Abstract:

Employment-related problems faced by university students before and immediately after graduation increase individuals' anxiety and despair, which can affect their career choices. This study aims to determine the relationship between job finding anxiety and career beliefs of the students studying at the Sports Management Department of Sports Sciences Faculties in Turkey. In the present study, the correlational survey model was used and the relationship between the job finding anxiety levels of the sports management department students and their career beliefs was tested by the structural equation model. A total of 235 students, 44.7% (n = 105) female and 55.3% (n = 130) male, studying in the sports management departments of sports sciences faculties, constituted the participant group of the study. The research data were collected using the "Career Planning Scale of Students Studying in Sports Sciences (CPS)" developed by Yavuz Eroğlu and Eroğlu (2020) and the "Sports Sciences Students’ Job Finding Anxiety Scale” developed by Aslan and Uğraş (2021). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to determine the suitability of the scales used in the study to the structural model. For the normality assumption of the data, skewness and kurtosis values were examined, and the relationship between job finding anxiety and career belief was tested with Pearson correlation analysis. Findings obtained from the study showed that job finding anxiety (=, 306, p <.001) was a predictor of students' career beliefs. It was determined that the variance rate explained by the job finding anxiety levels of the sports management department students towards career beliefs was 9.4% (R2 =, 094, p = .000). The current research findings show that as the job finding anxiety levels of the sports management department students increase, their beliefs about their career are negatively affected.

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