WORK ROLE SALIENCE, SELF ESTEEM AND PERCEIVED SELF-EFFICACY AS PREDICTORS OF CAREER MATURITY AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Background: This study is focused secondary school students because this stage of education is a critical period for the development of career maturity. Some studies have contended that career maturity is largely determined by gender and socioeconomic status, while not disputing this, this study is set out to examine the impact of work role salience, self-esteem, and self-efficacy on career maturity of students. Methods: Two hundred and fifty seven (257) senior secondary school students with age ranging from15 to 19 years (mean age = 17 years) were selected from four public and private Secondary Schools in metropolitan city through stratified and systematic sampling techniques. The study being a survey research, made use of a questionnaire consisting of three validated subscales. Results: Multivariate and bivariate analysis were employed to analyse the data and the results indicate that work role salience, self-esteem, and self-efficacy jointly predicted (F-3,F-256 = 26.315, p < 0.05) career maturity of students. Multiple regression analysis shows that there was a significant contribution of work role salience (beta = .445; t = 8.496; p < 0.05) and self-esteem, (beta = .197; t = 2.109; p < 0.05) to the career maturity of students. However, self-efficacy (beta = .048; t = 0.859; p > 0.05) did not contribute significantly in predicting the career maturity of students. Conclusion: The findings of the study show the need for policy makers and educationists to further institutionalize counselling and guidance services in secondary schools. Students personnel support should therefore create awareness and organize seminars for the students on career issues as this may improve students' career self-efficacy.