1. Introduction
The expansion of college enrollment has led to a significant rise in university graduates [1], bringing increasing attention to employment issues [2]. Under this background, college students are more likely to experience psychological distress and develop negative emotional states. Anxiety manifests as persistent tension and apprehension [3], which may result in physiological manifestations including sleep disturbances [4]. At present, employment anxiety is prevalent among college students. It refers to a series of psychological feelings, including tension and worry, and behavioral reactions, such as insomnia and chest tightness under the pressure of employment. Researchers have employed various theoretical models to examine anxiety’s contributing factors [5]. Pauline et al. [6] analyzed the aging anxiety among Nigerian civil servants based on linear regression and discovered a significant correlation between religious belief and aging anxiety. Ahmmed and Maria [7] analyzed anxiety levels among recent graduates in Bangladesh during the epidemic and found that the delay in the study, worry about finding a job, economic situation, and the impact on daily life were positively correlated with anxiety levels. Rodon and Congard [8] studied the measurement of anxiety related to online information retrieval and found through a questionnaire survey that self-efficacy was negatively correlated with positive attitudes towards the Internet and the total score of anxiety related to online information retrieval decreased with the extension of the use time. Salgado et al. [9] analyzed the anxiety of women in Mexico and found through the analysis of 2,947 samples that the incidence of anxiety was the highest in pregnant women aged 20–29 and the lack of a stable partner was a significant risk factor for the development of anxiety during pregnancy. However, research focusing on employment anxiety among college students remains limited. To address this gap, this paper investigates the influence of social support and self-efficacy through a questionnaire survey and regression analysis, aiming to provide theoretical support for alleviating and intervening in employment anxiety. This study examines the influence of social support and general self-efficacy on the employment anxiety of college students from the perspective of psychology. Moreover, it analyzed the differences in employment anxiety based on participants’ demographic characteristics. The findings provide a psychological bases for the guidance of students’ employment and career selection and contribute the development of their mental health.
2. Research Subjects and Methods
2.1 Subjects
Using convenience sampling, questionnaires were distributed to students in Dongguan City University, covering all majors and academic years (freshmen to seniors) to ensure a representative sample. Although the research subjects were recruited from a single university, their employment preferences were not geographically restricted—respondents indicated potential workplaces in various cities, such as first-tier and second-tier cities, as reflected in the survey. Therefore, there will not be too many limitations in the selection of research subjects. Of the 500 questionnaires distributed, 436 were valid, with a response rate of 87.2%.
Invalid questionnaires were excluded based on the following criteria: (1) incomplete responses, (2) patterned answers (e.g., identical responses for five or more consecutive questions), and (3) contradictory answers (e.g., selecting “very consistent” for both “feeling upset when approaching employment” and “feeling calm when approaching employment” in the anxiety scale).
2.2 Research Tools
The demographic questionnaire comprised six single-choice questions (Table 1).
Demographic questionnaire
The Social Support Scale [10] comprised ten items and had an α coefficient of 0.87. The questionnaire structure is presented in Table 2.
The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) [11] comprised ten items and had an α coefficient of 0.85. The questionnaire structure is presented in Table 3.
The employment anxiety questionnaire [12] comprised a total of 30 items and had an α coefficient of 0.93. The questionnaire structure is shown in Table 4.
Employment anxiety questionnaire
2.3 Research Methods
Data were analyzed in SPSS 26.0 using t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression analysis, and correlation analysis. Correlation coefficients reflect the direction and strength of relationships, and values closer to 1 or -1 indicates close relationships. A multiple regression model [13] identified factors influencing participants’ employment anxiety. The employment anxiety score was used as the dependent variable, and social support and general self-efficacy were used as the independent variables. Fig. 1 shows the research flowchart.
The design and implementation of the research strictly followed the ethical principles and norms of social science research. All the survey subjects were informed of the purpose and process of the research. The research data were anonymized, and the research results were only used for academic purposes.
3. Research Results and Analysis
First, the demographic results of the samples are displayed in Table 5.
Demographic characteristics
From Table 5, it can be found that the gender distribution among the samples was relatively balanced, with males and females accounting for 49.77% and 50.23%, respectively. The sample also covered students from different academic grades comprehensively. In terms of majors, there were few students majoring in arts because the schools provide limited art majors. In terms of experience as student cadres, 38.3% of the participants had such experience, which was a relatively small proportion. When it comes to expected employers, the participants preferred to work in state-owned enterprises and government agencies, accounting for 43.35% and 25.23%, respectively, while only 6.65% expected to work in private enterprises. In terms of expected employment locations, over 80% of participants preferred to work in first- and second-tier cities. Based on the survey of employment expectations, it can be found that college students placed a high value on career development and showed a tendency to seek stable employment.
According to Table 6, the employment anxiety score for male students was 39.87 ± 38.64 points, while that for female students was 58.12 ± 45.36 points. Female students had higher levels of anxiety (p < 0.05), which may be related to the existing situation that employers prefer male employees.
It can be found that the scores of employment anxiety in junior and senior years were 55.61 ± 33.52 points and 57.12 ± 36.84 points, respectively, higher than those in freshmen and sophomore years (p < 0.01), indicating that there were obvious differences in employment anxiety among college students of different grades. Juniors and seniors were closer to employment than freshmen and sophomores; therefore, their employment anxiety was more severe.
