Unemployment Anxiety, Digital Entrepreneurship and Career Planning Trends of Graphic Design Undergraduate Students

This study investigated the unemployment anxiety, digital entrepreneurship intentions, and career future perceptions of 428 undergraduate graphic design students from five different universities in Turkey. The research was conducted using the relational survey model, a quantitative research method. Data were analyzed using percentages, frequencies, arithmetic means, independent samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and simple linear correlation analysis. The findings revealed that participants' career future perceptions and digital entrepreneurship intentions were at a high level, while their unemployment anxiety was at a moderate level. It was determined that male students possessed higher digital entrepreneurship intentions and career future perceptions; furthermore, female students anticipated a more pessimistic state of mind in the event of unemployment. As grade levels increased, digital entrepreneurship intentions and career future perceptions decreased, while unemployment anxiety increased. Conversely, increased work experience was associated with decreased unemployment anxiety and higher career future perception scores. Correlation analysis showed that as digital entrepreneurship intention increases, unemployment anxiety tends to decrease while career future perception increases. Additionally, higher unemployment anxiety was linked to lower career future perception. Based on these results, it is recommended that psycho-social support be provided for female students and positive discrimination be implemented for women in professional life. The underlying reasons for the negative shifts observed as grade levels increase should be explored through in-depth qualitative research. Moreover, the positive impact of work experience suggests the necessity of increasing internship opportunities. Finally, the study proposes integrating applied entrepreneurship and career planning courses into the curriculum.