Arab Educational Information Network

The current study aimed to identify the level of career decision-making difficulties and career decision self-efficacy, and find out whether there are differences in the level of career decision-making difficulties and career decision self-efficacy according to gender and academic specialization variables. In addition, it was aimed at detecting the degree of the relative contribution of career decision self-efficacy in predicting career decision-making difficulties. To achieve the objective of the study, career decision-making difficulties scale, and career decision self-efficacy scale were used. The study sample consisted of 699 male and female secondary school students, chosen by the purposive method. The results of the study showed that the level of career decision-making difficulties was low, and the level of career decision self-efficacy was high. Results showed statistically significant differences in the level of career decision-making difficulties due to gender, the difficulty level among females being higher than that of males, but showed no statistically significant differences in the level of career decision-making difficulties due to academic specialization. The results also showed statistically significant differences in the level of career decision self-efficacy due to gender, in favour of males, and statistically significant differences in the level of career decision self-efficacy due to academic specialization, in favour literary specialization, while results showed a statistically significant relative correlation between career decision self-efficacy and prediction of career decision-making difficulty. (Published abstract)