Introduction

College students who are about to graduate and enter the workforce experience their first major identity transformation as they transition from school to the workplace (Presti et al., 2022). Informed career decision-making (CDM) plays an important role in this process (Karabiyik et al., 2021). Due to global economic instability and the complexity of the CDM process in the 21st century, many college students are unable to make rational career decisions (I. J. Park et al., 2019; X. Yu et al., 2021). Studies have indicated that college students’ CDM after graduation appears to be very poor (Jelks & Crain, 2020). According to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), approximately 40% of students are confused about their CDM, which ultimately affects the successful employment of college students (Chaudhary et al., 2019). A successful career choice is not only related to employment but also to future career development (Argyropoulou & Kaliris, 2018). This can predict future income and can also change one’s career prospects, directly affecting an individual’s life satisfaction (Zainudin et al., 2020).

As the main venue for talent cultivation, higher education institutions are an important guarantee for providing and supporting high-quality, professional, and skilled talent for the country (Ma & Li, 2020). With a national emphasis on vocational talents and an increase in social demand, higher vocational education has taken up “half of the higher education system” and become a powerful talent and skill support for the strategy of science and education revitalization (Y. P. Wang & Wang, 2022). Thus, higher vocational education in China, as an essential part of higher education, has proved to be a significant force in the popularization of higher education in China, but the recognition of college students receiving higher vocational education by society is still low (Ling et al., 2023). Thus, college students are finding it more difficult to make career decisions and need more societal attention (Kvasková & Almenara, 2021).

Current research on CDM focuses on two main areas, the first being how to reduce CDM difficulties (Anghel & Gati, 2021; Atuahene, 2021; Chuang et al., 2020). For example, Gu et al.’s (2020) study confirmed that vocational courses have a positive impact on students’ ability to make career decisions. Secondly, descriptive studies on CDM (Xu, 2021) are lacking in empirical studies to improve the quality of college students’ CDM.

Initially, the focus of assessing the quality of career decisions was the outcome of the process. However, scholars such as Phillips and Pazienza (1988) argue that focusing on the processes that lead to decisions is an important way to evaluate those decisions. The two approaches are both fundamentally different and necessarily related. The difference is that a good decision process is how a decision is made, where an individual can exercise a large element of control. A good decision outcome reflects the desirability of the chosen outcome, which is largely influenced by factors beyond the individual’s control. The connection is reflected in the fact that a better process leads to a better outcome. However, due to the ambiguity of many people’s current and future preferences, limited resources, and the inherent uncertainty of the future job market, even optimal decision-making processes do not guarantee desirable outcomes and choice satisfaction, and in this new career era, CDM processes are subject to uncertainty. Also, the definition of “good career choices” may vary from individual to individual (Phillips & Jome, 2005). However, despite this uncertainty, adopting a better decision-making process increases the chances of achieving the desired outcome (Eun et al., 2013) and reduces regret (Ueichi et al., 2012). The main task of students during their school years is to learn skills, and focusing on the process of CDM is more important to improve the quality of CDM among university students.

Preparation, orientation, and information are three important components of the CDM process (Kulcsár et al., 2020). Research shows that career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE) is an important part of career preparation. Orientation can be understood as the desired career goal that job seekers want to achieve by overcoming difficulties and obstacles (Gati & Kulcsár, 2021). Schwartz et al. (2000) highlighted that job seekers with clear values tend to focus on career information that aligns with their values. Therefore, the authors believe that CDMSE, career goals, and career values are important factors affecting the quality of CDM.

The Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) is a comprehensive theory and is mainly derived from the general Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) (Lent et al., 1999). SCCT contains three subject variables: self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goals (Lent & Brown, 2013). In CDM research, individuals’ CDM behaviors are determined by their set career goals, which are predicted by self-efficacy beliefs associated with those goals and outcome expectations, where outcome expectations refer to the positive or negative consequences of engaging in adaptive behaviors (Lent et al., 2017). Such outcome expectations encompass career-related values, and scholars typically measure values by examining people’s preferences for particular work conditions or benefits to measure values (e.g., social status, money, autonomy) (Lent & Brown, 2013). In other words, values are viewed as a positive outcome expectation. Overall, the subject variables of the SCCT fit well with the variables explored in this study and it has been shown that the SCCT is effective in predicting career transitions and development (Wendling & Sagas, 2020). Therefore, this study used the SCCT as the basis for constructing the research model.

