The Job-seeking Stress and Addictive Behaviors among College Students: Focused on the Mediating Effect of Anxiety

Abstract

While unemployment issue arising from the global economic downturn and the unstable job market is regarded as social problem, college students are under heavy job-seeking stress so that the negative psychosocial consequences happened to them. In this study, a model of the relationship between job-seeking stress and additive behaviors among college students based on Agnew’s general strain theory was tested empirically. A survey was conducted with 446 undergraduate students enrolled in 14 universities in Korea. Through structural equation analysis, the major results are as follows. Firstly, it showed that 17.9% of participants have the internet addiction and 63.5% of participants are regarded as problem drinkers. Secondly, job-seeking stress showed a significant effect on internet addiction but it shows a non-significant effects on drinking problem. Thirdly, mediating effect of anxiety showed in this model. Theoretical and practical implications of job-seeking stress and addictive behaviors among college students are discussed, and future research directions are outlined.