Effect of the High School Students Perspective of FUTURE ORIENTED TIME on the Actions for the Career Path Preparations: Mediating Effect of the Self Leadership and the Motivation for Career Path

Purpose: The young adults today are increasingly worried about their career path as they watch the rapidly changing future society, emergence of new jobs, and the disappearance of promising jobs since the advent of the fourth industrial revolution. Preparing for the career path is related to the perspective of future oriented time in the sense of practicing the present actions, mindful of the future. This study sought to explore the effect of the high school students perspective of future oriented time on the actions for the career path preparations, and also explore the influence of self-leadership and motivation for the career path in this process. Method: ‘A survey questionnaire was conducted for 650 high school students in Gyeongbuk, Daegu, Gyeongnam, and Ulsan regions, and the data of 565 students were finally analyzed, while the data were analyzed by using the structural equation model. The data collected for the statistical validation of the research model were analyzed by using the SPSS 18.0 for Windows and AMOS 22.0 programs in order to analyze the structural equation model for the causal relationship between the descriptive statistics and the research model, and also analyze the mediating effect by using the bootstrapping method and the phantom model. Results: As a result of the analysis performed, each of self leadership and motivation for the career path related mediating effects were discovered in the relationship between the high school students perspective of future oriented time and the actions for the career path preparations, and the high school students perspective of future oriented time demonstrated self leadership and motivation, with the double mediating effect discovered to influence the actions for the career path preparations through the career path. As a result of the multi-group analysis performed to examine the differences among the structural relationships according to the gender of young adults, the path from the perspective of future oriented time towards self leadership, path from self leadership towards the motivation for the career path, and the actions from motivation for the career path preparations demonstrated differences between men and women in the path for the career path preparations. Such results imply that it is necessary to consider the perspective of future oriented time, self-leadership, and motivation for career path as important variables in promoting the actions for the career path preparations. Conclusion: The structural model was validated to analyze the relationship between the perspective of future oriented time and self leadership, motivation for career path, and the actions for the career path preparations. Consequently, the effect of the perspective of future oriented time on the actions for the career path preparations was verified, and the mediating effects of self-leadership and the motivation for career path were further specified in the process. This implies that the perspective of future oriented time, self leadership, and the motivation for career path are among the important variables to consider when developing and applying various activities for promoting the actions for the career path preparations in school.