The Relationship Between Career Adaptability and Job-Search Self-Efficacy of Graduates: The Bifactor Approach

Career adaptability is an important resource for dealing with career transitions such as the transition from university to work. Previous research emphasized the importance of focusing on career adapt-abilities instead only on general career adaptability. The aim of this research was to investigate whether career adaptability can be conceptualized as a bifactor model and whether general and specific dimensions of career adaptability have a relationship with job-search self-efficacy of graduates. In an online cross-sectional study, 667 graduates completed the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale and Job Search Skill and Confidence Scale. The CFA analysis showed that the bifactor model of career adaptability had a good fit where general factor explained most of the items' variance. The SEM analysis revealed that general career adaptability and the specific factor of confidence positively correlated with job-search and interview performance self-efficacy. Control only correlated with interview performance self-efficacy. Neither concern nor curiosity showed a significant relationship with job-search and interview performance self-efficacy.