The Influence Of College Students’ Future Time Perspective On Their Career Exploration

Due to the increase of college graduates,the shrinking recruitment demand,and the existence of pressure such as the cliff change of student status and worker status,college students need to fully explore their careers in order to be more competitive,so as to better cope with the fiercely competitive social environment and identity change,so that they can get a better job search result in the future,and find the right direction and lay the foundation for their career development.This study first summarizes and concludes the studies related to career exploration by summarizing them.It is found that the analysis of antecedents of career exploration in domestic and international studies rarely takes into account the influence of individuals’ perception of future time.This factor is likely to be the key to adjusting individuals’ behavior in the present,as contemporary people place more and more importance on future development.Therefore,this study introduces the variable of Future Time Perspective,which represents individuals’ ability to perceive future time,and investigates its influence on college students’ career exploration.Based on Self-Determination Theory,this study hypothesized that there is a significant positive relationship between Future Time Perspective and college students’ Career Exploration.Achievement motivation,as an intrinsic motivation and psychological tendency to strive for excellence in order to achieve higher goals,has a direct contribution to individual behavior.Therefore,this study hypothesized that achievement motivation may play a mediating role.In addition,in view of the prevalence of social comparison,this study also chose "Social Comparison Orientation" as the moderating variable for the characteristics of individuals under competitive pressure to explore the boundary conditions of the main effect relationship.Thus,this paper constructs a moderated mediation model with Future Time Perspective as the independent variable,Career Exploration as the dependent variable,Achievement Motivation as the mediating variable,and Social Comparison Orientation as the moderating variable.The research methodology used a two-stage time-lagged research design,and a questionnaire survey was conducted on the Credamo platform among a group of Chinese university students,and a total of 215 valid data were obtained.Then the data analysis tool SPSS software was used to conduct correlation and regression analyses to test whether the mediating effect,moderating effect and moderated mediation in the model hold in turn.The results of the study found that: 1.There is a significant positive relationship between the level of Future Time Perspective and their Career Exploration among college students;2.Achievement Motivation plays a partially mediating role between future time insight and career exploration,i.e.,Future Time Perspective can indirectly promote individuals’ career exploration by motivating their Achievement Motivation to promote their Career Exploration behavior;3.Social Comparison Orientation negatively regulates the relationship between Achievement Motivation and Career Exploration,when the higher the degree of social comparison orientation of college students,the weaker the promotion effect of achievement motivation on career exploration,but the social comparison orientation itself can improve the level of individual career exploration;4.Social Comparison Orientation negatively regulates the mediating role of achievement motivation,with the moderated mediation model holds,when the higher the degree of social comparison orientation of college students,the lower the mediation role of achievement motivation between future time perspective and career exploration.Combined with the above findings,this study theoretically enriches the future time research perspective on the influencing factors of career exploration,complements the focus on individual social comparison orientation,expands the influence mechanism of time-space interaction,and further enriches the theoretical construct framework.It also provides an important guiding direction for highly effective educators that they can improve individuals’ level of future time perspective and thus motivate them to engage in career exploration;secondly,this study also makes schools and parents aware of the importance of paying attention to individuals with high social comparison orientation,which can be made to play a more positive role by properly guiding students’ comparison tendencies.