Mediating effects of the psychological capital between social support and self-efficacy of career decision in higher vocational nursing students

ObjectiveTo explore the mediating effects of the psychological capital between social support and self-efficacy of career decision in higher vocational nursing students.

MethodsUsing stratified random sampling method, 340 students in nursing care major in a three-year specialized program from a vocational college were selected, and the psychological capital, social support and self-efficacy of career decision of students were investigated using the psychological capital scale, social support scale and self-efficacy of career decision scale, respectively.The structural equation model was constructed using AMOS24.0 software to explore the mediating effect of the psychological capital between social support and self-efficacy of career decision.

ResultsThe total score of social support and its each dimension score were positively correlated with the scores of psychological capital and self-efficacy of career decision(r=0.228-0.857, P < 0.01).The results of Bootstrap test showed that the psychological capital played a partial mediating effect among the social support, objective support, subjective support and career decision(P < 0.01), and full mediating role between social support utilization and self-efficacy of career decision(P < 0.01).The mediating effect of the psychological capital between social support and self-efficacy of career decision accounted for 60.8% of the total effect.The mediating effects of psychological capital in three dimensions of social support and self-efficacy of career decision accounted for 54.9%, 63.9% and 83.7% of the total effect, respectively.

ConclusionThe social support and psychological capital can positively predict the self-efficacy of career decision in three-year vocational nursing students, and the social support can influence the self-efficacy of career decision through mediating effects of psychological capital.