The sample size was determined by using G*Power software, a medium effect size of 0.15, α of 0.05, and statistical power of 0.95. The minimum sample used in this study was 472 respondents. This study conducted a survey of 700 university graduates from four universities using a convenient sampling method and an online questionnaire. After excluding invalid answers such as incomplete or randomly answered questionnaires, a total of 670 valid questionnaires were obtained, with an effective rate of 96%. Among these, 238 respondents were male (35.52%) and 432 were female (64.47%); 295 students from liberal arts majors (44.03%), 204 students from science and engineering majors (30.45%), 118 students from art majors (17.61%), and 53 students from medical majors (7.91%). The details are shown in Table 1. The average age and standard deviation of respondents were 22.06 ± 1.23 (M ± SD). The participants in this study were all voluntary and obtained informed consent. The study complied with all ethical and legal requirements, prioritizing the safety and rights of the participants. The research project has obtained ethical approval for the degree program in Applied Psychology from the Education Department of Yunnan Normal University. The questionnaires were completed anonymously, and no personal information such as names or student ID numbers was collected.

Data analysis in this study was conducted using SPSS 27.0, MPLUS 8.3, and Hayes’ PROCESS macro 4.0. First, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test and Bartlett’s test of sphericity were performed to assess the suitability of the data for factor analysis. All assumptions were checked: Multicollinearity (VIF < 2.5), Residual normality (Shapiro–Wilk p > 0.05), Bootstrapping (5,000 samples) for indirect effects. The KMO value was 0.974, and Bartlett’s test was significant (p < 0.05), indicating that the data were appropriate for subsequent factor analysis (Chiou et al., 2022). Next, Harman’s one-way test was used to check for common methodological biases and the results showed no serious bias. Descriptive analyses were then conducted to summarize participants’ demographic characteristics. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated using SPSS and all of these coefficients were located between 0.60 and 0.90, indicating reliability of the scales. To verify structural validity, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed, and the model showed good fit, with indices such as x²/df, CFI, TLI, NFI, IFI, RMSEA, and SRMR all meeting conventional standards. Detailed results of the reliability and validity tests are presented in Table 1. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to assess associations between variables. Finally, mediation effects were tested using Hayes’ PROCESS macro, employing bootstrapping with 5,000 samples to calculate 95% confidence intervals (CI) (Shrout and Bolger, 2002). A mediation effect was considered significant if the 95% CI did not include zero.

The self-reported evaluation method used in the survey of variables in this study may have led to a common method bias. To mitigate this, the Harman single factor test method was used to conduct a common method bias test (Tang and Wen, 2020). Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on all variables, and the first principal component explained the variance variation to a degree of 39.10 percent, which was below the critical value of 40 percent. This shows that there was no significant issue of common method bias in this study.

The differences in career decision self-efficacy across various demographic variables were analyzed. An independent samples t-test was conducted for gender, and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for grade level and major. As shown in Table 2, gender (t = 3.124, p < 0.01) indicated that males had significantly higher levels of career decision-making self-efficacy than females (134.43 > 126.54), while grade (F = 1.691, p > 0.05) and major (F = 1.366, p > 0.05) did not show significant differences.

Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the relationships among gender, Growth mindset, MAAS, ZTPI, and Career decision self-efficacy. As shown in Table 3, all key study variables were positively correlated. Moreover, gender displays a significant negative correlation with the other variables.

Previous studies have shown that gender can influence college students’ career decision-making self-efficacy (Liu et al., 2023). Therefore, gender level was included as control variables to test the mediating roles of mindful attention awareness and future time perspective in the relationship between growth mindset and career decision-making self-efficacy among college students. Model 6 of the SPSS PROCESS macro 3.5 by Hayes was used, with 5,000 bootstrap samples and 95% confidence intervals (CI) computed. The regression results are presented in Table 4: growth mindset significantly positively predicted career decision-making self-efficacy (β = 0.327, p < 0.001), mindful attention awareness (β = 0.285, p < 0.001), and future time perspective (β = 0.285, p < 0.001). mindful attention awareness significantly positively predicted future time perspective (β = 0.202, p < 0.001). When growth mindset, mindful attention awareness, and future time perspective were entered simultaneously to predict career decision-making self-efficacy, both mindful attention awareness (β = 0.148, p < 0.001) and future time perspective (β = 0.266, p < 0.001) showed significant positive effects on career decision-making self-efficacy. At this point, the positive predictive effect of growth mindset on career decision-making self-efficacy remained significant (β = 0.327, p < 0.001), indicating that the chain mediating roles of mindful attention awareness and future time perspective were supported. The results are shown in Table 4.

