The Relationship among Career Certainty, Career Engagement, Social Support and College Success for Veteran-Students

Abstract

Abstract Transition from high school to college has been highly researched and shown to be a necessary process toward college success. Research on understanding the transition process from a military career to college success has been much newer and sparser; making the understanding of factors predicting college success limited. One psychological construct, self-efficacy, has been shown to be a major factor in the success of college students and would likely parallel with the accomplishments, or lack thereof, of Veterans entering college after their time in the military. It will help the development of effective educational programs or interventions aiming at enhancing Veterans’ college success if we understand the major factors that are associated with veteran students’ college self-efficacy. This study explored college self-efficacy along with life satisfaction as indicators of college success and examined their relationship with career certainty, career engagement, and perceived social support for Veteran-students. The results supported a positive relationship between college self-efficacy, career engagement, life satisfaction, and social support. Career certainty had no significant effect on college self-efficacy or life satisfaction, and Veteran-student service connection ratings had a small effect on career engagement. Career engagement and social support should be emphasized in Veteran-student experiences in to maximize their potential for college success. Keywords: Veteran-student, college self-efficacy, life satisfaction, career certainty, career engagement, social support