With the increase of national attention to higher vocational education, the number of students will also increase significantly, and the graduates of higher vocational colleges will occupy a more important position in the development of society. Therefore, it is important to coach students during their college years on quality CDM to improve their career development (Verma et al., 2017). However, college students’ CDM has distinct practical characteristics, and how to effectively guide college students to CDM consciously and scientifically requires the construction of educational practice programs with strong operability. Also, there is still a paucity of academic research on the CDM of college students in vocational colleges, and there is a gap in empirical research that explores the process of increasing the quality of their CDM. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to construct a model based on the SCCT that can improve the quality of CDM among college students in higher vocational institutions. The research questions address the direct or indirect effects of career values, CDMSE, and career goals on CDM. It is anticipated that the empirical results will be used as a basis to explore effective and feasible strategies to improve the quality of CDM of college students in higher vocational colleges and universities, and then to make suggestions and recommendations to improve the quality of their CDM.

This manuscript is structured as follows: First we discuss the SCCT and state our hypotheses, and then explain the research method, study participants, and measurements tools. Next, we reveal the study results and discuss them in relation to other studies. We then provide our study conclusions, and discuss the study limitations and gaps for further research.

Theory and Hypothesis

The Social Cognitive Career Theory

Since its introduction, the SCCT has become a popular foundation for career research and interventions (Sheu & Bordon, 2017). The SCCT is considered a complement to existing theoretical approaches to career development, while linking existing theories into a comprehensive career theory (Lent et al., 1994). For example, it aims to broaden Holland’s (1997) theory by focusing on antecedents of interest and non-interest predictors of career choice, such as self-efficacy beliefs; Following earlier research on occupational self-efficacy, the SCCT has helped to extend previous theories by considering other aspects of gender, cultural, and human diversity in the context of career development (Lent & Brown, 2013).

The original model of the SCCT consists of three related but independently studied models: (1) the interest development model, (2) the choice decision model, and (3) the job performance model (Lent et al., 1994), which were later extended by the job satisfaction model and the Career Self-management Model (Brown & Lent, 2019). The traditional SCCT model lacks a focus on the career development process. Therefore, Lent and Brown (2013) established the Career Self-management (CSM) model based on the SCCT, which focuses on “behaviors that people use to help guide their career and educational development” and on relatively micro-level processes such as how individuals make career-related decisions, how they coordinate the change from school to work, how they find jobs, and how they pursue their personal goals (Brown & Lent, 2019).

The CSM model has different applications for different career behaviors such as career exploration and CDM (Ireland & Lent, 2018; Lent et al., 2016, 2017). Based on the CSM and through the results of an empirical study of 345 unemployed adult workers, in Portugal, Lent et al. (2022) showed that the CSM model can provide explanatory utility relative to initial and subsequent CDM and across national boundaries. Stremersch et al. (2021) incorporated the job search quality of college students into the CSM model, and the results confirmed the validity of this integration. In summary, this study concludes that CSM is a model that is more widely used in the career field and that it is applicable to the study of CDM behavior in different contexts. The research model is also applicable to college students, and therefore the research framework of this study was constructed based on CSM. Its variables are based on the four subjective research variables of self-efficacy, goals, values, and career decisions of CSM.

Research Hypothesis

Gati and Asher (2001) define CDM as the process that people go through to search for possible career options, compare them, and then choose one of them. CDM, in a broad sense, involves decisions about any aspect of work-life dynamics, however, CDM research usually focuses on education and career choice (Kulcsár et al., 2020; Xu & Bhang, 2019). In a narrow sense, it is a sequential aspect of career guidance, where the content and results of an individual’s self-assessment, career assessment, and environmental assessment directly influence choices. The content and results of an individual’s self-assessment, career assessment, and environmental assessment directly influence CDM, among which self-assessment is mainly the assessment of an individual’s psychological characteristics, which plays the role of decision orientation (L. N. Huang, 2009).

