ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Linking Career Self-Doubt to Future Decent Work Perception: The Psychology of Working Perspective
Provisionally accepted
- Sanming University, Sanming, China
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In an increasingly uncertain labor market, understanding the psychological and social factors that shape students' perceptions of future decent work is essential. Drawing on the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT), this study examines how career self-doubt influences future decent work perception, focusing on the mediating role of career calling and the moderating role of parental career-related support. A sample of 2,904 upper-year university students in China completed self-report questionnaires. Using moderated mediation analysis, the results revealed that career self-doubt was negatively associated with career calling, which in turn positively predicted future decent work perception. Moreover, parental career-related support buffered the negative association between career self-doubt and career calling, thereby weakening the negative indirect effect. These findings extend the PWT by identifying career calling as a key psychological resource and highlighting the protective function of family support in a non-Western context. Practically, the results underscore the need for targeted interventions to foster career calling and enhance parental involvement in students' career development.
Keywords: Career calling, Career self-doubt, future decent work perception, Parental career-related support, Psychology ofWorking Theory, university students
Received: 10 Nov 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Liu. 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: Jingmiao Liu
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