This study aimed to explore the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and career attitude maturity, and mediating role of career stress and coping strategies in this relationship. For purposes of this study, the researcher made analyses based...
This study aimed to explore the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and career attitude maturity, and mediating role of career stress and coping strategies in this relationship. For purposes of this study, the researcher made analyses based on three research questions: 1) Does maladaptive perfectionism significantly predict career attitude maturity? 2) Is career stress a significant mediator in this relationship? 3) Does coping strategies play a significant mediating role in the relationships among the aforementioned three variables? After collecting data from 185 college students through an online survey, the researcher ran descriptive statistics and correlation analyses by SPSS 12.0, and tested the theoretical model through structural equation modeling by AMOS 5. As a result, career stress showed complete mediation effect in the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and career attitude maturity, also it completely mediated prediction of problem solving coping strategy from maladaptive perfectionism, and partially mediated the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and avoidance coping strategy. That is, maladaptive perfectionism no longer affected both career attitude maturity and problem solving coping when career stress had been controlled, and the path from maladaptive perfectionism to avoidance coping strategy was reduced but is still different from zero when career stress had been controlled. Contrary to the hypothesis that coping strategies would play significant roles in the relationships among the other variables, all of the three coping strategies did not significantly predict career attitude maturity. In addition, social support seeking showed no significant relationship with all the other variables. As a result of revising the originally hypothesized structural model and testing the goodness-of-fit, it was revealed that the revised model showed better fit statistics than the original model did. In career counseling for college students, through this study, counselors would know the importance of considering career-related stress for enhancing career attitude maturity of maladaptive perfectionists, and the importance of understanding the level of career stress for intervention in coping strategies among clients with maladaptive perfectionism.