TY  - EJOU
AU  - Ruan, Yunsheng 
AU  - Chen, Li 
AU  - Cao, Zibin 
AU  - Xu, Lina 
AU  - Han, Chao 
AU  - Sun, Qianlu 

TI  - Proactive personality and employment preparation: The mediating role of self-efficacy and career exploration behavior
T2  - Journal of Psychology in Africa

PY  - 2025
VL  - 35
IS  - 3
SN  - 1815-5626

AB  - This study investigated proactive personality effects on employment preparation and the mediating roles of self-efficacy and career exploration behaviors in this relationship. The study sample comprised 445 university students (68.3% female; aged 20 to 24) from a university in central China. The participants completed measures to assess proactive personality, employment preparation, self-efficacy, and career exploration behaviors. Structural equation modeling analysis results indicated that proactive personality predicted higher employment preparation; Self-efficacy and career exploration behaviors partially mediated this relationship. Specifically, career exploration behaviors had a stronger mediating effect than self-efficacy on the total effect (34.71% vs. 28.89%). The findings suggest proactive personality is key to employment preparation through self-belief and willingness to explore the job market. Higher education career counseling and mental health education programs should provide targeted training to promote career exploration by the student's personal attributes for best match employment preparation.
KW  - proactive personality; employment preparation; self-efficacy; career exploration behaviors

DO  - 10.32604/jpa.2025.068970