Mentoring and Job Search Behaviors: A Moderated Mediation Model of Job Search Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Limited research exists around how to effectively enhance the job search behaviors and self-efficacy of job seekers during the job search process. In the current study, we investigated whether mentoring functions (i.e., career and psychosocial functions) are related to job search behaviors through job search self-efficacy. Moreover, we tested the interactive effects of career mentoring and psychosocial mentoring on job search self-efficacy and job search behaviors. Two-wave panel data were collected from 164 college students in China to test our hypotheses. The results indicated that psychosocial mentoring was related to job search behaviors both directly and indirectly through job search self-efficacy. In addition, our results revealed that the interactive effects of career mentoring and psychosocial mentoring on job search self-efficacy and on job search behaviors through job search self-efficacy were stronger when career and psychosocial mentoring were high. The implications of the study’s findings and directions for future research are offered.

Career Mentoring and Job Content Plateaus: The Roles of Perceived Organizational Support and Emotional Exhaustion

“…Participants were asked to respond to each item on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ). The sample items were “My mentor takes a personal interest in my career,” “My mentor helps me coordinate professional goals,” and “My mentor has devoted special time and consideration to my career.” There is a significant correlation between career mentoring and career-related variables such as job search self-efficacy and job search behaviors (Kao et al, in press), supporting the criterion-related validity of the measure. The Cronbach’s α for career mentoring was .80.…”

The Effects of Peers’ Career Goal Appraisals on School to Work Transition Outcomes

“…Negative career goal appraisals were related to neither outcome variable for individual and social contextual measures, again underlining the notion forwarded in SCCT that positive efficacy beliefs together with outcome expectations and social contextual factors are the key determinants of career decisions and outcomes (Brown & Lent, 2019; Lent & Brown, 2019). Previous research has provided considerable theorizing regarding the potential mechanisms by which peers may affect careers, discussing peers’ capacity to replenish self-regulatory resources through encouragement or by serving as role models (Kao et al, 2021; Lent & Brown, 2008). As outlined above, the investigation of peers as potential role models may be particularly worthwhile and gives leeway for further theorizing regarding additional characteristics that make peers a potential facilitator during the transition.…”

“…In adolescence and young adulthood, these significant others are likely to be their peers whom they are known to draw on for guidance and support during this phase (Duriez et al, 2013). The self-regulatory resources that are necessary to expend during the transition to work may thus likewise be replenished through social contextual factors, such as peer relationships, which help people sustain their self-regulation during the transition process through encouragement, acceptance, confirmation, and modeling (Kao et al, 2021).…”

“…We argue that peers’ ability to act as social contextual resources in the transition to work is contingent on the extent to which they can provide the modeling, encouragement, and feedback assumed to be at the root of social contextual influences in SCCT (Lent & Brown, 2008) and to be a self-regulatory resource (Kao et al, 2021). Whether peers can fulfill these functions is expected to be dependent on their own characteristics and particularly on how they themselves appraise and approach their goals.…”

I See My Future!: Linking Mentoring, Future Work Selves, Achievement Orientation to Job Search Behaviors

“…MFQ-9 had acceptable levels of reliability, validity, and measurement equivalence across Taiwan and the United States (Hu et al, 2011). Moreover, MFQ-9 reported adequate reliability for targeting college students (a for career function ¼ .89; a for psychosocial function ¼ .83), and career and psychosocial functions were correlated with job search behaviors (r ¼ .21, p < .01; r ¼ .26, p < .01), indicating adequate criterionrelated validity (Kao et al, 2019). The current study targeted career and psychosocial functions only since these two mentoring functions are most strongly related to career outcomes (Renn et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2014).…”