Further mediation analysis results are shown in Table 5 and Figure 2. The direct effect of growth mindset on career decision-making self-efficacy was 0.327, with the confidence interval does not contain zero, indicating a significant direct effect and accounting for 71.02% of the total effect. The total indirect effect was 0.133, also with a confidence interval, indicating that the mediating effects of mindful attention awareness and career decision-making self-efficacy were significant, accounting for 28.98% of the total effect. Specifically, the indirect path through mindful attention awareness alone had an effect size of 0.042, 95% CI = [0.017, 0.073]; through future time perspective alone, the effect size was 0.076, 95% CI = [0.042, 0.115]; and through the chain mediation of mindful attention awareness and future time perspective, the effect size was 0.015, 95% CI = [0.006, 0.028]. These results indicate that all three indirect paths were statistically significant.

The research findings indicate that there are significant gender differences in career decision-making self-efficacy. Specifically, men typically exhibit higher career decision-making self-efficacy than women. This finding aligns with previous studies, which have shown that male college students generally possess higher self-efficacy (Yu et al., 2022). According to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory, masculine cultures emphasize achievement and competition, which may reinforce men’s self-efficacy, while women may experience reduced self-assessment due to cultural pressures (Hofstede, 2011). Additionally, traditional Chinese cultural norms of “men working outside the home and women managing the household” may also influence these differences. However, such disparities are not biologically determined but rather stem from modifiable environmental factors. This suggests that future research should adopt longitudinal designs to track the impact of cultural changes and implement targeted interventions to promote gender equality in career development.

The results showed a significant positive correlation between growth mindset and career decision-making self-efficacy among college students. Even after accounting for the mediating variables, the positive predictive effect of growth mindset on career decision-making self-efficacy remained significant, indicating that as the level of perceived growth mindset increased, the level of career decision-making self-efficacy also significantly rose, thus supporting Hypothesis 1. This finding is consistent with prior research. and indicates that students with higher levels of growth-oriented thinking have stronger career decision-making self-efficacy (Yu et al., 2022; Qian, 2025). growth mindset influences students’ career decision-making self-efficacy through multiple mechanisms. First, Dweck’s mindset theory organizes goals, attribution, helplessness, and effort belief into a meaningful system (Dweck, 2019), which can illustrate the predictive relationship between growth-oriented thinking and career decision-making self-efficacy. Because some scholars view growth-oriented thinking as a series of attributes such as intelligence, ability, and personality, they believe it that can be changed through effort. According to this theoretical explanation, students with high levels of growth-oriented thinking have more self-belief when making decisions that affect their careers.

Additionally, based on self-efficacy theory, a growth mindset directly influences self-efficacy by reframing individuals’ interpretations of career setbacks. When individuals view career challenges as opportunities for growth, they can activate one of the sources of self-efficacy, namely performance accomplishments (Bandura, 1977).

In terms of teaching and curriculum systems, educators should provide developmental feedback, design progressive challenges tailored to students’ current ability levels, clearly identify areas for improvement in career counseling, and point out directions for breakthroughs in the next stage. The curriculum system should incorporate a progressive career competency ladder, from basic industry knowledge to job skills training to decision-making and risk assessment, with clear competency standards set for each stage to ensure that students gradually improve their belief in their effectiveness through controllable challenges.

The research found that mindfulness played a mediating role between growth-oriented thinking and career decision-making self-efficacy among university students; i.e., a higher level of the former led to increased skills in the latter. This confirms previous research that mindfulness can benefit individuals by enhancing psychological function (Shi et al., 2023). The ability of mindfulness to reduce avoidance behavior and redundant and negative thinking give students effective psychological energy for career decision-making; promote positive behavior; and reduce difficulties (Aydoğmuş, 2022). Conversely, students with low levels of mindfulness may face greater difficulties in career decision-making, which can affect their career choices and employment (Arslan, 2020). Mindfulness therefore plays an important mediating role between growth-oriented thinking and career decision-making self-efficacy among university students, and suggests that psychological health educators should actively observe mindfulness levels and experiences among students. Previous studies have shown that group mindfulness training can enhance individual self-efficacy (Su and Luo, 2024). In learning and daily life, psychological health education methods such as group training can be used to enhance the mindfulness level of university students, thereby enhancing their career decision-making self-efficacy when they graduate. Future research can be conducted based on the I-Sustainability Design Thinking (ISDT) concept (Chiou et al., 2021) to design group counseling or individual interventions aimed at cultivating and enhancing college students’ mindfulness and spiritual well-being (Liu et al., 2021).

