Dataset on the antecedents of career adaptability among undergraduate students in Malaysia

This data was obtained from a cross-sectional survey of 188 final year Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) students in a Malaysian Public University. The survey was self-administered to final year BBA students undergoing seminar course prior to the commencement of their industrial training in the coming semester. A regression analysis was conducted in order to assess the link between students’ self-esteem, pro-active personality, and social support with their career adaptability using the Statistical Package of the Social Sciences (SPSS) 20. Specifically, this data article provides data about the participants’ demographic characteristics, as well as the mean, standard deviation and reliability of the measured constructs. It is believed by the authors that the dataset will guide policy makers on the choice of predictor(s) that could boost the level of students' career adaptability, most especially during the school to work transition, in this current volatile labour market.


Specifications
Applied Psychology Specific subject area Career Adaptability Type of data To be included in the sample, the participants had to be identified as Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) final year undergraduate students taking seminar course before commencing industrial training in the coming semester.

Description of data collection
The self-administered survey was distributed conveniently to the students in the lecture hall, at the end of the seminar course class. Value of the Data • This data provides a significant information on capturing the career adaptability of students through assessing their level of social support, self-esteem and proactive personality. • This data is important because policy makers can determine new recruits that possess career competencies based on their level of career adaptability. • Policy makers in higher educational institutions can benefit from these data by increasing students' social support, pro-active personality and self-esteem in order to heighten their career adaptability. • This data can be used to assess the mediation effect of self-esteem between social support, pro-active personality and career adaptability. • These data can be reused by assessing the influence of social structure on the students' social supports, pro-active personality and self-esteem towards their career adaptability.

Data Description
The data is portrayed in five tables. Table 1 exhibits the demographics of participants portraying participants' demographic characteristics, such as gender and age. It also displays the participants' social structure, such as parents' or guardians' income and educational level. Next, Table 2 presents the mean, standard deviation and reliability of measured constructs. Table 3 displays the model summary such as the coefficient of the determination (R 2 ) of the model. Table 4 demonstrates the ANOVA result of the model. Lastly, Table 5 shows that coefficient of the model, such as the Beta and standard error of the measured constructs.
The Questionnaire and raw data are attached to the article as supplemental files. The data initiated descriptive cross-sectional design and surveys were distributed to the BBA final year students based on convenience sampling technique.

Experimental Design, Materials and Methods
The research was quantitative in nature adopting the survey methodology. Non-probability, convenience sampling was utilised because of the difficulty in obtaining the number of students in the university record. The Questionnaire design was based on past research and adaptations were made where necessary. 257 questionnaires were distributed but 188 respondents were the returned, completely filled questionnaires.
Career adaptability items was developed by [2] with Cronbach's alpha of 0.96 and it includes 24 items which are very useful to measure career adaptabilities of individuals in terms of four psychosocial career adaptability resources which are concern, control, curiosity and confidence. Respondents were required to provide responses based on their level of career adaptability through the division of the questions according to the four constructs of career adaptability through these 24 questions measurement using a five-point Likert scale from 1-indicating strongly disagree to 5 -indicating strongly agree. This item has been used by several studies [ 3 , 4 ] and obtained Cronbach's alpha ranging between 0.91 and 0.95.
Self-esteem scale is the 10-item Likert version developed by [5] containing five positive worded items and five reverse worded items with Cronbach's alpha of 0.90. Respondents were required to provide responses based on their level of self-esteem through the 10 questions measurement using a five-point Likert scale from 1-indicating strongly disagree to 5 -indicating strongly agree. This item has been used by previous studies [6] and achieved a Cronbach's alpha of 0.85.
Proactive personality of respondents was measured by [7] scale measurement with the Cronbach's alpha of 0.87. Respondents were required to provide responses based on their level of proactive personality through these 10 questions measurement using five-point Likert scale from 1-indicating strongly disagree to 5 -indicating strongly agree. This item has been used by previous studies [1] and obtained cronbach's alpha of 0.79.
The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) which was developed by [8] with Cronbach's alpha of 0.91. The 12-item scale consists of three 4-item subscales assessing family support, friend support, and significant other support using a five-point Likert scale from 1-indicating strongly disagree to 5 -indicating strongly agree. This item has been used by earlier studies [1] , with the Cronbach's alpha of 0.86.

Ethical statement
Since this was a non-experimental, voluntary survey, no ethical approval was required. Nevertheless, the permission of participants were requested in filling out the survey which was conducted anonymously.

Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that there are no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have seemed to impact the work reported in this research data.