Antecedents of future employability among psychology students
Antecedents of future employability among psychology students
The aim of the present study is to investigate possible antecedents of perceived employability in a sample of psychology students (N = 370). Employability is defined as the perceived chances of employment (quantitative employability) or employment according to the educational profile (qualitative employability). The antecedents concern individual characteristics: human capital (study results and the number of repeated years), social capital (educational level of the student's mother and father), attitudes (work involvement) and personality (self-esteem). We furthermore investigate the extent to which contextual variables (the specific study discipline) contribute in explaining variance in perceived employability. The results show that self-esteem and a major in clinical psychology contribute in explaining quantitative employability. Self esteem is positively and a major in clinical psychology is negatively related to quantitative employability. The number of repeated years and a major in clinical psychology are negatively related to qualitative employability, and the mother's educational level and self-esteem are positively related to qualitative employability.