Lee, Jae-hee, master's degree holder from YU, awarded best thesis award at the fall academic conference of the Korean Home Management Association
Provides basic data for career counselling, career education and career polocies in public education per developmental stage
[December 12, 2012]

 Research showed that teens with higher psychological independence and career decision-making self-efficacy had higher 'Career Maturity', or level of self-motivation in career exploration and career preparation.

 Lee, Jae-hee won the best thesis award for master's degrees at the 52nd KHMA Fall Academic Conference

 Lee, Jae-hee (24), who earned her master's degree at the YU Graduate School Department of Family and Housing Studies, won the best thesis award for master's degree at the '52nd KHMA Fall Academic Conference' with her paper titled 'Effects of Psychological Independence and Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy felt by Teens on Career Maturity'.

 Lee started this study using her own experiences while making her career decision in school and talking with youths while working as a YU student ambassador. She stated, "The experiences of career decision-making as youths play a very important role in determining occupations after becoming adults." She also added, "I wanted to know what kind of effects parents had on career decisions during teenage years, and the effects of how teens felt about their capacities and selections ('Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy') on career maturity."

 The subjects of research for this paper were 232 middle school students and 215 high school students in the Dalseo-gu region of Daegu. After examining the difference of career maturity that they felt according to the social demographic variables, it was found that it was affected by gender, school year, father's education level, mother's education level, and financial level. Furthermore, it was found that in the case of both middle and high school students, higher psychological independence and career decision-making self-efficacy equated into greater career maturity.

 Lee revealed through this study that personal career maturity is influenced not only by one's self, but also by parents, teachers and other acquaintances. She emphasized, "They need the love and interest of influential people around them. Families, community, and even the nation should feel a sense of responsibility and provide education and consulting so that youths can make proper decisions for their future occupations and careers."

 Professor Lee, Ji-min (41, Department of Family and Housing Studies), who acted as an advisor for her paper stated, "I'm happy that she had such great results because she had a very tough time preparing for her graduation thesis to earn both her bachelor's and master's degree within 5 year." She added, "This is a very important research because it provided basic data for career counselling, career education and career polocies in public education taking into consideration the developmental stages of various age groups."

 Meanwhile, the 'KHMA Best Thesis Award' is an award given by the Korean Home Management Association' (chairperson Cho, Hee-keum) for the thesis selected to be the best among those published in the year. One thesis is awarded every year since 2007. The awards ceremony was held at the Seoul National University Multimedia Building on the 24th of last month.