Career support linked to student well-being, but moderation evidence remains exploratory

Perceived university career support was associated with better mental well-being among Chinese undergraduates, with career adaptability and career insecurity emerging as linked factors in a cross-sectional study of 800 third- and fourth-year students at five public universities in Zhejiang Province. The analysis found positive associations between career support and adaptability, between adaptability and well-being, and a negative association between career insecurity and well-being. However, evidence that insecurity changed the support–adaptability–well-being relationship was mixed, making the moderation findings exploratory.

The study used covariate-adjusted HC3 regressions to assess the proposed relationships. Career support had a positive regression coefficient with career adaptability (b = 0.366, p < 0.001), while adaptability was positively associated with mental well-being (b = 8.431, p < 0.001). Career insecurity was negatively associated with well-being (b = −4.307, p < 0.001). Together, these results are consistent with a pathway in which stronger perceived support accompanies greater adaptability, which in turn accompanies better well-being, while insecurity accompanies poorer well-being. Because the research was cross-sectional, the results do not establish that support causes adaptability or that either factor causes changes in students’ mental health.

An adaptability-by-insecurity interaction reached statistical significance under individual-level HC3 inference, with a coefficient of 1.839 (p = 0.038). The corresponding moderated-mediation index was 0.673, with a 95% bootstrap confidence interval from 0.043 to 1.319. This result suggested that the indirect association linking career support, adaptability and well-being could vary according to students’ career insecurity. The confidence interval excluded zero, but the finding did not survive the study’s more conservative university-level analysis: a Webb-weight wild cluster bootstrap did not confirm the interaction (p = 0.195), and a leave-one-university-out jackknife interval for the moderated-mediation index included zero.

The distinction between the two levels of inference is central to interpreting the results. Individual-level testing treated students as the relevant units of analysis, whereas the university-level bootstrap accounted for the clustering of students within institutions. With data drawn from only five universities, the broader moderation result was sensitive to the analytic method. The main associations appeared in covariate-adjusted models, but the claim that career insecurity specifically moderated the proposed indirect relationship should be regarded as tentative rather than definitive. The study therefore offers a detailed snapshot of how career support, adaptability and insecurity co-occur with well-being among advanced undergraduates, without demonstrating temporal sequence, causation or a durable institutional effect.

Subject of Research: How perceived university career support, career adaptability and career insecurity relate to mental well-being among Chinese undergraduates

Article Title: Career adaptability and career insecurity in the association between university career support and mental wellbeing among Chinese undergraduates

Article References: Fang, Z. (2026). Career adaptability and career insecurity in the association between university career support and mental wellbeing among Chinese undergraduates. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-76842-w

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-76842-w

Keywords: mental well-being, career adaptability, career insecurity, university career support, Chinese undergraduates, cross-sectional study, moderated mediation, student mental health, university students, Career, adaptability, insecurity