High school students' metaphoric perceptions regarding career decision-making self-efficacy and career future expectatitons

The aim of this study is to reveal the metaphorical perceptions of high school students regarding career decision-making self-efficacy and future expectations for their careers and to examine whether there is a difference in their career decision-making self-efficacies according to various variables. The research group consists of 308 high school students, 138 girls and 170 boys. Explanatory design, a type of mixed method, was used within the scope of the research. To collect data, Career Decision-Making Self Efficacy Scale and a semi-structured form developed by the researcher were used in the study. T-test, Anova and content analysis were used to analyse the data. The findings of the study show that there is a significant difference between collecting occupational information and total score averages by school type. According to the qualitative findings of the study, it was determined that high school students perceive their self-efficacy and career barriers regarding their career decision making and career future at a high level. High perception of career barrier levels of students with high self-efficacy negatively affects their outcome expectations and personal goals. İn addition to this, negative environmental factors create uncertainty for students' expectations. Support systems are perceived as career barriers due to the inability of the support systems to meet the expectations of the students sufficiently. Keywords: Career decision-making self-efficacy, career future expectations, metaphor