The Effect Of Perceived Social Support On Future Work Self Salience: The Role Of Career Exploration And Proactive Personality

Employment is pivotal to people’s well-being.Stable employment means economic stability,and talented personnel are the primary resources.To effectively promote the employment of college graduates as a critical group,the nation has implemented pro-employment policies.However,there is a phenomenon known as “delayed employment”that affects college students,which is divided into positive “delayed employment” and negative “delayed employment”.Positive “delayed employment” refers to people who choose not to be employed immediately to improve their ability and career planning,while negative “delayed employment” refers to people who are forced to postpone employment due to a lack of career planning,vocational skills that don’t meet the requirements and other issues.Nowadays,“delayed employment” is primarily a negative for college students.According to the analysis of the reasons for this phenomenon,the lack of individual job search initiatives is an important factor.Future work self salience can inspire individuals to participate in proactive professional action as a motivational resource and an adaptive outcome,thereby mitigating the adverse effects of the negative “delayed employment”phenomenon.However,personality traits and behavioral factors have been the main focus of the majority of recent studies on the antecedents of future work self salience.Direct study on potential social contextual factors is lacking.Humans are social creatures,and the social environment is closely related to individuals’ career exploration behavior,personality trait formation,and work goal setting.Therefore,the purpose of this study is to investigate how perceived social support affects future work self salience as well as the contribution of career exploration and proactive personality.Study 1 used the questionnaire survey aproach to initially examine the impact of perceived social support on future work self salience and verify the proposed theoretical model in a realistic situation.The survey of 627 college students obtained the following results:(1)Perceived social support,future work self salience,career exploration and proactive personality were significantly and positively related.(2)In terms of gender,place of origin and major,there were significant differences in perceived social support,career exploration,future work self salience and proactive personality.In terms of grade,there were significant differences in career exploration,future work self salience and proactive personality.(3)Future work self salience and career exploration were significantly and positively predicted by perceived social support,and future work self salience was significantly and positively predicted by career exploration.(4)The relationship between perceived social support and future work self salience was partially mediated by career exploration.(5)The first half of the pathway by which perceived social support influenced future work self salience through career exploration was moderated by proactive personality.Study 2 used a situational simulation experiment to strengthen the validity of the theoretical model and further investigate and confirm the mechanism of the influence of perceived social support on future work self salience in an experimental scenario.Firstly,the manipulation check questionnaire results for the high perceived social support group(n = 56)and the low perceived social support group(n = 60)in the experimental paradigm showed a significant difference,demonstrating that the experimental material could successfully manipulate perceived social support.Secondly,in the formal experiment,280 participants were recruited and randomly assigned to the high perceived social support group(n = 134)and the low perceived social support group(n = 146)to explore the impact of perceived social support on future work self salience.The results indicated that:(1)Perceived social support significantly positively affected future work self salience.(2)The impact of perceived social support on future work self salience was partially mediated by career exploration.(3)Proactive personality moderated the relationship between perceived social support and career exploration,and subsequently affected future work self salience.Specifically,the predictive effect of perceived social support on career exploration was stronger under high proactive personality.The following conclusions were drawn from this study:(1)Perceived social support has a positive effect on future work self salience.(2)Career exploration mediates the positive effect of perceived social support on future work self salience.(3)Proactive personality plays a moderating role in the positive relationship between perceived social support and career exploration.Specifically,the higher the level of proactive personality,the stronger the positive effect of perceived social support on career exploration.(4)Proactive personality moderates the mediating pathway by which perceived social support influences future work self salience through career exploration.The higher the level of proactive personality,the stronger the mediating effect of career exploration on the relationship between perceived social support and future work self salience.