Work values are preferences that individuals would like to have or consider important in job decisions (Pataki-Bittó & Kapusy, 2021). Liu (2021) noted that job seekers perceive actions that are consistent with their values as being beneficial to them and that it helps people get what they want. As values induce valence to potential behaviors, individuals will positively evaluate behaviors that are consistent with their values and experience them as being rewarding and satisfying (Bauers & Mahler, 2020). This sense of reward plays a key motivational role in CDM and career development, and can motivate individuals to engage in career behaviors that are aligned with them, including choosing careers and jobs that are aligned with their values (Abessolo et al., 2017). It is also for this reason that career values are a major prerequisite for college students’ CDM, and in the job search process, they are more inclined to look for jobs that align with their career values (Ramírez et al., 2022). Research has shown that extrinsic career values, such as compensation and career prospects, are often a priority factor when choosing a job (Giraud et al., 2019). Nisha et al. (2016) explored the influence of values on CDM with a sample of 300 adolescents, and the results showed that some dimensions of values were significantly and positively related to CDM. Sortheix et al. (2015) further indicated through quantitative studies that career values play a key motivational role in CDM and career development. Therefore, this study hypothesized that career values can significantly influence CDM.

CDM is a complex and challenging process, and not all young people can confidently and successfully solve it. They may lack the self-efficacy to take the necessary actions (Santos et al., 2018). In SCCT-based research on career development, CDMSE has been a concern (Lent et al., 2019) because it is considered a necessary component of successful career decisions (Chen et al., 2021). Moreover, it has an important influence on CDM and can be effective in predicting an individual’s career choices and behavior (Doo & Park, 2019) to the point where successful career decisions can be made (I. J. Park et al., 2018). It has been argued that CDM is process-oriented (Levin et al., 2020) and college students with a strong career orientation actively seek more career-related information. Thus, they have more reference points for CDM and show more confidence in performing the behavior (H. Li et al., 2019). Rosantono et al. (2021) found that CDMSE has a positive impact on CDM through a survey of students in vocational colleges. It has also been shown that there is a significant positive relationship between CDMSE and CDM (Restubog et al., 2010). Considering the above analysis together, this study hypothesized that CDMSE can significantly influence CDM. Therefore, the following hypotheses were established:

1. H1: Positive career values of college students in higher vocational colleges will significantly influence their CDM.
2. H2: CDMSE will positively and significantly influence the CDM of college students in higher vocational institutions.

The manifestation of goals in professional behavior, which can be called “career goals,” plays an important role in career management. However, it is often implicit and is usually understood as a person’s intention to engage in a certain activity or to achieve a specific level of performance (Lent et al., 2022). Intention is a prerequisite for relevant behavior, and the stronger the intention, the greater the likelihood of converting the intention into action (Ajzen, 1991). Perceptual behavior control based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, including money and other material resources, is an important prerequisite for personal intention and behavior (Ajzen, 2020). Therefore, this study argues that personal values also fall within the category of behavioral control beliefs, which also have the characteristics of perceptual behavioral control. Also, values can influence how individuals assess various events and their importance, as well as motivate them in different situations to carry out their activities (Basinska & Dåderman, 2019). Therefore, this study hypothesized that individuals’ career values can influence their career goals and CDM behaviors, and that career goals can predict individuals’ CDM as a behavior (Lent et al., 2018). Based on the SCCT, in the early stages of career building, people usually look for initial jobs that are aligned with their values under favorable conditions because it may signify a determination to achieve their chosen content goals (Lent & Brown, 2013). Bandura (1989) also noted that individuals are more likely to translate their goals into action when they are clear, consistent with their personal values, and close to action. Therefore, some scholars have proposed that students be encouraged to set career goals and make career decisions based on their own career values (Chui et al., 2022). This study argues that career values can further influence CDM through goals. The following hypothesis was therefore established:

