Career exploration of Chinese university students in Hong Kong: testing relations among antecedent, process and outcome variables

A quantitative research study was conducted with Chinese students from a university in Hong Kong over a period of up to six months to examine relations among antecedent, process and outcome variables of career exploration. With reference to Flum. and Blustein's (2000) research framework of vocational exploration and the situation in Hong Kong, 22 hypotheses were developed for testing. A cross-sectional sample of 271 and a longitudinal sample of 101 respondents were obtained from students who participated in either a student internship or a series of career seminars. The results demonstrated that relational support, prior career exploration and time effects were related consistently to career exploration as hypothesized, but the claim that achievement motivation is an antecedent of exploration received only limited support. Career exploration was also found to be related consistently to career decision making self efficacy and associated with identity status as hypothesized, but the propositions that self clarity, career decisiveness and career decidedness are outcomes of career exploration were not sufficiently proved. Moreover, participants in work internships did not show a significantly greater increase in career exploration over time than participants in career seminars. Taken in total, the study was fruitful in applying the framework of Flum and Blustein (2000) for the first time in Hong Kong and adding culture-specific variables to it. Especially, the constructs of Chinese motivation (Yu & Yang, 1987) and of prior career exploration (Millar & Shevlin, 2003) were found relevant in understanding career exploration behaviour. The theoretical and applied implications of this study are discussed and suggestions are made to further extend the line of career exploration research in Hong Kong and other Chinese societies.