Differences in the employment anxiety scores among the participants in terms of different demographic characteristics
The employment anxiety was serious among students of these majors. In the current employment situation, students of different majors all faced the problem of difficult employment, so the difference in this point was not significant.
The employment anxiety score of students with experience as student cadres was 41.21 < 35.64 points, and that of students without such experience was 59.33 < 43.25 points. It indicated that the employment anxiety of students without experience as student cadres was more serious (p < 0.01), which may be because employers preferred college students with experience as student cadres and believed that they had better abilities.
The employment anxiety of students with different expectations for employers was similar. At present, the overall employment environment is poor. Competition within the system is fierce, and risks in private enterprises are relatively high. The economy is on the decline, and academic qualifications are becoming devalued. The sources of employment anxiety faced by college students mainly come from job search pressures, as well as expectations from family and peer competition. These anxiety-inducing factors are unrelated to the type of employment unit. Therefore, college students with different expected employment units showed similar levels of employment anxiety.
College students whose expected employment locations were first-tier and second-tier cities or other provincial capital cities had heavier employment anxiety (p < 0.05), which is because the labor market in different regions vary. First- and second-tier cities or other provincial capital cities have more emerging industries. High technology, finance, and the Internet are more attractive to college students. Job opportunities in these regions are concentrated, and thus the competition is also more intense. The number of job positions in third- and fourth-tier cities is relatively limited, and there is also a certain gap in career development space compared with first- and second-tier cities. Thus, job competition in these regions is not as intense as in first- and second-tier cities. Faced with limited job opportunities and fierce competition, college students who hope to find jobs in first- and second-tier cities will experience more severe employment anxiety.
According to Fig. 2, employment anxiety was negatively correlated with these factors. Objective support refers to the practical support received. Subjective support refers to the emotional support that college students can perceive and experience. Support utilization degree refers to college students’ utilization of various forms of social support, such as talking to others and asking for help. In Fig. 2, the correlation between subjective support and employment anxiety among the participants was the strongest, indicating that to alleviate employment anxiety, students should learn to actively seek social support from teachers, classmates, and family members, draw strength from them, and thus gain the courage to cope with employment challenges.
Correlation analysis results (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01).
General self-efficacy reflects whether an individual can adopt a good coping style when facing challenges. A person who believes that he or she has the ability to deal with various difficulties and challenges tends to show greater enthusiasm, initiative, and resistance under pressure, and can recover quickly when encountering setbacks and continue facing new challenges. Therefore, a person with a higher self-efficacy score usually has milder employment anxiety. This indicates that, in order to reduce employment anxiety, students should strive to improve their self-efficacy, enhance self-confidence, and strengthen the courage when facing setbacks and challenges.
Linear regression is the simplest regression algorithm in machine learning. It assumes that there is a linear association between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The regression result is:
where [TeX:] $$w_0$$ is the intercept, [TeX:] $$w_1-w_n$$ are regression coefficients, [TeX:] $$\varepsilon$$ is the error term, [TeX:] $$x_1-x_n$$ are independent variables, and y is the dependent variable. The regression model analysis, with employment anxiety as the dependent variable and objective support, subjective support, degree of support utilization, and general self-efficacy as independent variables, is summarized in Table 7.
Results of regression model analysis
It can be seen from Table 7 that Variance inflation factor (VIF) < 5, tolerance > 0.2, indicating that there was no multicollinearity among the independent variables. All the independent variables in the model were statistically significant. Among them, subjective support contributed the most to employment anxiety, followed by general self-efficacy, objective support, and support utilization degree. According to the data in Table 7, the following regression analysis model can be obtained:
According to these results, it can be found that social support and general self-efficacy had a great impact on students’ employment anxiety. Then, using the PROCESS program, the mediating effect was tested by sampling 5,000 times with the Bootstrap method. If the 95% bias-corrected confidence interval does not contain 0, the mediating effect is considered significant. Social support was used as the independent variable, employment anxiety was used as the dependent variable, and general self-efficacy was used as the mediating variable.
In Table 8, general self-efficacy played a partial mediating role between social support and employment anxiety, and the proportion of the mediating effect was 8.26%.
Test results of mediating effect
Based on the above results, when college students face employment anxiety, schools, parents, and other relevant parties should provide timely help, actively carry out mental health education, cultivate students’ self-efficacy, and establish a social support system to intervene and relieve college students’ negative emotions timely. Meanwhile, schools should further improve the employment guidance and planning to provide support for college students’ employment.
4. Conclusion
This paper analyzed the influence of social support and self-efficacy on the employment anxiety of college students using a regression model. It found remarkable differences in employment anxiety among college students based on gender, age, and other demographic characteristics. Among the influencing factors, subjective support showed the strongest correlation with the employment anxiety of college students. Both social support and general self-efficacy had a significant impact on college students’ employment anxiety. However, this study has some limitations. For instance, only students from a single university were surveyed, which limits the generalizability of the findings. In addition, the reasons behind the lack of significant differences in employment anxiety scores by major and expected employer remain unclear and require further investigation. Therefore, future research should expand the scope of the study, collect data more broadly, and conduct a more in-depth analysis of the influencing factors.
According to the research results, in practice, we should pay more attention to social support, regularly conduct mental health lectures and counseling to actively cultivate college students’ sense of self-efficacy, strengthen the construction of mental health facilities in schools, and provide practical and reliable assistance for college students’ employment and career choices, thereby helping to alleviate their employment anxiety.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.