1. H3: Career goals of college students in higher vocational institutions will mediate between career values and CDM.

Individuals are more likely to engage in actions designed to facilitate CDM when they have a plan to do so and are confident in taking the necessary steps (Hamzah et al., 2021; Lent et al., 2019). Also, individuals with strong goals are those who can react according to their abilities and evaluate themselves, therefore, they are more resilient in the face of setbacks and will develop different plans and strategies to overcome obstacles, thus increasing the likelihood of success (Madrazo & Mariano, 2021). Based on the SCCT, it is believed that CDMSE is an important factor that influences individuals’ career goals and career choices (J. H. Park & Kang, 2022; Thompson et al., 2017), and it can effectively predict career-related activity goals and related performance (Xing & Rojewski, 2018). Also, CDMSE has many effects on individuals’ career behaviors, and people with high CDMSE have a clearer orientation in their CDM and achievement through their career goals (Monteiro et al., 2021). Turner et al. (2022) showed through an empirical study of 102 Native American students that having career goals was significantly and positively related to CSM-based self-efficacy, and that there was a significant positive association between CDMSE and CDM (Cheng et al., 2016). Nachmias and Walmsley (2015) interviewed 28 UK hospitality specialist students based on the career decision theory, and their results demonstrated that self-efficacy affects college students’ ability to make effective career decisions. Therefore, this study hypothesized that CDMSE could further influence CDM by influencing goals. The following hypothesis was therefore established:

1. H4: The career goals of college students in higher vocational institutions will mediate the effect between their CDMSE and their career decisions.

CDM it’s the process of choosing an action from several alternatives that should be identified, compared, and selected based on individual’s value, preferences, and beliefs (Gati & Kulcsár, 2021). Individual self-efficacy beliefs and career values are influential factors in CDM. It has been suggested that values may influence CDM by motivating learning and interest, and thus the achievement of skills and self-efficacy around value congruence (Gorgievski et al., 2018). This means that values can indirectly act on CDM through CDMSE. There are also relevant precedent studies that suggest that individuals’ CDMSE can play a key mediating role in the CDM process (Tang et al., 2008), which further suggests that a mediating effect of CDMSE is valid in the field of CDM research. Y. Wang et al. (2016) studied the relationship between the career values, CDMSE, and employability of 379 college students in chinese central province, and found that CDMSE played a fully mediating role in the relationship between career values and employability, and successful CDM behaviors were also considered a manifestation of employability (Chasanah & Salim, 2019; Y. Wen & Zhao, 2021). In summary, this study concluded that career values can influence CDM through CDMSE. Therefore, the following hypothesis was established:

1. H5: The CDMSE of college students in higher vocational institutions plays a mediating role in career values and CDM.

In summary, this study used the SCCT as the theoretical basis and combined the CSM model of the theory to construct a research framework and to explore the situations in which career values, CDMSE, and career goals influence the CDM of college students in higher vocational institutions. The study framework is illustrated in Figure 1.

Method

Participants

A questionnaire survey was used to study a sample of senior students from three higher education institutions in Guangxi, China. A sample collection was carried out using snowball sampling. To prevent common method bias in students’ responses, this study used the interviewee consultation concealment method and the mental isolation method to administer the sample, that is, anonymous surveys and standardized subscales in the questionnaire that are independent of each other, so that the questionnaire was administered anonymously, and the standard subscales were independent of each other. Therefore, the respondents were less inclined to personal bias (Peng et al., 2006). A total of 700 questionnaires were eventually returned, with 654 valid responses used for the analysis. Among the valid sample (N = 654), there were 148 (23%) males and 506 (77%) females, and in terms of year level, there were 298 (45%) first-year students, 213 (33%) second-year students, and 143 (22%) third-year students. The age of the test-granting sample ranged from 20 to 23 years.

