Are you Scared of what Comes Next? Students' Future Career Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

in the present study, we explored the mediating effects of depression from CoViD-19 (Dep-CoViD) and self-esteem (s-esT) on the relationship between fear of CoViD-19 (f-CoViD) and future career anxiety (C-aNx) in high-school and university students (N = 470, M = 20.17, SD = 2.02, 63.04% females). we were interested in exploring these relationships in both the overall sample and high school students and university students, separately. our findings suggested that Dep-CoViD partially mediated the relationship between f-CoViD and C-aNx in both groups (i.e., high-school and university students). self-esteem was not significantly correlated to our primary variables in high-school students. in university students, as well as the overall sample, results suggested the partially mediating role of s-esT on the relationship between fear of CoViD-19 and C-aNx. we discuss our findings concerning the practices that may foster students' career development in turbulent times and consider possible interventions for these specific groups following the CoViD-19 pandemic.