Career decision-making self-efficacy as a mediating mechanism—Testing Social Cognitive Career Theory in Indian context

Career decision-making during adolescence is strongly shaped by family contexts, yet the psychological mechanism through which parental involvement relates to career outcomes remains insufficiently understood in Indian settings. Drawing on Social Cognitive Career Theory, this study examined career decision-making self-efficacy as a mediator between maternal and paternal involvement dimensions and two adolescent career outcomes: career decision-making difficulties and career exploration. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted with 281 middle-income Indian adolescents aged 14–18 years and enrolled in Classes 9–12. Parental involvement was assessed separately for mothers and fathers across informational support, emotional support, behavioural support and career-related beliefs. Mediation analyses were conducted using PROCESS Model 4 with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Results showed that all parental involvement dimensions were positively associated with career decision-making self-efficacy. Career decision-making self-efficacy was negatively associated with career decision-making difficulties and positively associated with career exploration. Significant indirect effects were found across all maternal and paternal dimensions for both outcomes. The findings suggest that parental involvement is linked with adolescent career development partly through the confidence adolescents develop in managing career decision-making tasks. The study extends Social Cognitive Career Theory to a middle-income Indian adolescent context and highlights the importance of efficacy-building parental support.