Social cognitive predictors of Korean secondary school teachers' job and life satisfaction

Abstract

This study tested a social cognitive career theory of work and life satisfaction (Lent & Brown, 2006, 2008) in a sample of Korean secondary school teachers. The model offered a good fit for the data, yielding that 15 of 19 individual path coefficients were significant. The variable of family support had both a direct and an indirect effect on job and life satisfaction, while positive affectivity had a direct effect on life satisfaction, but only an indirect effect on job satisfaction via core social cognitive variables of social cognitive career theory, such as self-efficacy and outcome satisfaction. In addition, self-efficacy influenced job satisfaction via both outcome expectation and job stress, while job stress impacted life satisfaction only via job satisfaction. Implications of the findings for future research and suggestions to promote job and life satisfaction in teachers are discussed.