Measurement Tools

This study used the CDMSE-SF developed by Betz et al. (1996), which includes five dimensions: (1) self-evaluation, (2) career information, (3) goal selection, (4) planning, and (5) problem solving. The scale consists of 25 questions. For example, the degree of confidence in choosing a career that matches the desired lifestyle, with a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = not at all confident, 2 = very unconfident, 3 = somewhat confident, 4 = quite confident, 5 = completely confident. The higher the total score of the variables, the higher the degree of self-efficacy. The consistency reliability coefficient within each dimension was between 0.73 and 8.83, the total reliability of the scale was 0.94, and the cumulative explanatory variation was 62%.

This study used Song’s (2020) career values scale, which includes the five dimensions of freedom\interesting, cognitive, work team related, instrumental, altruistic\influential, with a total of 27 questions. For example, the welfare treatment (five insurances and one fund, various subsidies, solving accommodation, settling down and buying a house, etc.) is satisfactory with a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = not important at all, 2 = not important, 3 = average, 4 = important, and 5 = very important, where a high or low score represents the relative importance of the entry to some extent in terms of career values. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for each dimension ranged from .80 to .90, and the total reliability of the scale was .94. The cumulative explanatory variation of the scale was 66.85%.

This study used the career goal scale developed by Y. H. Yu (2004), which is a second-order scale consisting of five items. For example, “I planned for my recent career development,” and scored on a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = Completely disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = average, 4 = agree, and 5 = Strongly agree, with higher scores representing higher levels of meeting career goals and an internal consistency reliability of 0.80.

This study used the constructivist beliefs of the career decision-making (CBCD) scale developed by Xu (2020), which comprises two dimensions of satisfactory decision-making and active creation, with six questions in each dimension. For example, the implementation of career choices determines a person’s career success. A 5-point Likert scale was used where 1 = not at all important, 2 = not important, 3 = average, 4 = important, and 5 = very important. Higher scores indicate stronger CBCD scale values. The internal consistency coefficients for the dimensions of satisfactory decision-making and active creation were 0.79 and 0.80, respectively, with a cumulative interpreted variation of 44.07%.

SPSS 22.0 was used to assess the reliability of the scales and to test for differences. AMOSS 22.0 was used to test the convergent validity of the sample and the model fit. A structural equation model was used to test the relationship between the variables and the validity of the model. In past decades, Structural equation model (SEM) has become an important research tool in psychology and education as multivariate relational modeling (Y. A. Wang & Rhemtulla, 2021; X. H. Wang et al., 2023). SEM not only allows for less error, but also validates the overall model. Therefore, this study examined the direct and mediated effects of the variables by creating a model of the relationship between career values, CDMSE, career goals, and CDM.

Results

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Using AMOS 22.0 software, the validative Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of each scale sample was performed. Hair et al. (2010), Abedi et al. (2015), and other scholars believe that the degree of fit index GFI, NFI, CFI, and IFI should be greater than 0.80, and RMR and SRMR should be less than 0.80. The verification results of this study show that each scale has a good model allocation, as shown in Table 1.

Reliability and Validity Analysis

Hair et al. (2010) argued that Cronbach’s α values of 0.7 and above are acceptable, and Cronbach’s α for each variable in this study ranged from 0.84 to 0.96, indicating good reliability. Studies have shown that convergence validity can be tested by three indicators: Standardized factor load (SFL), Average Variance Extracted (AVE), and Composite Reliability (CR) (Hair et al., 2017). As shown in Table 2, the observed variable SFL of each variable is greater than 0.5, and the t-value is at a significant level, which is in line with the reference range (Hair et al., 2019). All AVE values exceeded 0.5 and met the reference standard (Hair et al., 2011). In addition, CR values all exceeded 0.6, in line with academic standards (Hair et al., 2017). Therefore, each variable had a good convergence effect.

