Self-Efficacy and Career Decision-Making Among Final-Year Undergraduates in Ogun State, South West Nigeria

Career decision-making is one of the most significant psychological tasks of late adolescence and early adulthood, and self-efficacy beliefs are consistently identified as critical determinants of the quality and adaptiveness of career decisions in graduate populations. This study examines the relationship between self-efficacy and career decision-making among final-year undergraduate students in Ogun State, South West Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey is conducted with 270 final-year students from Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, selected through proportionate stratified sampling. The General Self-Efficacy Scale, the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Career Indecision Scale are administered alongside a questionnaire capturing sociodemographic and academic background variables. Pearson correlation, ANOVA, and regression analysis are computed in SPSS. Literature from South West Nigerian career psychology identifies low career self-efficacy, unclear personal values, and labour market uncertainty as the dominant predictors of career indecision in Nigerian graduates. Social Cognitive Career Theory by Lent, Brown, and Hackett and Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory provide the theoretical framework. Findings are expected to reveal that career decision-making self-efficacy fully mediates the relationship between general self-efficacy and career indecision, with implications for university career services in Ogun State. Keywords: self-efficacy, career decision-making, final-year undergraduates, Ogun State, South West Nigeria.