THE ROLE OF SELF-EFFICACY AND MEANINGFUL LIFE ORIENTATIONS IN THE PROFESSIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION OF STUDENT YOUTH

Abstract

Relevance of the research The article examines the role of self-efficacy and meaningful life orientations in the process of professional self-determination of student youth. The relevance of the problem is determined by the fact that modern youth make professional choices under conditions of social instability, rapid transformation of the labor market, expansion of educational opportunities, and, at the same time, increasing uncertainty regarding their future professional path. Under such circumstances, professional self-determination cannot be viewed merely as the choice of a future specialty or educational institution. It appears as a complex psychological process that involves the gradual awareness of one’s own abilities, interests, inclinations, values, life goals, professional expectations, and prospects for further professional development.

Results. It is substantiated that the professional self-determination of student youth is closely connected with personal development, since adolescence and early youth are the periods when ideas about oneself, one’s own capabilities, desired future, and social role in adult life are actively formed. Student youth are at the stage of developing professional orientations, initial understanding of their future career, and constructing an individual model of their professional path. At the same time, this process is often accompanied by doubts, lack of life experience, the influence of parental expectations, social stereotypes, and external ideas about the prestige of certain professions. Therefore, psychological support for students in the field of career counseling becomes especially important. It should be aimed not only at providing information about professions but also at developing the ability for self-knowledge, reflection, responsible choice, and future planning. It is shown that self-efficacy acts as an important internal resource of professional self-determination, as it determines a young person’s belief in their own ability to make decisions, overcome difficulties, adapt to new requirements, achieve set goals, and realize themselves in a chosen field of activity. A high level of self-efficacy contributes to a more active position of students in the process of professional choice: they are more willing to analyze their own capabilities, search for information about professions, compare different future options, and try themselves in educational, creative, or practical activities. In contrast, insufficiently developed self-efficacy may lead to uncertainty, avoidance of responsibility for choice, dependence on the opinions of others, and fear of making mistakes. Meaningful life orientations, in turn, provide the value-motivational foundation of professional choice. They help student youth connect their professional plans with personal meanings, life prospects, ideas about their own future, and the desired way of self-realization. Due to well-formed meaningful life orientations, professional choice becomes not accidental or formal, but part of a broader life project of the personality. Young people begin to understand not only which profession they want to choose, but also why this activity is personally significant to them, which values it allows them to realize, and how it is connected with their personal and professional development..