Model Fit Analysis

Hair et al. (2019) suggested that a cardinality to freedom ratio of 5 or less is sufficient. However, although the measurement model χ² values are significant, the χ² values are susceptible to fluctuations in the sample size and may be rejected if the sample is too large. The model should be revised when the index of model fit is not ideal (Hox & Bechger, 1998). Therefore, this study made one revision for the number of error variances. The corrected model indicators are: error variances between 0.12 and 0.30, with no negative values, and standardized weighted regression weighting coefficients between −0.15 and 0.55, with no coefficients greater than 0.95. The standard errors ranged from 0.07 to 0.12 with no excessive standard errors. Therefore, there was no violation of estimation (F. M. Huang, 2004) and the data of the model could be trusted. The model fit metrics were χ²/df = 4.79, GFI = 0.91, AGFI = 0.88, RMR = 0.05, NFI = 0.91, NNFI = 0.91, CFI = 0.93, IFI = 0.93, PNFI = 0.75, and PGFI = 0.67, which were all in accordance with the recommended values (Abedi et al., 2015; Hair et al., 2010). Therefore, the model in this study had a good fit.

In the study of social sciences, structural equation modeling (SEM) is considered a powerful and widely used tool (Ye et al., 2022) which is often used to help measure the effects between variables and the structural relationships of models (Hansen & Olsson, 2022), that is, to assess the validity of theories or assumptions by using data (Phakiti, 2018). Therefore, this study used SEM to verify the validity of the above hypothesis, and the study data are shown in Figure 2.

Variance Analysis

The results of an independent sample t-test showed that there was a significant difference in CDM among college students of different genders (p = .000). The results of the one-way ANOVA showed that there was no significant difference in CDM among college students of different grades (p = .060).

Direct Action Analysis

The standardized regression weighted coefficient of career values on CDM was 0.21 (p < .001, t = 4.00) and the standardized regression weighted coefficient of CDMSE on CDM was 0.54 (p < .001, t = 5.51). The results represent respectively that career values can positively and significantly influence CDM, and CDMSE can positively and significantly influence CDM. Therefore, Hypotheses 1 and 2 are supported.

Analysis of the Mediating Role of Career Goals

The results showed that the normalized regression coefficients for career values and CDMSE for career goals were 0.11 (p < .05, t = 2.60) and 0.55 (p < .05, t = 12.48), respectively, and the standardized regression coefficients for career goals on CDM were −0.15 (p < .05, t = 2.76). The results show that career goals act as intermediaries in both mediation models. Zhao et al. (2010) states that when the effect of the mediation model is valid, it is a competitive mediation if the direct effect × indirect effect is negative. In the path of career values, career goals, and CDM, the direct effect is 0.21, the indirect effect is 0.11 × −0.15, and the direct effect × indirect effect is −0.003. Therefore, the career goal has a competitive intermediary role between occupational values and CDM. In the path of CDMSE, career goals, and CDM, the direct effect is 0.54, the indirect effect is 0.55 × −0.15, and the direct effect × indirect effect is −0.045. Therefore, the career goal shows a competitive mediating role in this path. Considered together, Hypothesis 3 and Hypothesis 4 are supported.

Mediating Effect Analysis of CDMSE

The standardized regression weighted coefficient of career values on CDMSE was 0.22 (p < .001, t = 4.05) and the standardized regression weighted coefficient of CDMSE on CDM was 0.54 (p < .001, t = 5.51). The results represent that career values can further influence CDM through CDMSE, which is the mediating effect of CDMSE. According to the reference standard of Zhao et al.’s (2010) study, the direct effect of this path is 0.21, the indirect effect is 0.22 × 0.54, the direct effect × indirect effect is 0.024, and the result is positive, that is, the CDMSE plays a complementary mediation role between professional values and CDM. Therefore, Hypothesis 5 is supported.

Discussion

Studies have shown that career values have a significant positive impact on CDM. Consistent with the view of scholars such as Tarbox et al. (2022) and Tian and Cheng (2023), values can positively guide professional behavior. Values are a core concept in an individual’s personality and spiritual system, which has a guiding role in individual behavior (Cai et al., 2018). Furthermore, career values describe an individual’s attitudes, beliefs, and feelings about work and a particular occupation, and are traits or qualities that people look for in their profession or occupation (Blount et al., 2018). This value system plays an integral role in career choices, and for college students, it can be reflected in their preferences and expectations for future jobs and workplaces, which strongly influences career decisions in the transition from school to work (Lukeš et al., 2019). Students in vocational colleges and universities are in a critical period of professional values formation, and the education and guidance of values can improve the quality of employment and enable students to make better career decisions (B. Li & Yang, 2021). Therefore, students should strengthen the positive guidance and cultivation of professional values during their school years.

