ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Vocational Calling, Psychological Capital, and Career Adaptability: Psychological Pathways to Learning Engagement in Vocational Education
LU Yin
Luning Zhou
Peng Chen
Yu Gao
Shenyang Polytechnic College, liaoning, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract
Learning participation can be better for the development of a student in vocational education. This 4 wave longitudinal study (n=321) investigated how the call to vocational work led students to engage with their studies. Structural equation modeling showed that vocational calling had a path via psychological capital and career adaptability to affect engagement. perceived vocational education support positively moderated the adaptability–engagement association, supporting a person–environment interplay perspective. Moreover, growth mixture modeling yielded 5 different psychological capital trajectories, of which stable-high and increasing profiles strongly forecasted favorable academic results. The results showed that for maintenance of participation in vocational activities we must add drivers related to meaning, psychological drivers and support from the environment
Summary
Keywords
Career adaptability, growth mixture modeling, Learning engagement, Psychological Capital, vocational calling, Vocational Education
Received
22 December 2025
Accepted
19 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Yin, Zhou, Chen and Gao. 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: Luning Zhou
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.