Career Planning Confidence Among Facebook Users: Contributions of Adult Attachment Security and Authenticity

As a highly popular social networking site (SNS) for exchanging information about their personal activities, values, goals, and accomplishments with their online "friends," Facebook (FB)(c) enables social comparisons and identity negotiations that may influence college students' career planning confidence. However, to date, no studies have examined whether FB use activities and "friend" networks are uniquely associated with such confidence when dispositional variables associated with students' needs for belongingness and self-presentation are concurrently controlled. In the present study, participants provided information about their FB use activities and networks and completed self-report measures of adult attachment security, authenticity, career decision self-efficacy, and career aspirations. We hypothesized that, controlling for features of FB use, adult attachment security and authenticity would make significant and incremental contributions to our indicators of career confidence and that authenticity would mediate expected relations between attachment security and these outcomes. Our findings yielded general support for these hypotheses. Implications for career counseling practice that considers both clients' relational dispositions and uses of social media are discussed.