Currently, college students in higher vocational colleges and universities have problems such as a lack of career value ideals and practicality in career value education, and vague career value beliefs, coupled with the fact that college students nowadays have more pragmatic career values and pay too much attention to explicit factors such as salary and working environment, but tend to ignore the important influence of implicit conditions such as future development of the industry, development space, and employment competition opportunities on their long-term career development. Thus, some students take material benefits as an important criterion for career decisions, and some students live in a financially distressed environment with unrealistic career fantasies (Diao, 2017). Therefore, colleges and universities should allocate more class time toward the interpretation and analysis of careers in the educational aspect of career planning, and guide students to interpret careers with a dynamic and comprehensive perspective. Through career learning and planning, students can determine a clear career orientation, provide favorable employment conditions through policy promotion, and help students establish correct and positive career values.

In addition, the results of the study indicate that CDMSE has a positive influence on the CDM of college students in higher vocational institutions. The findings are consistent with Cheng et al.’s (2016) and Nachmias and Walmsley’s (2015) findings. CDM is a challenging vocational behavior for college students in higher education (Chaudhary et al., 2019). Some researchers believe that people with a strong sense of self-efficacy can better understand the changes related to themselves, predict their career future and positive working conditions, adjust and regulate their behavior, have a stronger ability to solve problems, and subsequently make better career decisions (Hou et al., 2019).

As a special and relatively disadvantaged group of college students, students in higher vocational colleges have long been skeptical about their abilities in society, resulting in a tendency to underestimate their own perceptions, and thus they are obviously unable to evaluate their ability and confidence to carry out their CDM activities. According to Bandura (1993), behavioral achievement, alternative experiences, social persuasion, and physiological state are the four main sources of efficacy. Therefore, this study suggests that higher vocational education can enhance students’ CDM through these four sources, such as enhancing students’ behavioral achievement through more participation in professional internships and social practice, and inviting more outstanding alumni who are typical cases of success back to school to talk about their experiences, to provide role models for students at school. Moreover, teachers, parents, and classmates should be guided by more positive encouragement, with a view to building a foundation of self-confidence in students.

Career values and CDMSE can further influence CDM by affecting career goals. However, what is very interesting is that the goals can negatively and significantly influence CDM. In these two mediation models, there is a phenomenon of direct effect and mediation effect difference. According to scholars Z. Wen and Ye (2014), this phenomenon is called the “masking effect.” For the purposes of this study, the phenomenon can be understood as a result of the overpowering influence of career values or CDMSE on career goals, which can instead lead to the inhibition of the effect of goals on CDM behavior. The reasons for this phenomenon may be as follows: one’s career trajectory is easily shifted and shaped by unpredictable personal and environmental factors that make one’s career prospects uncertain, and because of this, the process of CDM is actually a subjectively constructed process (Savickas, 2013) in which the individual plays the role of an architect in the decision-making. Scholars with such a view consider CDM as a process of career building with a better choice in mind (Xu & Tracey, 2017). Savickas (2013) also stated that individuals’ career development may not just unfold according to their strategies, because unexpected environmental constraints, life events, and uncertainty of crucial aspects can inflict a non-linear career development process. In contrast, SCCT-based career goals are intentions to engage in an activity or achieve a specific level of performance (Brown & Lent, 2019). This means that a goal is actually a subjective vision of a specific purpose, and it reflects the characteristic of having a certain occupational orientation, that is, the goal actually presupposes that an outcome has already been determined. Because of this, if the degree of performance of one’s career goals is too strong, it will tend to orient one’s career development in a linear process, which in turn will affect one’s subjective construction process. Therefore, in the context of this study, career goals are positively promoted by CDMSE or career values, making the degree of performance of career goals too high, which in turn affects the process of CDM.

