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Undergraduate students from lower social class backgrounds may experience poorer academic and life satisfaction when encountering classism in higher education. However, few studies have examined links among classism, career, academic, and well-being outcomes among undergraduate students, and existing studies have been cross-sectional. Therefore, this study examined longitudinal relations between classism and academic and life satisfaction in a sample of undergraduate students and examined work volition as a mediator of these relations. With a large sample of undergraduate students surveyed five times over the course of an academic year, we found that institutional classism predicted greater interpersonal classism and lower work volition over time. In turn, work volition predicted both greater academic and life satisfaction over time. This study has implications for understanding factors that affect the retention of students from lower social class backgrounds and how institutions of higher education can intervene to address barriers faced by economically marginalized students.

Scholarship devoted to first-generation college students has increased rapidly over the past decade, with studies demonstrating first-generation students are systematically disadvantaged compared to their continuing-generation peers. Recently, scholars have critiqued the treatment of first-generation students as a monolith and encouraged complicating their experiences using intersectionality as an analytic tool. This study examined the association between institutional classism and students' social-emotional experiences in higher education, and how these relations vary based on sociorace, first-generation college student status, and subjective social status. In a sample (N = 742) of college students from two four-year public institutions, results showed that the strength of the association between institutional classism and social-emotional experiences varied at different intersections of first-generation status, sociorace, and subjective social status. These findings demonstrate the importance of contextualizing first-generation students' experiences and have implications for efforts to retain first-generation students in higher education.

Scholarly research interest in precarious work is on the rise; however, contributions from Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) remain in their infancy. This may be because precarious work often exists outside of traditional workplaces, which are the mainstay of WOP research and practice. Presenting a case for the importance of a WOP perspective on precarious work, we draw on historical developments on the topic and highlight key areas for WOP contribution. We illustrate the importance of a multilevel and contextualized conceptualization of precarious work, which can only be understood through multi-stakeholder collaboration (praxis). We propose a need for radical and transformative structural change, which centres on human values and highlights the subjective experiences of affected people, their families, and communities. In doing so, we aim to stimulate future WOP research and practice that impacts policy and shapes work in a way that enhances the social good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Psychology of Working Theory as a guide, the goal of this study was to examine the longitudinal relations of economic deprivation to work volition and work volition to academic satisfaction among college students. We sampled 1508 students and surveyed them at three time points over a 6-month period. We found that economic deprivation partially predicted work volition over time, and work volition consistently predicted academic satisfaction over time. These results have theoretical implications as well as relevance to personnel working with economically marginalized college students.

