Academia now has not paid much attention to the career intentions of music performance students from integrated cognitive motivation theoretical perspective. This research sought insights into factors influencing the career intentions of music performance students by empirically combining social cognitive career theory and self-determination theory. Undergraduates from seven Chinese music institutions participated in the survey through self-managed online questionnaires. About 422 valid surveys were used for data analysis using Smart-PLS v3.3.3 to evaluate the measurement and structural models. The multiple regression analysis showed that the proposed model explained 58.3% of the career intentions variance. Self-efficacy, social support, and autonomous motivation positively affect career intentions. Autonomous motivation partially mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and career intentions. This research expands the existing literature on the Chinese music performance industry and helps to propose theoretically driven measures for effective intervention to attract and retain these students.
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