The formation of career identity in college students of pedagogical profile: personal determinants and interaction mechanisms.

The article is dedicated to the current issue of studying the personal determinants and interaction mechanisms that influence the formation of career identity among college students in pedagogical profiles. Despite theoretical work on specific aspects, the comprehensive impact of personal indicators, such as various types of academic motivation, career-adaptive abilities, and psychological attitudes towards learning, on the process of forming the career identity of future educators, including the nature of mediating mechanisms, remains underexplored. The aim of the study was to identify psychological indicators that act as predictors of career identity in future educators at the concluding stage of their education and the nature of their interrelationships. The subject of the research was the process of career identity formation among senior college students receiving secondary vocational education in pedagogical fields. The research subject consisted of personal characteristics that predict the formation of career identity in students of pedagogical colleges and the nature of their interrelations. The sample consisted of 102 respondents—third-year students from pedagogical colleges. A set of validated psychodiagnostic questionnaires aimed at diagnosing psychological indicators of career identity, types of academic motivation, career-adaptive abilities, and psychological attitudes towards learning was used. Statistical processing included correlational analysis, hierarchical multiple regression analysis, and analysis of direct and indirect mediation effects. The scientific novelty of the study lies in clarifying the complex relationship between various types of academic motivation, career-adaptive abilities, and psychological attitudes as direct and mediated predictors of career identity among students of pedagogical colleges. It was found that self-esteem motivation and career adaptability indicators are positive predictors of career identity formation, while introjected motivation and perceived barriers to career identity formation are negative predictors. Significant mediation effects were identified: developmental barriers completely mediate the relationship between external motivation and career identity. Additionally, introjected motivation serves as a mediator in the relationship between self-development motivation and career identity, transforming the potentially positive impact of the aspiration for self-development into a negative one. The findings expand scientific understanding of the psychological mechanisms of professional development among students in pedagogical colleges and may serve as an additional source of scientific data for specialists developing psycho-pedagogical support and accompaniment programs.

career identity, college students, future teachers, personal determinants, academic motivation, career adaptability, professional self-determination, secondary vocational education, development barriers, identity