As global labor markets become increasingly unstable, scholars have attempted to operationalize and categorize different forms of poor-quality work, such as with underemployment and precarious work. While these have significant implications for mental health and other outcomes, scholars have mostly studied different forms of underemployment using variable-centered assumptions, which assume homogeneity among workers. However, person-centered approaches may be better suited to studying underemployment because of varying patterns of employment in different industries and occupational categories. Therefore, with a sample of working adults (N = 1,016), we used latent profile analysis to identify profiles of subjective underemployment using seven indicators. We found three distinct profiles: Fully employed, stable underemployed, and precarious workers. Subsequent analyses exploring symptoms of distress, meaningful work, decent work, occupational classification, and level of education revealed key distinctions among the groups, such as precarious workers having the greatest distress and poorest working conditions. Taken together, this study provides a meaningful distinction between underemployed and precarious workers, while highlighting the relevance of these employment groups for several key outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the value of meaningful work among undergraduate students is important for guiding career counseling, especially because today's students are often stereotyped as entitled and uninterested in prosocial or meaningful work. Additionally, understanding the value of meaningful work from the perspectives of career counselors would clarify if services are meeting students' needs. In the current research, we addressed these issues with two studies. In Study 1, a sample of undergraduate students overwhelmingly indicated that they wanted meaningful work, that they thought finding meaningful work was an important goal of career counseling, and that they wanted career counseling to help them find meaningful work. In Study 2, a sample of career counselors reported that they viewed meaningful work as an important goal of career counseling and that meaningful work is something their clients desire. They also reported helping students find work or majors that are meaningful. Implications for practice are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to describe the development of a new intervention for jobseekers and to assess its efficacy using a naturalistic, pre-post intervention design. In contrast to existing work-based interventions, the Work Intervention Network (WIN) intervention targets multiple intersecting domains through four modules and via six group sessions: deepening and sustaining relationships; fostering social awareness and reducing self-blame; building emotional resilience and self-care; and planning, exploring, and engaging in the job search. To evaluate the intervention, we first recruited a sample of 33 jobseekers to provide feedback on the program. Integrating their feedback into the design of the program, we then recruited a sample of 108 jobseekers who filled out surveys before and after the six-session intervention, which assessed work and mental health functioning across the four domains. Results revealed that participants were highly satisfied with the intervention and reported large increases in social support, belonging, psychological well-being, job search engagement, and work hope as well as decreases in isolation and self-blame. This study provides strong support for the WIN intervention and has implications for how to support jobseekers in an increasingly precarious labor environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychology of working theory (PWT) posits that having decent work, or work that meets the minimum necessary standards to promote adequate work lives, predicts whether one's self-determination needs are met (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). While this proposition is well supported in the literature, examining moderators of these relations would advance theory by identifying who is able to benefit from decent work. Therefore, the current study examined workplace relational civility (WRC) as a potential moderator of decent work and self-determination needs among a large sample of working adults. Results were consistent with previous literature in that higher levels of decent work predicted greater self-determination need fulfillment. Furthermore, WRC significantly moderated the relations from decent work to relatedness and competence. Specifically, decent work had a stronger relation to both needs when WRC was low, suggesting that people working in relationally toxic work environments derive greater benefit from decent work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the current study was to experimentally manipulate perceived overqualification (POQ) among a sample of therapists and assess this manipulation's effect on task meaningfulness, positive affect, and negative affect. To conduct the experiment, we had participants read a clinical case vignette and then randomly assigned them to answer questions using their specialized clinical skills (control group) or using simple recall and transcription (perceived overqualification group). The POQ group reported significantly greater perceived overqualification and significantly less task meaningfulness than the control group. Perceived overqualification also mediated the relation between the experimental condition and task meaningfulness. The groups did not differ on positive or negative affect. Results support previous research and theory suggesting that perceived overqualification can have deleterious effects on job attitudes, which has implications for organizational and individual interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the current study was to examine whether the key constructs targeted in the Work Intervention Network (WIN) intervention uniquely predicted well-being outcomes and mediated relations between un/underemployment and these outcomes. Using data from a sample of 462 adults in the U.S., we positioned employment status as a predictor of life satisfaction, well-being, and psychological distress. We also tested four mediators of these relations that operationalized targets in the WIN intervention – career engagement, social support, self-care, and self-blame. Employment status indirectly predicted life satisfaction, life meaning, and psychological distress via self-care and self-blame. Career engagement mediated the relation between employment status and psychological distress but in an unexpected direction. Social support was not directly predicted by employment status but predicted life satisfaction and life meaning. Results provided initial support for the WIN intervention and corroborate the contention that employment status is an important predictor of well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the relation of career calling to life satisfaction among a diverse sample of 553 working adults, with a specific focus on the distinction between perceiving a calling (sensing a calling to a career) and living a calling (actualizing one's calling in one's current career). As hypothesized, the relation of perceiving a calling to life satisfaction was fully mediated by living a calling. On the basis of this finding, a structural equation model was tested to examine possible mediators between living a calling and life satisfaction. As hypothesized, the relation of living a calling to life satisfaction was partially mediated by job satisfaction and life meaning, and the link between living a calling and job satisfaction was mediated by work meaning and career commitment. Modifications of the model also revealed that the link of living a calling to life meaning was mediated by work meaning. Implications for research and practice are discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)

The present study examined a model of life satisfaction among a diverse sample of 184 adults who had been unemployed for an average of 10.60 months. Using the Lent (2004) model of life satisfaction as a framework, a model was tested with 5 hypothesized predictor variables: optimism, job search self-efficacy, job search support, job search behaviors, and work volition. After adding a path in the model from optimism to work volition, the hypothesized model was found to be a good fit for the data and a better fit than a more parsimonious, alternative model. In the hypothesized model, optimism, work volition, job search self-efficacy, and job search support were each found to significantly relate to life satisfaction, accounting for 35% of the variance. Additionally, using 50,000 bootstrapped samples, optimism was found to have a significant indirect effect on life satisfaction as mediated by job search self-efficacy, job search support, and work volition. Implications for research and practice are discussed. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

The current study examined the relation between perceiving a calling, living a calling, and job satisfaction among a diverse group of employed adults who completed an online survey (N = 201). Perceiving a calling and living a calling were positively correlated with career commitment, work meaning, and job satisfaction. Living a calling moderated the relations of perceiving a calling with career commitment and work meaning, such that these relations were more robust for those with a stronger sense they were living their calling. Additionally, a moderated, multiple mediator model was run to examine the mediating role of career commitment and work meaning in the relation of perceiving a calling and job satisfaction, while accounting for the moderating role of living a calling. Results indicated that work meaning and career commitment fully mediated the relation between perceiving a calling and job satisfaction. However, the indirect effects of work meaning and career commitment were only significant for individuals with high levels of living a calling, indicating the importance of living a calling in the link between perceiving a calling and job satisfaction. Implications for research and practice are discussed. (Contains 3 figures and 2 tables.)