Career Development Support, Career-Related Internet Information Search and Usefulness, and Career Decision-Making Difficulties in 12th Grade Students in Ontario

While the negative impact of work-related tasks on life satisfaction among adult workers has been largely documented, similar phenomena receive little attention in student populations. Research has underlined career decision-making as a stressful task for students. As such, it is reasonable to expect career decision-making difficulties to harm their satisfaction with life. Moreover, social support has been shown to increase life satisfaction. Therefore, this study investigated to what extent career decision-making difficulties impact students' satisfaction with life and the potential mediating role of career development support in this relation among 1094 grade 12 high school students in Ontario, Canada. Findings supported the negative impact of career decision making difficulties on students' life satisfaction. Surprisingly, unlike counsellors' support, only teachers' and parental support were significant drivers of students' life satisfaction, with parental support exhibiting a strong effect. Furthermore, although support from each source partially mediated decision-making difficulties and life satisfaction, parental support was strongest in reducing the negative impact of difficulties on students' life satisfaction. Implications for research and practice are discussed.