Conclusions and Contributions

As a valuable human resource, the development and allocation of college students in higher vocational institutions are closely related to the rise and fall of education, and the economic construction and social stability of a country. Therefore, in the context of severe global unemployment, it is particularly important to improve the quality of CDM for students in vocational colleges and universities. Therefore, this study constructed a research framework for the influencing factors of CDM based on the SCCT model and proposed five research hypotheses. The results show that (1) Career values can positively and significantly influence CDM, (2) CDMSE can positively and significantly affect CDM, (3) Career goals play a competitive mediation role between career values and CDM, (4) Career goals show a competitive mediating role between CDMSE and CDM, (5) CDMSE shows a complementary mediating role between professional values and CDM. Career values and CDMSE have a positive predictive effect on CDM, however, strong career goal setting will have a certain inhibitory effect on CDM, and will affect the construction of CDM due to blind pursuit of goals. The five hypotheses proposed in this study, H1–H5, were all confirmed by the results of the study, and therefore the research model of this study was validated.

The transition of college students from school to the workplace is an important turning point in their lives in which CDM plays an important role. This study used the SCCT as the theoretical basis and introduces the variable of career values based on its conceptual framework of CSM. The results of the study show that the model of career decision influence proposed in this study, based on the conceptual framework of CSM, is valid. In addition, the findings also demonstrate the applicability of the CSM conceptual framework to the study of CDM among college students in higher education institutions. Thus, this study enriches the research scope of the CSM conceptual framework and confirms the validity of the assumption that career values replace the variable of outcome expectancy.

As for theoretical significance, through a systematic analysis of previous research literature on CDM, this study proposes that career values, CDMSE, and career goals are important influencing factors of CDM process quality. Therefore, a research framework was constructed based on the CSM model of the SCCT, and the research hypothesis was proposed. The research hypotheses were tested by means of an empirical study, and the results showed that career values and CDMSE have a significant predictive role for CDM in the SCCT-based research framework, while career goals also play a mediating role. The results of this study provide a line of empirical evidence to support existing theories and may provide a valuable reference for subsequent studies.

Improving the employment status of college students in higher vocational institutions by improving the quality of their CDM is important. From a practical point of view, exploring the regular characteristics of college students’ behavior in the CDM process according to the model of this study can help improve the relevance and effectiveness of college CDM education practice activities and construct an operative educational practice program. For example, higher vocational institutions can improve the quality of their students’ CDM through a comprehensive approach such as shaping students’ value orientations, strengthening the cultivation of career self-efficacy beliefs, and training students to set short-term goals.

Research Limitations and Future Recommendations

The study achieved its objectives according to the expected design and also obtained more desirable results, however, there are still certain limitations in a comprehensive view, which are combined with the limitations of the study to make several recommendations for future research.

First, contextual variables are effective predictors of self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and can also facilitate or inhibit the goals people set for themselves and the actions they take in pursuit of their goals, as well as moderate the relationships among other variables in the model. However, in this study, contextual moderating variables were not included. Therefore, contextual factors can be used as moderating variables in subsequent studies to explore the moderating role of contextual factors in influencing factors of CDM. In addition, due to the variability of CDM among college students in higher education institutions by gender, there is a need to explore the bias of gender on the variability of CDM in follow-up studies.

Second, the study data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire, and participants’ evaluations of the items may be exaggerated or conservative due to excessive subjectivity. The objectivity of the data sources can be increased in the future by diversifying the information collection channels.

Finally, this study used a cross-sectional approach, which only confirms the correlation between variables and does not really establish a causal relationship. In the future, it is recommended to use a longitudinal study or a follow-up study to further verify the transformation process from entrepreneurial intention to entrepreneurial behavior. In addition, the sample size of subjects in this study was unevenly distributed by gender and by grade level. Therefore, the findings in the analysis of variance may be somewhat uncritical. In the future, when collecting sample information, a more balanced sample category can be recruited so that more information can be collected, and the results for the difference-in-difference analysis will be more rigorous.

Thanks to Nanguang Su for his help in the process of questionnaire collection.

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