Chain-mediated effects of career self-efficacy and career planning between social support and career anxiety in college soccer players

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the Career Anxiety of Chinese university high-level soccer players, to construct a chain mediation model, and to provide intervention suggestions to alleviate the Career Anxiety of this group. The study used questionnaires and collected 797 valid questionnaires (404 male; 393 female), and used AMOS 21.0 and SPSS 19.0 software for data processing and model testing through hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling. The results showed that: social support had a direct negative effect on Career Anxiety; career choice self-efficacy and career planning mediated between social support and Career Anxiety, respectively; and career choice self-efficacy and career planning together constituted a significant chain mediation effect. The conclusion suggests that improving the social support level, enhancing their career choice self-efficacy and perfecting their career planning ability are the key ways to effectively intervene in Career Anxiety among college high-level soccer players.