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The current study seeks to shed light on social-cognitive resources that mitigate master students' experience of dysfunctional career-related worry before graduation. Based on the career self-management model (CSM; Lent & Brown, 2013), we investigate concurrent and time-lagged direct and mediated relationships between career planning, career-related self-efficacy, and career-related worry among a sample of 482 students shortly before graduation. Using data collected at three time points, a negative relationship was found between career planning (T1) and career-related worry (T3) via career-related self-efficacy (T2). Our findings shed light on the role of career planning and career-related self-efficacy as malleable social-cognitive resources that diminish dysfunctional thinking before graduation in sequential order. These findings imply that career planning and career-related self-efficacy are relevant predictors of affective states and can be incorporated into the CSM.

Role models provide youth with valuable information on how to pursue their career goals. However, whether the presence of role models is related to career development beyond social support has not been sufficiently addressed. We investigated how perceived role model influence and social support were related to goal engagement among 191 students and to work engagement among 500 apprentices, and whether these effects were mediated by occupational self-efficacy. We further examined differences between native and migrant youth. Data were analyzed using multigroup structural equation modeling. Our results suggested that engagement was related to role model influence beyond its relationship with social support among students and apprentices. However, this relationship was not found for migrant students. There were no significant indirect effects of role model influence on engagement via self-efficacy among students and apprentices. Our results suggest that role models should be acknowledged as a distinct facilitator of adolescents' work-related engagement.

This paper presents the first assessment of the Behavioural Rating Scale of Presented Self-Esteem (Haltiwanger, 1989) in South Africa. The analyses are based on teachers' evaluation of self-esteem of 57 young isiZulu and Sesotho-speaking children attending a South African government-funded urban primary school. Although we found Cronbach's Alpha to be very high (a = 0.96), an exploratory factor analysis revealed a possible two-factor solution. However, the second factor did not match the two-factor solution reported in previous research (Fuchs-Beauchamp, 1996) and explained only a small amount of total variance. No self-esteem differences were detected between boys and girls, or between isiZulu- and Sesotho-speakers. The association between subjective summary ratings of self-esteem by teachers and the PSE scores in Soweto matches the associations measured in the US by Haltiwanger (1989). Interestingly, teachers' subjective assessment of children's future leadership status correlated positively with evaluation of the children's self-esteem, while teachers' subjective assessment of being burdened by major problems in the children's future did not. Measurement issues relating to ecological validity, culture-sensitivity, and subsequent work on self-esteem of children and education in South Africa are discussed.

Studies investigating the stressor–strain relation using daily diary designs have been interested in within-person deviations that predict well-being outcomes on the same day. These models typically have not accounted for the possibility of short-term accumulation (i.e. previous stressor experiences having a lasting effect and affecting strain on subsequent occasions) and sensitisation (i.e. previous stressor experiences amplifying subsequent reactions to stressors) effects of stressors such as workload across days. In this study, we test immediate, accumulation, and sensitisation effects of workload on fatigue within and across days using four diary studies (mean observations = 1,406; mean N = 166). In all four studies, we observed that workload had positive concurrent effects on fatigue. In addition, we found that workload had positive effects on fatigue within one day. However, there was insufficient support for short-term accumulation or sensitisation effects, implying that higher levels of workload on previous days did not directly affect or amplify the effect of workload on fatigue on that day. We discuss implications for recovery theories and potential future avenues to refine the theoretical propositions that describe intra-individual stress and recovery processes across days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arguably, job satisfaction is one of the most important variables with regard to work. When explaining job satisfaction, research usually focuses on predictor variables in terms of levels but neglects growth rates. Therefore it remains unclear how potential predictors evolve over time and how their development affects job satisfaction. Using multivariate latent growth modeling in a study with 1145 young workers over five years, we analyzed how well job satisfaction is predicted a) by levels of situational (i.e., job control) and dispositional (i.e., Core Self-Evaluations (CSE)) factors and b) by growth per year of these predictors. Results showed both intercepts and slopes to be related to each other, suggesting a joint growth of job control and CSE during early careers. Job satisfaction after five years was best predicted by the slopes of job control (beta = 0.31, p less than 0.001) and CSE (beta = 0.34, p less than 0.01). These findings provide further longitudinal evidence for the role of situational as well as dispositional factors for predicting job satisfaction. In addition, growth rates per year were better predictors than initial levels. Furthermore, a lack of change in job control or CSE went along with a drop in job satisfaction, implying that young workers need to perceive things to be improving in order to increase, or at least maintain, their level of job satisfaction. In terms of theory, the relative importance of levels versus changes deserves more attention. In terms of practical implications, our results suggest a double emphasis on job design (i.e., granting sufficient, and increasing, control) and on personal development (e.g., through training) so that people experience a match between both. Finally, negative associations between initial levels and growth rates suggest that people are quite successful in achieving a reasonable fit between their job characteristics and their needs and goals. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)

