Social Support and Occupational Engagement Among Korean Undergraduates

Abstract

Career paths are no longer linear or predictable due to the instability and dynamic changes occurring in the work environment. Career researchers have acknowledged this trend and emphasized the significance of individuals’ actual behaviors in career development. Occupational engagement is an essential behavior that leads to successful and satisfactory career development in college students. The current study examined the mediating and moderating roles of work volition in the relationship between social support and occupational engagement. A total of 233 (80 males, 153 females) Korean undergraduates participated in the survey. The results were as follows: Work volition partially mediated the positive relationship between social support and occupational engagement. That is, people who felt they had higher social support reported more work volition, which in turn resulted in more active participation in occupational engagement. Also, the moderation effect of work volition was found between social support and occupational engagement. Thus, the influence of social support on occupational engagement was greater for those with an average or above level of work volition. The results showed that environmental social support and individual work volition are vital factors in improving occupational engagement. The implications and suggestions for practical uses and future research were suggested.

Social Support Among Male Undergraduates: A Systematic Review

“…A total of 30 studies were found that adhered to the inclusion criteria set for the systematic review. Of these, 16 focused on social support and psychological outcomes (Abu-Kaf et al, 2018;Adamczyk, 2015;Bíró, Veres-Balajti, & Kósa, 2016;Ceglarek & Ward, 2016;Frison & Eggermont, 2015;Kim, Kim, & Lee, 2016;Llamas, Morgan Consoli, Hendricks, & Nguyen, 2018;Marhamah & Hamzah, 2016;Ng, Wang, & Chan, 2017;Roohafza et al, 2016;Tang & Dai, 2018;Vungkhanching, Tonsing, & Tonsing, 2016;Wang, Sun, & Wang, 2016;Wongtongkam, 2019;Yıldırım, Karaca, Cangur, Acıkgoz, & Akkus, 2017;You, Lim, & Kim, 2017); 3 focused on social support and academic achievement (Bai et al, al., 2018; Rodríguez et al, 2017); 4 focused on social support and technology use (Deechuay, Koul, Maneewan & Lerdpornkulrat, 2016;Gökçearslan, Uluyol & Şahin, 2018;Shah, Siddiqui & Ansari, 2016;; 4 focused on sources of social support (Bhochhibhoya et al, 2017;Chuah & Singh, 2016;Lee & Goldstein, 2016;Rios & Eaton, 2016); and 3 focused exclusively on gender differences in social support (Lin, 2016;Zamani-Alavijeh, Raeesi Dehkordi, & Shahry, 2017;Zhang, Zhapng, Zhang, Zhang, & Feng, 2018). All studies except one were quantitative.…”

“…Social support emerged as a predictor of emotional distress (Llamas et al, 2018;Wongtongkam, 2019), stress (Yıldırım et al, 2017), marginalization (Llamas et al, 2018) and cultural adaptation (Ng et al, 2017). These findings were reported from diverse range of regions and cultures, representing male undergraduates from countries such as Australia (Wongtongkam, 2019), Belgium (Frison & Eggermont, 2015), China (Tang & Dai, 2018;Wang et al, 2016), Hong Kong (Ng et al, 2017), Hungary (Bíró et al, 2016), Indonesia (Marhamah & Hamzah, 2016), Iran (Roohafza et al, 2016), Israel (Abu-Kaf et al, 2018, Korea (Kim et al, 2016;You et al, 2017), Poland (Adamczyk, 2015), Turkey (Yıldırım et al, 2017), and United States (Ceglarek & Ward, 2016;Llamas et al, 2018;Vungkhanching et al, 2016). Additionally the studies were also diverse in terms of the size of male undergraduates represented in the sample, ranging from 9 (Bíró et al, 2016) to 40 (Vungkhanching et al, 2016), 41 (Ceglarek & Ward, 2016), 69 (Wongtongkam, 2019), 75 (Abu-Kaf et al, 2018, 80 (Kim et al, 2016), 97 (Ng et al, 2017), 99 (Yıldırım et al, 2017), 137 (Llamas et al, 2018), 148 (Adamczyk, 2015), 149 (Marhamah & Hamzah, 2016), 438 (Frison & Eggermont, 2015), 622 (You et al, 2017), 883 (Tang & Dai, 2018), 958…”

“…Five broad categories were identified within which the recent literature on social support among male undergraduates had been conducted, namely psychological outcomes, academic achievement, technology use, sources of social support, and gender differences in social support. Overall, the impact of social support on all variables related to psychological outcomes was found to be positive, with findings showing negative correlation between social support and depression (Abu-Kaf et al, 2018;Roohafza et al, 2016;Tang & Dai, 2018;Vungkhanching et al, 2016), anxiety (Roohafza et al, 2016;Vungkhanching et al, 2016), stress (Marhamah & Hamzah, 2016;Vungkhanching et al, 2016), neuroticism (Roohafza et al, 2016), negative effects (Wang et al, 2016) and positive correlation between social support and sense of coherence (Bíró et al, 2016), relationship status (Adamczyk, 2015), positive effects (Wang et al, 2016), workplace engagement (Kim et al, 2016), emotional regulation (You et al, 2017), fewer mental health symptoms (Ceglarek & Ward, 2016) and cultural adaptation (Ng et al, 2017). Social support emerged as a predictor of emotional distress (Llamas et al, 2018;Wongtongkam, 2019), stress (Yıldırım et al, 2017), marginalization (Llamas et al, 2018) and cultural adaptation (Ng et al, 2017).…”

“…The association between well-being and emotional intelligence was partially mediated by social support. Regarding work motivation, Kim et al (2016) reported that, among Korean undergraduates, social support had a significant indirect effect on workplace engagement, with work volition as mediator (c' = .07, SE = .02, CI [.03, .11]).…”

Work Volition and Career Adaptability as Predictors of Employability: Examining a Moderated Mediating Process

“…However, to date, no studies have investigated work volition and career adaptability in combination, as predictors of employability.Work volition refers to the will to make job-related decisions on one's own despite external constraints [16]. In real career activities, university students need to make compromises and experience frustrations caused by a confusion of values, indecision, and external constraints, among others [17]. Work volition is the will to develop and achieve career goals by overcoming these difficulties, together with the belief that future career opportunities will be available.…”