Date of Award

6-26-2026

Date Published

August 2026

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling & Human Services

Advisor(s)

Melissa Luke

Keywords

Achievement Motivation;Career Decidedness;Multicultural Adolescents;Relational Support;Self-Esteem;South Korea

Subject Categories

Counseling Psychology | Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Despite the growing number of multicultural adolescents in South Korea, little is known about how to support their career development. Specifically, Korean multicultural adolescents who have foreign-born mothers and Korean fathers have experienced educational and career gaps compared to non-multicultural adolescents in Korea. Given that relational supports are documented to have significant associations with adolescents' career decidedness, this study aims to examine the relationship between relational supports and career decidedness through internalized psychological resources such as self-esteem and achievement motivation. Grounded in the Relational Theory of Working (RTW; Blustein, 2011), the researcher focused on the mediating role of internalized psychological resources that are shaped by relational supports from parents, peers, and teachers. This study used national archival data from the 9th wave of the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study (MAPS) of the National Youth Policy Institute (NYPI, 2020) in South Korea. This study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design. The sample was composed of 1,059 multicultural adolescents in their late adolescence. As this study used archival data, all data were collected by trained interviewers in participants' home environments through the NYPI. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were conducted to analyze the data. The results were: (1) Relational supports from parents, peers, and teachers demonstrated significant association with self-esteem and achievement motivation among Korean multicultural adolescents. Furthermore, relational support from peers had the strongest effect on self-esteem and achievement motivation, followed by parents, and teachers; (2) The internalized psychological resources, self-esteem and achievement motivation, also showed significant associations with career decidedness in the sample; (3) Self-esteem and achievement motivation showed full mediation of the relationship between relational supports and career decidedness, providing empirical support for the RTW's internalization process. This study helps practitioners and counselor educators who work with Korean multicultural adolescents to better understand their career development experiences. Specifically, the findings suggest that current career support programs should go beyond providing career information and also address adolescents' self-esteem and achievement motivation through relational support. Limitations, theoretical and practical contributions, and implications for practitioners and future research are discussed.

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