Work design plays an important role in workers' job-related well-being, but not every employee responds to work design in the same way. Given trends toward longer working lives and higher age diversity in the workforce, worker age is an important factor to consider. However, knowledge about the interplay between worker age and work design is limited, especially when considering the multitude of job characteristics that people experience at the same time. Integrating the work design and lifespan/career development literatures and adopting a person-centered approach, we investigated how worker age affects membership in work design profiles and the relationship between work design profiles and occupational well-being. Using two independent samples (N = 989; 980), we conducted latent profile analysis to group workers into work design profiles based on 6 age-relevant job characteristics (autonomy, information-processing, workload, social support, emotional demands, and social conflicts). We identified 3 profiles and linked them to well-being: motivating (most favorable), moderately stimulating, and socially taxing (least favorable). Older workers were more likely to be in, and responded better to motivating work design profiles, and less likely to be in, and responded worse to socially taxing profiles. Meanwhile, younger workers seemed more tolerant of socially taxing work design profiles than older workers. Most age-contingent effects were robust after adding organizational tenure as a covariate. Findings qualify lifespan development theories and shed light on workers' nuanced responses to work design profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many workers globally to work from home, suddenly, and often without choice, during a highly uncertain time. Adopting a longitudinal, person-centered approach, we explored patterns of change in employees' psychological distress over three months following the early phase of the pandemic. We investigated how change in distress unfolded for different latent subgroups. We modelled whether and how work characteristics, and individuals' degree of detachment from work, predicted membership of different distress trajectories. Growth mixture modelling revealed two distress profiles: (i) a declining distress profile where employees experienced reduced distress over time, suggesting adaptation and/or improved coping; (ii) a rising distress profile where distress increased and eventually plateaued, suggesting a stress reaction process followed by adaptation. Employees with high workload, underload, or close monitoring, were more likely to belong to the rising distress profile. Detachment from work buffered the negative effect of workload and close monitoring on distress profile membership. Scheduling autonomy and colleague support did not predict profile membership. Contrary to predictions, manager support predicted membership in the rising distress profile. Our findings extend theoretical understanding of how distress unfolds over time, and show the importance of particular job demands in explaining these change processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implying an offense to self, appraising a stressor as indicating a lack of consideration by others should have effects beyond its stressfulness per se. In Stress-as-Offense-to-Self theory (SOS), such stressors are called "illegitimate stressors." We assessed situations appraised as stressful in two diary studies (N1 = 117, N2 = 137). Outcome variables were feelings of resentment in both studies, plus nervousness, anxiety, and sadness in Study 1 and depressive mood, threat to social self-esteem, and desire for revenge in Study 2. Controlling for stressfulness, perceived illegitimacy predicted affective reactions that are outward-directed (feelings of resentment [Studies 1 and 2], threat to social self-esteem and desire for revenge [Study 2]); it also predicted sadness in Study 1 but not depressive mood in Study 2, nor nervousness (Study 1). Thus, not all hypotheses were confirmed but the pattern was as expected, in that results were consistent regarding outcomes typically associated with the attribution of blame. The independent contribution of perceived illegitimacy aligns well with the underlying Stress-as-Offense-to-Self theory. Practical implications refer to efforts to avoid illegitimate stressors, for instance by perspective-taking, by showing appreciation and support, and by supporting such behaviours through keeping stressors in general at a manageable level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work interruptions are contemporary job stressors that occur frequently in the workplace. Theories on work interruptions and the stressor–strain relationship over time suggest that work interruptions should have a lagged negative effect on well-being. However, we argue that continued changes in work interruptions may also be important for employees' well-being. We investigated the mid- and long-term effects of work interruptions on employee job satisfaction and psychosomatic complaints across two studies (Study 1: N = 415, four waves over five years; Study 2: N = 663, five waves over eight months). Using latent growth modelling, we predicted job satisfaction and psychosomatic complaints with respect to the level of, and changes in, interruptions. Controlling for initial well-being, we found that the mean levels (intercepts) of work interruptions had negative effects on later well-being in Study 1, but not in Study 2. However, increases in interruptions over time (slopes) predicted later well-being consistently. An analysis on reversed effects revealed that only the initial level of psychosomatic complaints positively predicted work interruptions. The studies underscore not only the importance of interruptions for well-being over time in general, but also the particular importance of exposure to increases in interruptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the joint impact of trait competitiveness (i.e., the enjoyment of interpersonal competition and the desire to win and be better than others) and competitive psychological climate (i.e., the degree to which employees perceive organizational rewards as contingent upon comparisons of their performance against that of their peers) on objective and subjective career success. Based on tournament and person–environment fit theory, we assumed that the positive effects of trait competitiveness on different indicators of objective (i.e., salary, promotions) and subjective (i.e., career satisfaction, internal marketability, and meaningful work) career success are stronger under conditions of a highly competitive psychological climate. Moderated regression analyses using data from a 6‐month time‐lagged study of 340 employees working in diverse occupational fields in their early careers revealed joint effects of the two competition variables. For both objective and subjective career success, the effect of trait competitiveness was strengthened under conditions of a highly competitive psychological climate. We discuss the results by integrating theoretical reasoning from a tournament and person–environment fit perspective on the attainment of career success. Practitioner points: Organizations should be aware that competitive environments, and specifically their related perceptions, are only beneficial for some employees' career success.Within perceived highly competitive organizational contexts, personnel selection and development should consider competitive traits of employees when deciding about hiring and career planning.Career counsellors may consider perceived organizational climates and competitive personal characteristics when objective career success and subjective career success are of topic in the counselling process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]