Career-Planning Beliefs as Predictors of Intentions to Seek Career Counseling

To examine the factors that keep prospective clients from pursuing career counseling, the career-planning belief model (CPBM), consisting of five career planning-related belief types that are based on the health belief model principles, and the accompanying Career-Planning Belief Questionnaire (CPBQ) were developed. Study 1 (n = 200) presents the development and the psychometric properties of CPBQ. In Study 2 (n = 330), confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the proposed model provided a good fit to the data. Additionally, the CPBM predicted intentions to seek career counseling: Higher anticipated effectiveness of career counseling, higher perceived severity of career-planning difficulties, and higher motivation to invest efforts in career-adjustment activities were positively associated with intentions to seek career counseling. Perceived benefits or obstacles to help seeking were not predictive of intentions. The findings suggest methods by which prospective clients may be encouraged to seek career counseling and implications for career counseling.