Perceived university employment support and career adaptability: evidence from Chinese university students

Introduction: Against a backdrop of slowing global economic growth, growing labor-market uncertainty, and a sustained increase in the number of Chinese university graduates, the transition from university to work can no longer be understood as a simple matter of person-job matching. Career adaptability has become a critical psychological resource for understanding how students respond to career tasks and environmental change. Yet how perceived university employment support relates to career adaptability, which individual psychological factors may be involved, and under what contextual conditions these relationships emerge require further examination. Drawing on social cognitive career theory and career construction theory, this study examines the relationship between perceived university employment support and career adaptability among university students, tests indirect associations through occupational values and career decision-making self-efficacy, and explores whether perceived policy effectiveness interacts with the focal pathways. Although prior research has established that social support is related to career development, it has rarely distinguished career-task-oriented university employment support from general social support, organizational support, and employability development. It has also not adequately explained how evaluations of macro-level policy define the contextual boundaries of these relationships. Using cross-sectional questionnaire data from 635 full-time Chinese undergraduate and vocational-college students, this study examines the relationships among perceived university employment support, career decision-making self-efficacy, occupational values, perceived policy effectiveness, and career adaptability. The results indicate that perceived university employment support is significantly and positively associated with career adaptability. Career decision-making self-efficacy and occupational values form significant parallel indirect associations, whereas their serial indirect association is not significant.