Investigation of the relationship between high school students career maturity, career decision making difficulties and career decision making self efficacy

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between high school students career maturity, career decision making difficulties and career decision making self-efficacy. Another objective is to investigate whether career maturity, career decision making self-efficacy and career decision making difficulty differ according to gender, type of school and class level. The study group consists of 665 high school students from five different high schools in Bursa. Data were collected using Personal Information Form, Career Decision Making Difficulties Scale, Career Decision Making Self Efficacy Scale and Career Maturity Scale. It was determined that the total score of career maturity and the lack of preparation sub-dimension of career decision making difficulties differed according to gender and this difference was in favor of girls. When evaluated according to the type of school, it can be said that science high school and vocational and technical Anatolian high school students have more difficulty in making a career decision than Anatolian high school students. When a comparison is made according to grade level, it can be stated that 10th and 11th grade students have more difficulty in making career decisions compared to 9th grade students and this is present in the dimension of lack of knowledge. As a result of the analysis, a negative correlation was found between the total score of the career maturity scale and the total score and the subscale scores of the career decision making difficulties scale. A moderate and low negative correlation was found between total score and subscale scores of career decision making difficulties scale and total and subscale scores of career decision making self-efficacy scale. In the analysis performed to determine the mediation role of career decision making self-efficacy, it was determined that career decision making self-efficacy had a partial mediator role. Keywords: career, career maturity, career decision making difficulty, career decision making self-efficacy.