The Impact of Social Values, Work Values, and Self-Efficacy on Career Development of Veterinary Medicine Students

Abstract The study explores how social support, work value, and self-efficacy contribute to veterinary students’ career development. Veterinary students at National Taiwan University were recruited as participants in this study. The social value, work value, self-efficacy, and career development scale reliabilities were 0.914, 0.780, 0.915, and 0.892, respectively. The data was analyzed by using the multiple regression method. After controlling students’ gender and grades, whether veterinary medicine was the first choice or had clinical or internship experience, students’ social values, work values, and self-efficacy positively affected students’ career development, and students’ self-efficacy was the most significantly predicted factor in their career development. We suggest that the veterinary medicine faculty should be attentive to this trend when designing the curriculum, as the study confirms the positive impact of social values, work values, and self-efficacy on students’ career development. In the future, we will recruit students from the five veterinary schools in Taiwan to conduct this study again to understand better how their social values, work values, and self-efficacy affect Taiwanese veterinary students’ career development.