ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1525049
Research on the Influence of Human Capital and Social Capital on Subjective and Objective Employment Quality Paths of Graduate Students in China
Provisionally accepted- 1Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, China
- 2Sichuan Agricultural University Chengdu Campus, Chengdu, China
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Employment is the biggest project of people's livelihood. The high-quality employment of postgraduates is of practical significance to the supply of high-level talents and economic development. There is an urgent need for higher education to explore the critical path to improve the employment quality of postgraduates more effectively. In this study, 778 graduate students and hierarchical regression analysis were used to investigate the impact of human capital and social capital of graduate students on subjective and objective employment quality. The results show that human capital positively influences objective employment quality, and social capital positively influences subjective employment quality. Employability mediates the relationship between human capital and objective employment quality. It mediates between social capital and subjective employment quality. Future career clarity positively moderated the relationship between human capital and graduate student employability. Employment policy support negatively moderated the relationship between graduate student employability and subjective and objective job quality. This study reveals the mediating and boundary effects of graduate student "Capital" on employment quality and provides some references for graduate student training and employment.
Keywords: Human Capital, social capital, employment quality, future career clarity, employment policy support
Received: 30 Jan 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Gao, YANG, Shi and Yue. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: SHIYUAN YANG, loveysy0604@126.com
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