earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediation effects of positive psychological capital on the relationship between career barriers perceived by university students and career preparation behaviors(information gathering activities, having necessary tools, efforts to achieve goals). A sample of 355 university students in Gyeonggi-do participated in this study. The questionnaires were composed of 3 scales for assessing career barriers, career preparation behaviors and positive psychological capital. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS for Windows 19.0, then correlation analyses and the regression analyses were performed with the collected data. The three-step analysis of Baron and Kenny(1986) as well as the Sobel test was employed to examine the mediation analysis. The main results of this study are summarized as follows. First, there was a significant correlation between career barriers, career preparation activities and positive psychological capital. Career barriers showed negative correlations with career preparation behaviors, and career barriers showed negative correlations with positive psychological capital. Conversely, positive psychological capital and career preparation behavior were shown to have a positive correlation. Second, positive psychological capital was found to mediate fully in the relationship between career barrier and career preparation behavior perceived by university students. These results suggest that it is important to enhance positive psychological capital in order to foster career preparedness for university students who perceive career barriers high.