Investigation of the relationship between university students' career decision-making competence levels and emotional abuse and life skills

The aim of this research is to examine the relationship between university students' career decision-making competence, emotional abuse, and life skills. The sample of the study consists of a total of 344 voluntary university students, with 225 females and 119 males. The data collection tools used in the study include the Career Decision-Making Competence Scale, the Perceived Emotional Abuse Scale for Adults, and the Life Skills Scale. Descriptive and analytical statistics of the study were conducted using the IBM SPSS 25 package. A correlational screening model was employed in the research. The normal distribution suitability of numerical data was assessed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. Due to the normal distribution of the data, the Independent Samples t-test was used to evaluate whether there was a difference between two independent groups for a numerical variable. In cases where a numerical variable needed to be tested for differences among more than two independent groups, the One-Way ANOVA test was used, assuming normal distribution. Pearson Correlation was used to assess the relationship between variables. In our study, a moderate positive relationship was found between life skills and career decision-making competence, while a moderate negative relationship was found between career decision-making competence and emotional abuse. No significant relationship was detected between the sub-dimensions of career decision-making competence and gender, age, class, socio-economic status, parental education level, employment status, preference reason, and mental-physical illness variables. Keywords: Career Decision-Making, Emotional Abuse, Life Skills