{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T06:05:15Z","timestamp":1790661915727,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":66,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790640000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>University students often report notable career decision-making difficulties in competitive employment environments. Research has established a positive link between an individual\u2019s future work self and their career development, while learned helplessness and social loafing relate to greater career decision-making difficulties. This study examines the associations among future work self, learned helplessness, social loafing, and career decision-making difficulties, focusing on the mediating role of learned helplessness and the moderating role of social loafing.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>611 university students responded to the Future Work Self Scale, Learned Helplessness Scale, Social Loafing Tendency Questionnaire, and Career Decision-Making Difficulties Scale. The analysis used SmartPLS 4.0 with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Future work self was negatively associated with career decision-making difficulties (\n                      <jats:italic>\u03b2<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f\u22120.571). Learned helplessness partially mediated this relationship (\n                      <jats:italic>\u03b2<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f\u22120.055), and social loafing significantly moderated the association between future work self and learned helplessness (\n                      <jats:italic>\u03b2<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.290). The model explained 45.3% of the variance in career decision-making difficulties and 48.7% of the variance in learned helplessness.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The findings indicate that future work self relates to lower levels of learned helplessness and career decision-making difficulties, while higher social loafing corresponds to a weaker association between them.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1918115","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T05:46:55Z","timestamp":1790660815000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The relationship between university students\u2019 future work self and career decision-making difficulties: the mediating role of learned helplessness and the moderating role of social loafing"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Haiming","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Telecommunication and Electronic Engineering, Qiqihar University","place":["Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xingwei","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Student Affairs (Student Affairs Office, Armed Forces Department), Qiqihar University","place":["Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"49","DOI":"10.1037\/0021-843x.87.1.49","article-title":"Learned helplessness in humans: critique and reformulation","volume":"87","author":"Abramson","year":"1978","journal-title":"J. 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