The effect of airline service major students’ employment stress on learned helplessness and employment preparation behavior: a moderated mediation model of resilience

Abstract

Introduction. Employment stress among airline service major students is very high, because airlines have not been recruiting during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to high learned helplessness and less employment preparation behavior among students. Thus, the purpose of this study was to verify the effect of resilience, one of the positive psychological variables that decrease the negative mutual influence between learned helplessness and employment preparation behavior. Samples and methods. The participants in this study were 312 airline service major students from four universities in South Korea. Data were collected from junior students who were in their third year of university (64.7%) and senior students who were in their fourth year of university (35.3%) in South Korea. For analysis, this study used SPSS Win.25.0 and PROCESS macro for SPSS 3.5 programs to conduct the frequency test for the demographic information, reliability test, correlation test, and moderated mediation effect analysis. Results. First, employment preparation behavior had a negative correlation with employment stress (r = -.497, p<.01) and learned helplessness (r = -.361, p<.01), as well as a positive association with resilience (r = .484, p < .01). Second, the conditional indirect effects of resilience on the relationship between employment stress and employment preparation behavior through learned helplessness were significant (p < .001) when the resilience value was low (M-1 SD), average (M), or high (M+1 SD). Therefore, the moderated mediation effect of resilience was verified. Practical significance. This study found that airline service major students with high resilience have increased employment preparation behavior. Given the results of this study, students’ resilience should be developed and strengthened to reduce or overcome students’ stress and learned helplessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderated mediating effect of appearance satisfaction on the relationship between academic major satisfaction, self-esteem, and employment stress by airline service major students

“…Following data collection, this study conducted frequency analysis for demographic information. The ratio of female to male students was 90% to 10%, respectively, which is similar to the actual proportions of female and male flight attendants in South Korea [34].…”

“…The measurement of employment stress perceived by airline service major students was developed by Park & Jeon [34]. The measurement items of employment stress consist of 'employment anxiety, 'employment worry', and 'employment fear'.…”

The Effect of Airline Service Major Students’ Online Practical Classrelated Stress on College Maladjustment and Dropout Intention during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model of Resilience

“…Following data collection, this study conducted the frequency analysis for demographic information. The ratio of female to male students was 88.2% to 11.8%, respectively, which is similar to the actual proportion of female and male flight attendants in South Korea [13]. The respondents among airline service major students consisted of sophomores (40.1%), juniors (30.9%), and seniors (29%) in South Korean universities.…”

“…Studies have proven that resilience moderated between-student-related variables. In a study [13] examining airline service major students' learned helplessness during the COVID-19 pandemic, such learned helplessness was shown to decrease students' employment preparation behavior, and resilience was found to reduce the negative impact between learned helplessness and employment preparation behavior. Bang et al [20] found that tourism-related major students' employment stress was negatively associated with adaptation to college life, and that resilience played a moderating role in preventing students with employment stress from not maladapting to college life.…”

“…It is therefore inferred that college life maladjustment mediates the effect between online practical class-related stress and dropout intention. The interests of the three variables listed above have increased due to COVID-19, and the relationship between college life maladjustment and dropout intention could be weakened by positive psychological variables such as resilience [13]. Resilience is the ability to overcome adversity [14].…”