Do college students with future work self-salience demonstrate higher levels of career adaptability? From a dual perspective of teachers and students

Abstract

Faced with tremendous employment pressure, how to enhance effective career exploration and career adaptability is crucial for college students’ career. This study uses self-assessed data from 840 undergraduate students at three time points to reveal the formation mechanism of career adaptability from a dual perspective of teacher support and students’ effective part-time behavior. In particular, the mediating role of career exploration is introduced based on self-regulation theory, and the moderating role of teacher support and students’ effective part-time work is introduced based on social cognitive career theory. The results show that (1) Future work self-salience positively influences career adaptability; (2) future work self-salience indirectly influences career adaptability through career exploration; (3) both teacher support and students’ effective part-time behavior positively moderate the indirect relationship between future work self-salience and career adaptability through career exploration. This study attempts to provide practical guidance for college graduates to engage in career exploration and career construction.