A longitudinal exploration of career factors: Focusing on college students participating in the Leadership Development Scholarship

This study aims to identify the development curves of various factors on career development process of 300 scholarship recipients who participated in the Leader Development Scholarship Program from 2018 to 2022. A latent growth model was used to examine the mediating role of career exploration in the changes between career planning and career decision-making through a longitudinal mediation effect analysis. The analysis results showed that the career planning, career exploration, and career decision-making showed a linear pattern of change. The initial status of career planning significantly influences the initial status and rate of change of career exploration, as well as the influence of the change rate of career planning on the change rate of career exploration. However, the initial status and rate of change of career decision-making were found to have no significant impact. Additionally, while the initial status of career exploration showed a statistically significant influence on the initial status and rate of change of career decision-making, the paths between their change rates were not significant. Mediation analysis revealed that the initial status of career planning partially mediates the initial status of career decision-making through the initial status of career exploration, with no significant mediated effects observed in the rates of change. This suggests that the career decision-making of scholarship recipients reflects cognitive aspects of career development developed through career exploration processes and individual career planning. Therefore, to enhance the career planning of scholarship recipients, educational interventions such as career-related programs should focus on the growth and changes of scholarship recipients from a long-term perspective.