Exploring Postponing Career Decisions of Indonesian Vocational Students from Biopsychososial Dimension: A Path Analysis

Abstract

Career decisions encourage students to get opportunities in various career path after graduating. Procrastination in career decision-making made the chance reducted by the time their hanging decision. In wider effect, this impacts the national level of educated unemployment. Multiple factors can be a potential source of procrastination in career decisions. Exploring these factor should be considering the biopsychosocial dimension as genetic and behavior, psychological development, and social-cultural interact on the decision making process. This research aims to examine the influence and relationship between parental expectations and personal career aspirations of vocational school students in the postponing of career decisions, which is mediated by students' dependency and compromise skills. The research method uses quantitative with a non-experimental design. The data analysis technique uses path analysis. The research subjects were 450 vocational school students in East Java, Indonesia. The research results show that parental expectations mediated by dependency positively affect postponing career decision. Students' compromise skills negatively affect postponing career decision. Furthermore, personal career aspirations have a negative direct and indirect effect on the students' postponing career decisions, which is mediated by this research variable. The research results recommend that demographic and cultural exploration be carried out to compare research results comprehensively.