Sari Serkan Volkan, Camadan Fatih, Özmen Sefa
Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Faculty of Education, Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Cayeli, Rize, 53100, Turkey.
Bursa Uludag University, Faculty of Education, Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Bursa, 16450, Turkey.
BMC Psychol. 2025 Mar 17;13(1):257. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-02594-3.
Early career development-the first stage of an individual's journey to get to know themselves and their profession-is very important in the career choice process. The correct identification of the variables that influence this process is valuable for the healthy continuation of the developmental process. This study examined whether maternal, paternal, and peer attachment styles play a mediating role in explaining career exploration outcome expectations of metacognitive skills.
The hypotheses created for this purpose were examined within the framework of the correlational/relational design of quantitative research models. The target population comprised students studying in secondary schools in Turkey in 2023, and the sample comprised 318 individuals-168 boys and 150 girls-selected using convenience sampling method. SPSS 25.0 Process Macro 4.1 version "Model 6," developed by Hayes, was used for multiple mediation analysis.
Metacognitive skills positively and significantly predicted career exploration outcome expectations and maternal and paternal attachment styles, but not peer attachment style. Maternal, paternal, and peer attachment styles did not significantly explain career exploration outcome expectations. Finally, maternal, paternal, and peer attachment styles did not significantly mediate the relationship between metacognitive skills and career exploration outcome expectations.
These results show that individuals' metacognitive skills play an important role in the process of career exploration and goal setting. Moreover, individuals' metacognitive skills have a stronger association with family ties than with peer relationships. However, individuals' ties to their mothers, fathers, and peers are not a determining factor in the formation of individuals' expectations about their careers. Additionally, the relationship between metacognitive skills and career exploration outcome expectations occurs directly, independent of maternal, paternal, and peer attachment styles. Thus, individual characteristics, rather than social factors, such as family or peer relationships, play a significant role in shaping individuals' expectations about career exploration.
早期职业发展——个人了解自我和职业之旅的第一阶段——在职业选择过程中非常重要。正确识别影响这一过程的变量对于发展过程的健康延续很有价值。本研究考察了母亲、父亲和同伴依恋风格在解释元认知技能的职业探索结果期望方面是否起中介作用。
为此目的创建的假设在定量研究模型的相关/关系设计框架内进行检验。目标人群为2023年在土耳其中学就读的学生，样本包括318名个体——168名男生和150名女生——采用便利抽样法选取。使用Hayes开发的SPSS 25.0 Process Macro 4.1版本“模型6”进行多重中介分析。
元认知技能对职业探索结果期望以及母亲和父亲的依恋风格有正向且显著的预测作用，但对同伴依恋风格没有预测作用。母亲、父亲和同伴依恋风格并不能显著解释职业探索结果期望。最后，母亲、父亲和同伴依恋风格并未显著中介元认知技能与职业探索结果期望之间的关系。
这些结果表明，个体的元认知技能在职业探索和目标设定过程中发挥着重要作用。此外，个体的元认知技能与家庭关系的关联比与同伴关系的关联更强。然而，个体与母亲、父亲和同伴的关系并非个体职业期望形成的决定性因素。此外，元认知技能与职业探索结果期望之间的关系是直接发生的，独立于母亲、父亲和同伴依恋风格。因此，个体特征而非家庭或同伴关系等社会因素在塑造个体对职业探索的期望方面发挥着重要作用。
