The Development of an Employment Anxiety Scale for Chinese College Graduates

This study aims to develop an employment anxiety scale for Chinese college graduates, providing a tool for subsequent research on employment anxiety in China. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) identified two factors: “Cognitive Expectations” and “Somatic Symptoms.” The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results suggested that retaining 14 key items led to a good model fit, confirming the EFA results. The internal consistency reliability of the scale was 0.9254. Correlation analysis between the self-constructed scale and the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory indicated high validity of the self-constructed scale. Graduates’ anxiety scale scores varied by different sociodemographic characteristics. Female graduates, undergraduates, and graduates from regular colleges scored higher on the anxiety scale. The self-constructed employment anxiety scale for college graduates demonstrated good reliability and validity, making it a suitable tool for measuring employment anxiety among college graduates. Furthermore, it holds significant potential for informing targeted interventions by universities to address key aspects of employment anxiety and for evaluating the effectiveness of employment-related policies, ultimately supporting graduate well-being and improving outcomes in the transition to the workforce.