Family influence is a key factor in many aspects of career development; however, very little research has examined the relationship between family and well-being. Drawing on social cognitive career theory, this study examined the influence of the family on college students’ academic and overall life satisfaction. The participants were 312 college students at a south Brazilian university who completed measures of family influence, along with measures of environmental supports and barriers, academic self-efficacy, goal progress, academic satisfaction, life satisfaction, and positive affect. Academic and life satisfaction were each well predicted in the model ( R² = .69 and .42, respectively). Results suggest that family expectations had a negative contribution in the model, and family support seemed to be very positive for academic and life satisfaction. The findings inform the practice, evidencing which family factors can booster and which can hamper college students’ academic and overall life satisfaction.

The paper presents three empirical studies designed to extend the test of the construct validity of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) among Portuguese students. In the first study, the responses of 461 elementary and secondary education students were submitted to a principal component analysis. A solution of one single factor was chosen, accounting for 55.7 % of the total variance, with Cronbach alpha coefficient and inter-item correlation above .70 and .20, respectively. The second study used a sample of 317 undergraduate students and registered a similar factor solution for SWLS (ϕ_pq = 0.99), which accounted for 65.6 % of the total variance (Cronbach alpha .89 and inter-item correlation above .20). A test–retest analysis registered coefficients of .70 (T2) and .77 (T3) and no significant statistically differences between T2, T3 and T1. The third study used a sample of 107 foster care youths from elementary and secondary education. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicate adequate fit indexes for the one-factor solution (χ²/df = 2.70, GFI = .96, CFI = .96), which showed convergent validity, reliability and homogeneity. In conclusion, there is psychometric evidence for the one-factor structure of the SWLS in Portugal.

The transition to the first year of high school constitutes a critical moment because it corresponds to the implementation of a career choice, which can impact students’ satisfaction and psychosocial adjustment. The career construction model of adaptation holds potential to explain how students adapt to high school, by suggesting linkages among adaptive readiness, resources, responses, and results. However, research applying the career construction model to school transitions, combining social-emotional, career, and academic variables is still needed. This study explores the roles that social-emotional skills (an indicator of adaptive readiness) and career adaptability (an indicator of adaptability resources) play in explaining first-year high school students’ agentic school engagement (an indicator of adapting responses). Measures of social-emotional skills, career adaptability, and school engagement were completed by 136 students (63.2% girls; M age = 15.68). Results from the hierarchical linear regression analysis suggest that social-emotional skills and career adaptability explain 32% of the variance and significantly contribute to explaining agentic school engagement. These findings seem illustrative of the potential of the career construction model of adaptation to deepen knowledge and understanding about the transition to high school and the implementation of career choices. Aligned with the literature, this study supports the calls for integrative psychological practices that acknowledge social-emotional, career, and academic variables when fostering students’ psychosocial adjustment.

This study examined the relationship between two variables of the psychological future [future time orientation (FTO) and life project (LP)] and their relationship with career self-efficacy in unemployed individuals. Participants were 216 unemployed adults (151 women, 65 men), aged from 18 to 67 years old (M = 42.8, SD = 10.57), who responded to measures of distance and impact of future time orientation, identification and involvement in life project and career exploration and decision-making self-efficacy. Results of latent mediation analysis and correlational analysis indicated that there is a direct effect between FTO and LP, but also an indirect (i.e., mediating) effect between them through career self-efficacy beliefs. These findings suggest that unemployed individuals with a stronger sense of future time orientation are more likely to identify and engage with their life projects, and that this organization of their life projects is mediated by their levels of career self-efficacy. Overall, the study provides important insights into the psychological factors that can impact the careers behaviors of unemployed individuals, as well as on the characteristics of career psychological interventions with this public.

The present study consists of a systematic literature review, based on the PRISMA model, with the objective of analyzing the relationship between organizational support and career self-management in order to address the gaps in the existing literature. Specifically, it seeks to answer whether organizational support influences career self-management behaviors and whether the inverse also occurs. To systematize the scientific knowledge on this topic over the past 13 years (2010–2023), three databases were consulted: Web of Science, Scopus, and Core. This research resulted from the combination of the keywords “career self-management” and “organizational support: and involved the screening of 353 studies. For the systematic literature review, a total of six studies were identified that met the established eligibility criteria. The main conclusions of this study are that organizational support, in the form of perceived organizational support, human resource management practices/perception of human resource management practices, and leader–member exchanges, appears to positively influence career self-management, as well as the inverse. Such evidence can be observed through the direct and indirect relationships established between the variables. This relationship leads, for example, to workers being more satisfied with their careers while also becoming more committed to the organization. Overall, this systematic literature review provides practical implications for organizations and their workers. It is suggested that future research should explore the relationship between career self-management and organizational support, as well as other potential mediators of this relationship.