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November 24, 2025 – GTU Office of Press and Public Relations Prof. Oya Erdil, Faculty Member, and Berivan Tatar-Görmüş (PhD), from GTU Faculty of Business Administration, examine the career anxiety experienced by university students, its impact on life satisfaction, and the relationship between “life meaning” and “self-efficacy” in this process.
The research has been published in the International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance.
University Youth and Increasing Career Anxiety Today’s rapidly changing business world heightens uncertainties about the future and career-related anxiety, particularly among university students.
Based on analyses conducted with 312 undergraduate students, the study revealed that career anxiety reduces students’ life satisfaction, but this effect can be mitigated through self-efficacy and the perception of life meaning. By addressing the psychological burden of the question “What will I become?” with scientific data, the study emphasized the importance of focusing on individuals’ internal resources in career guidance processes.
The Search for Meaning and Self-Efficacy: The Foundation of Well-Being The findings indicate that: As career anxiety increases, individuals’ sense of life meaning weakens. Young people who perceive their lives as meaningful report higher life satisfaction. Students with high self-efficacy play a “balancing” role, mitigating the link between high career anxiety and low life meaning.
In other words, students who are confident in themselves can maintain life satisfaction, derive meaning from life, and demonstrate psychological resilience even when facing future-related anxieties. This finding is crucial for both university career centers and psychological counseling units in developing preventive support models.
Science-Driven Awareness for Youth at GTU GTU leads projects aimed at strengthening students’ life skills, psychological resilience, self-efficacy, and awareness beyond academic success. This study reflects GTU’s approach of “empowering students as holistic individuals.”
Emphasizing that university life is not only about career preparation but also about finding meaning and self-realization, the research encourages young people to adopt a future guided by meaning rather than anxiety.
📚 Source: Müceldili, B., Tatar, B., & Erdil, O. (2025). Career anxiety as a barrier to life satisfaction among undergraduate students: the role of meaning in life and self-efficacy. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance. DOI: 10.1007/s10775-023-09617- |
