Friendship dynamics of career decision-making self-efficacy: a longitudinal social network approach

Developmentally, adolescence is the period when children make tentative career choice by practicing new patterns of thinking and planning idea. They do so by exploring various career-related learning opportunities within the proximal social context, such as peers. Within the career development theories, however, the influence of peers on the development of self-efficacy in adolescents’ career decision-making process had been understudied. Thus, this study aims to explore the co-evolution of friendship network and career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE) in 440 South Korean adolescents (M_age =16.03 years, SD = 1.36, 93% boys) by using longitudinal data, 15 weeks of measurement interval. Specifically, we investigated whether friends become similar in their CDMSE or whether those who have similar levels of CDMSE become friends. Adopting stochastic actor-based social network analyses, we examined the selection and influence process in relation to teens’ friendship networks and CDMSE. We found that friends become similar in their CDMSE level over time, suggesting that friendship affects the development of CDMSE. However, the similarity in CDMSE levels do not predict friendship selections among adolescents. This study highlights the importance of peers for career development and intervention. The implications for practice and intervention are discussed.