A Cross-lag Analysis Of The Impact Of The COVID-19 On College Students’ Career Exploration

Data reveal that from 2020 to 2023,the number of applicants for the national civil service exam rose all the way up,and in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic,being a civil servant once became the top choice for a sizeable part of college students.College students may make the decision to enter the government service out of blind loyalty to security and a lack of career exploration.The main point of concern in this study is how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts people to make such professional selections.According to event systems theory,people’s psychological interpretations of the COVID-19 pandemic have an impact on their subsequent attitudes and behaviors.This study,which is based on event systems theory,explores the mechanism by which the COVID-19 pandemic event affected college students’ career exploration,as well as the mediating roles played by career insecurity and the boundary role of the future work self in this process.The main contents and conclusions of this research are as follows:Study 1 investigated how career insecurity and career exploration among college students were impacted by the event strength of the COVID-19 pandemic,as well as how the future work self acted as a moderator.In a convenience sample of universities in the Wuhan region,the study adopted a questionnaire survey,and 419 valid questionnaires were gathered.The results indicated that:(1)college students’ perceived COVID-19 pandemic event strength can have a negative impact on career exploration through career insecurity.(2)Future work self can moderate the relationship between career insecurity and career exploration:the negative impact of career insecurity on career exploration being stronger for students with low future work self.Study 2 conducted a follow-up study in order to confirm the mechanism by which the COVID-19 pandemic affected college students’ career exploration.Beginning in late November 2022,a subgroup of college seniors chosen from the participants in Study 1 participated in three data collections at 1-month intervals.There were a total of 9 subjects who did not fully participate in all three administrations,and a total of 166 informed consent and valid questionnaires were returned for the first administration,159 valid questionnaires were returned for the second administration,and 157 valid questionnaires were returned for the third administration.Because the COVID-19 pandemic event underwent a dramatic change during the three administrations,this dramatic change also affected other irrelevant variables in the context,the results of the cross-lagged analysis were unable to confirm the mechanism by which the COVID-19 pandemic affected college students’ career exploration.This study conducted additional analyses using time as the moderating variable with certain subjects who had been supplemented in February 2023 in order to examine this theory further.The study’s findings showed a negative interaction effect of career insecurity,future job self,and time on college students’ career exploration.This interaction effect was evaluated using 419 valid questionnaires at t1(during the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic)and 734 valid questionnaires at t2(during the end of the COVID-19 pandemic).The study’s findings revealed that career insecurity affected career exploration in different ways depending on the groups of college students’ levels of future work self and the time points.This means that a significant three-way interaction between career insecurity,future work self,and time on college students’ career exploration.In the group of college students with low future work self,career insecurity had a stronger negative impact on career exploration at time point t1.Whereas at time point t2,college students with low future work self had a positive impact.In contrast,career insecurity had no significant impact on career exploration in the group of college students with high future work self.Overall,the event strength of COVDI-19 pandemic affected college students’ career exploration through career insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic was used to confirm.Nevertheless,due to the variability of the COVID-19 pandemic,a longitudinal study could not be used to confirm the presence of the influence mechanism.As a result,time was included to the study as a moderating variable.The findings revealed that the association between occupational insecurity,future work self,and career exploration among college students varies depending on the environment.