The antecedents of career decidedness among students majoring in aviation: The role of career stresss and career futures

The present study intends exploring both the mediator effect of career futures and the moderator effect of career stress on the relationship with career decision making self-efficacy and career decidedness. 233 (54.3%) women and 196 (45.7%) men across six different aviation-majoring departments of universities throughout Türkiye constitutes the total sample of this study. The data was gathered via administering the Demographic Variables Form, the Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form, the Career Futures Inventory, and the Career Decidedness Scale. The respondents declared that they were registered to the following departments: 85 (Aviation Management), 17 (Pilot Training), 88 (Civil Aviation Transportation Management), 117 (Civil Aviation Cabin Services), 90 (Aircraft Maintenance and Repair), 29 (Aircraft Technology), 3 (Flight Dispatch Management). The path analysis method provided the best statistics for the goodness fit of the model. The study findings revealed that while career optimism highly mediated the relationship between goal selection, problem solving, self-appraisal, job information, planning, and career decidedness, employment pressure highly and negatively moderated this relationship. In other words, individuals' optimistic expectations about their future career have a positive impact on their self-efficacy and determinacy about career development. However, the degree of employment pressure under which individuals go through has a negative impact on their degree of decidedness regarding future career plans.