“Visions About the Future: Hope, Optimism, and Pessimism” as Predictor of University Students’ Proactive Career Behavior

Abstract

Current conditions in the labor market stimulate the individual to have a negative view of the future. The current working world requires individuals to be more active in their careers today. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between university students' proactive career behavior and their visions about future (hope, optimism, and pessimism). The participants consist of university students in Turkiye. Participants are 435 university students (207 female, 228 male). The age of the participants is between 17-27. The Visions About Future Scale and The Career Engagement Scale were used to collect the data. Pearson Correlation Analysis and path analysis based on Structural Equation Modeling were used in the analyzes. As a result of the analysis, a positive relationship was obtained between visions about future consisting of hope, optimism, and pessimism and proactive career behaviors. In addition, visions about future positively predicted proactive career behavior. Visions about future account for about 30 percent of the variance in proactive career behavior. The obtained result supported that strengthening the visions about future of university students will increase their proactive career behavior. The findings were discussed in the light of the relevant literature and some suggestions were presented to researchers and practitioners.