the investigation reveals that economic constraints positively and significantly predict work volition, career adaptability, and decent work perception, contrasting with traditional assumptions of the Psychology of Working Theory. Mediation analyses demonstrate that psychological resources sequentially transmit the effects of economic constraints to career outcomes. Proactive personality moderates the relationship between economic constraints and career adaptability, with stronger compensatory effects observed among students with lower proactive dispositions. These findings suggest that cultural meaning-making processes, collective support systems, and an achievement-oriented mindset transform economic adversity into motivational catalysts within Vietnamese society. The study advances career development theory by identifying boundary conditions under which contextual constraints activate rather than deplete psychological resources in developing country contexts.

27:T4e1,

College students’ career aspirations are critical to their professional development. However, limited research has investigated career aspirations within the context of Hispanic Majority Institutions (HMIs). To address this gap, we examined relationships between belongingness, stress, optimism, and career aspirations and offered a mediation framework to clarify their associations using self-reported data from undergraduates (N = 261) attending an HMI in the United States. We found that belongingness (acceptance) was positively associated with career aspirations pertaining to achievement, leadership, and educational attainment; whereas, the trend was reversed for belongingness (rejection). Serial mediation analyses revealed that acceptance was related to lower stress, which was associated with higher optimism, and in turn was related to more ambitious career aspirations. In contrast, rejection was related to higher stress, which was associated with lower optimism, and in turn was related to less ambitious career aspirations. We consider these findings through a theoretical framework that underscores the importance of promoting inclusion and acceptance within HMIs to support students’ career development.

28:T46e,

Most tertiary students now work to support themselves, but some are motivated by improving their employability and career development. However, many work in precarious jobs and the relationship between job quality and career development is poorly understood. We tested how precarious employment related to career capital, whether perceptions of organisational career growth (i.e. goal progress and ability development) explained this, and whether meritocratic beliefs (i.e. in a just society) moderated these relationships in working university students (N = 214; 78% female; M_Age 20 years). Precariousness was related to less career capital, which was explained partially by perceiving fewer organisational career growth opportunities. Meritocratic beliefs buffered the negative precariousness-career growth relationships and boosted the positive career growth-career capital relationships. Overall, 52% of the variance in capital was explained. Results point to how career practitioners might assist precariously employed students to successfully engage in career self-management.

29:T5e6,