The study found that FTP played a mediating role between growth-oriented thinking and career decision-making self-efficacy among university students; i.e., a higher level of growth-oriented thinking enhanced the former, thereby improving the latter. This confirms Hypothesis 2. High levels of growth-oriented thinking predict stronger FTP, of which planning, striving for, and achieving goals are characteristics (Zimbardo and Boyd, 1999). FTP is therefore an important condition for improving career decision-making self-efficacy, Gao and Dai found that it could enhance students’ professional decision-making self-efficacy by improving their time management skills (Gao and Dai, 2019). It can be seen that the higher an individual’s level of growth-oriented thinking, the better their FTP, which assists their self-efficacy in career decision-making. This means that university students’ growth-oriented thinking can indirectly affect their career decision-making self-efficacy by influencing their FTP. According to Social Emotional Choice theory, individuals with higher levels of FTP have advantages in terms of expanding their social circle and enriching social network practices, which can bring more potential employment opportunities (Liang et al., 2017). This indicates that individuals with strong FTP are more willing to strive, believe in, and pursue their career goals.

This study found that mindfulness and FTP played a chain mediating role between growth-oriented thinking and career decision-making self-efficacy among university students; i.e., high levels of growth-oriented thinking enhance mindfulness, thereby enhancing FTP and increasing career decision-making self-efficacy. This supports Hypothesis 3. Career decision-making is a source of stress among students, and according to Folkman et al.’s Psychological Stress and Coping Theory, the cognition of individuals influences their coping behavior. Previous studies have shown that mindfulness has a positive impact on individuals’ ability to perceive the future (Nuño and Shelton, 2022; Chiesa and Serretti, 2009), which indicates a positive relationship between mindfulness and FTP. The present study also found that mindfulness and FTP played a mediating role between growth-oriented thinking and career decision-making self-efficacy, indicating that they are important affecting factors. Finally, the mediating effect of FTP was found to be more pronounced than that of mindfulness. Mindfulness purposefully regulates an individual’s current cognition, which is a consciousness generated by the uncritical presentation of each moment’s experience in the present moment (Kabat-Zinn, 2002); FTP is a bridge that connects the present and future, and individuals’ current expectations of future goals confirm its importance in enhancing career decision-making self-efficacy. Efforts should therefore be made to cultivate university students’ growth-oriented thinking; improve their FTP through mindfulness; guide them to have a positive attitude and confidence in the future; and motivate them to pursue their goals persistently. This also provides educators with some methods to better guide graduates, graduates can enhance career efficacy by: mindfulness training to reduce decision anxiety, FTP workshops to clarify long-term goals, growth mindset interventions to embrace challenges. Incorporate future planning modules (such as career planning workshops and future scenario simulations) into college or vocational training programs to help students practice setting long-term goals and developing actionable pathways to achieve them.

While this study elucidates the formation mechanism of college students’ career decision-making confidence through the sequential mediation of growth mindset, mindfulness, and future time perspective, several limitations warrant attention. Methodologically, the reliance on cross-sectional design precludes causal inferences among variables. Implementing longitudinal research designs would enable more robust examination of the dynamic relationship between developmental cognitive patterns and subsequent job-search behaviors, thus providing stronger evidence for establishing causal mechanisms.

The sampling strategy presents two constraints: geographical concentration (limited to institutions within one region) and institutional homogeneity (lacking diversity in university tiers). To enhance the representativeness of findings, future studies should employ stratified sampling across three institutional tiers: vocational colleges, provincial universities, and elite institutions. This multi-level approach would significantly improve the generalizability of research recommendations.

Compared to previous studies, our research findings confirm and complement the existing research in this field. Partial discrepancy may stem from our focus on undergraduates (vs. graduates), whose career concerns are more urgent. Future research should examine developmental stage effects.

Multiple factors influence university students’ career decisions. Future studies could expand the research scope by incorporating additional variables that impact career decision-making self-efficacy. External support systems—including familial assistance (manifested through digital career consultations) and institutional provisions (such as university career services’ interview training programs)—demonstrate significant interaction effects with psychological preparedness in career decision-making processes. We propose an integrated research framework examining how psychological capital (confidence, adaptability) and environmental enablers (mentorship, skill-building) synergistically facilitate career transitions—akin to how both competence and proper tools determine task performance. The career decision-making of college students is a vertical development process that covers the entire academic career during their university education and continues to extend into their career after graduation. It is recommended that higher education institutions integrate mindfulness training and goal-setting tools into career education programs to guide students in transforming career challenges into opportunities for skill development.

Other research has found that mindfulness, spiritual well-being, and subjective well-being are positively correlated, with spiritual well-being mediating the relationship between mindfulness and SWB (Liu et al., 2020). Therefore, future interventions could further explore the impact of mindfulness on the psychological states of graduating college students. Loving-kindness meditation has been shown to effectively enhance SWB and spiritual well-being, but its underlying mechanisms—including its effects on mindfulness, spiritual well-being, SWB, and other psychological variables—require further elucidation.