The school-to-work transition can be extraordinarily challenging in the turbulent labor market, and the uncertainty about employment outlooks can cause intense anxiety for college students. Drawing from psychology of working theory (PWT), the current study examined the predictor section of the PWT model in relation to employment anxiety with a sample of impoverished undergraduates in China ( N = 362). Findings suggest that (1) economic constraints were negatively associated with work volition and future decent work perceptions; (2) work volition mediated the relation between economic constraints and future decent work perceptions; (3) future decent work perceptions were negatively related to employment anxiety; and (4) proactive personality and social support attenuated the adverse influence of economic constraints on work volition. Overall, this study contributes to PWT by adding a new outcome (employment anxiety) and also providing evidence of moderation effects. Implications for universities and career counselors are discussed.

Purpose: Bullying is a serious problem among adolescents. Many scholars have examined school bullying in recent years; however, there are many psychological and behavioral mechanisms for bully that still remain unclear. Based on the theory of self-worth orientation, this study examined the influence of academic achievement on bullying behavior among adolescents and explored the moderating effects of perceived social support and age cohort. Methods: Participants were 3227 middle and high school students in the 7th through 12th grades in China. A self-report method was used to measure academic achievement, social support, bullying, and demographic variables. Results: Moderation analyses indicated that the relationship between academic achievement and bullying behavior was moderated by the perceived social support of adolescents and their age cohort. Specifically, social support moderated the relationship between achievement and bullying behavior positively in the middle school group but negatively in the high school group. Conclusion: The results support the hypothesis of self-worth orientation theory and indicate that bullying intervention could be enhanced by addressing the relationships between academic achievement, social support, age cohort, and bullying.

Previous research indicates that bullying victimization is a key predictor of adolescent suicidal ideation. From the perspective of the Integrated Motivational–Volitional (IMV) model, active coping strategies may buffer the feelings of defeat and humiliation caused by bullying victimization, thereby mitigating the emergence of suicidal ideation. However, this buffering effect weakens as the severity of bullying increases, reflecting a reverse buffering pattern. Moreover, due to developmental differences in the effectiveness of coping under varying levels of bullying severity, this moderating effect is further influenced by age cohort. To investigate the moderating role of active coping strategies and the moderating effect of age cohort (early-to-middle adolescents vs. late-age adolescents) in the bullying victimization–suicidal ideation relationship, we collected data from 3227 Chinese students, measuring bullying victimization, suicidal ideation, active coping strategies, age and other demographic variables. The results revealed that (a) bullying victimization was significantly and positively associated with suicidal ideation and (b) active coping significantly buffered this relationship; however, the buffering effect weakened as bullying severity increased, and (c) the reverse buffering effect of active coping was significant among early-to-middle-aged adolescents but not among late-age adolescents. This study offers important implications for designing targeted prevention and intervention strategies to reduce suicidal ideation among youth exposed to bullying.