The purpose of this study is to investigate mediating effect of major satisfaction and self-efficacy on the relationship between career preparation behavior and employability. For this study, surveys were conducted for 583 university students, 303 male and 280 female, in Seoul, Chungcheong-do and Jeolla-do.
A tool that was proven in the previous studies was used for the questionnaire survey. The coefficient of internal consistency, Cronbach''s α for career preparation behavior is .90, for employability is .90, for major satisfaction is .92 and for self-efficacy is .82, respectively.
SPSS 23.0 was used for descriptive statistics, reliability analysis and correlation analysis, and AMOS 23.0 was used as a program for structural equation modeling and analysis.
The analysis procedures of this study were as follows.
First, frequency analysis was conducted to identify the demographic characteristics of respondents.
Second, the coefficient of internal consistency(Cronbach''s α), was calculated to verify the reliability of the measurement tool.
Third, the skewness and kurtosis were verified to confirm the normal distribution of the measurement variables, and Pearson ''s correlation analysis was performed to determine the correlation between the variables.
Fourth, confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement model was conducted to confirm whether the measurement variable is measuring the potential variable as intended.
Fifth, structural equation model analysis was conducted to verify the relationship between the variables of the structural model, and the bootstrapping method was applied to verify the mediating effect. The statistical significance was verified by setting the number of bootstrap samples to 1,000 and the confidence interval to 95%.
From the analyses, the results of this study were as follows.
First, the relationship between career preparation behavior and major satisfaction, self-efficacy, and employability of university students are all statistically significant.
Second, career preparation behavior has a statistically significant effect on employability, and major satisfaction and self-efficacy have a complete mediating effect. The fit of the structural equation model to analyze the mediating effect was reasonable, and the significance of the mediating effect was verified through bootstrapping, and all were statistically significant. The direct effect of career preparation behavior on employability was .189, and the mediating effect of major satisfaction and self-efficacy was .420.
These results suggest that university students should choose the major suitable for their aptitude. In addition, the students should develop various education and employment support programs that can enhance self-efficacy and provide opportunities for job candidates to participate.