Career optimism: The roles of contextual support and career decision-making self-efficacy

•Examined context-specific sources of career optimism among adolescents.•Parents and teachers influence career optimism via increasing self-efficacy beliefs.•Results remained significant even after controlling for neuroticism and past performance.

Drawing from the social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986), we examined the role of parental support, teacher support, and career decision-making self-efficacy as sources of career optimism. We tested our proposed model using 235 computer science majors from a large university in the Philippines. Surveys were conducted over two measurement periods (1 year apart). Results revealed that Time 1 parental and teacher support were positively associated with Time 2 career optimism. Furthermore, we found that these direct relationships were fully mediated by Time 1 career decision-making self-efficacy. These results remained significant even after controlling for neuroticism and past performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.