficacy in the relationship between strength knowledge and career preparation for college students in Korea. In order to accomplish the purpose of these studies, survey was conducted for from 296 college students who were studying at four-year university via purposive sampling. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis and structural equation model analysis(SEM), and the final model was selected by comparing the research model and the alternative model. The results of the study were as follows. First, the strength knowledge of college students had a positive effect on career preparation behavior. Second, the strength knowledge of college students had a positive effect on career decision self-efficacy. Third, it was found that career decision self-efficacy fully mediate the relationship between strength knowledge and career preparation behavior. In other words, to promote college students' career preparation behavior, it is important to improve their belief that they can do career-related decision-making and problem solving. And also it can be seen that strength knowledge can play a role in improving career related self-efficacy. This study is meaningful in that it verified the positive relationship between strength knowledge and career preparation behavior and the role of career decision self-efficacy that mediates this relationship, as the method of strength knowledge is widely used in career education along with spreading the perspective of positive psychology. Based on the results of this study, various activities to promote strength knowledge and career decision self-efficacy were suggested. In addition, further research agenda were discussed such as additional role of strength utilization, continuous research on the positive result of strength knowledge, execution of experiment design study, and exploration of the moderation variables.