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Longitudinal effect of career-related parental support on vocational college students’ proactive career behavior: a moderated mediation model

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Abstract

Guided by career construction theory and the proactive motivation model, the current study investigated the longitudinal effect of career-related parental support on vocational college students’ proactive career behavior, as well as the mediating role of career adaptability and the moderating role of belief in a just world. We collected three-wave longitudinal data from a sample of 676 vocational college students with the Career-related Parental Support Scale (reported at time 1), Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Short Form (reported at time 2), Proactive Career Behavior Scale (reported at time 3), and Belief in a Just World Scale (reported at time 1). After controlling for the demographic variables, our results showed that career-related parental support positively predicted vocational college students’ proactive career behavior. Career adaptability partially mediated the relationship between career-related parental support and vocational college students’ proactive career behavior. Moreover, the conditional indirect effects of career-related parental support in predicting proactive career behavior via career adaptability are stronger for vocational college students with high as opposed to low belief in a just world. These findings carry implications for career research both theoretically and practically.

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Data Availability

The data are part of an ongoing project. For privacy or ethical restrictions, primary data are not publicly available. The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Enna Wang

  2. Faculty of Education, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, 453007, China

    Shuangshuang Li

  3. Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Yongqiang Jiang

  4. Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment for Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Junjie Zhang

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  1. Enna Wang
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Conceptualization, data collection, formal analysis, E.W. and J.Z.; writing—original draft preparation, E.W.; writing—review and editing, S.L., Y.J. and J.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Junjie Zhang.

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Wang, E., Li, S., Jiang, Y. et al. Longitudinal effect of career-related parental support on vocational college students’ proactive career behavior: a moderated mediation model. Curr Psychol 43, 11422–11434 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05268-8

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