Life orientation and career adaptability among young adults in Poland

This study aimed to investigate the correlation between career adaptability and developmental tasks among young adults concerning life orientation. Additionally, it sought to ascertain whether self-regulation functions as a mediator in the relationship between life orientation and career adaptability. The study included a total of 435 young adults aged between 18 and 34 years. The research employed the Polish versions of three questionnaires: the Social Participation Questionnaire, the Self-Regulation Scale, and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-5. The conducted research demonstrated that the assimilation and integrative social participation types predominated, and young adults were more likely to display a transitive life orientation than a moratorium orientation. The results also showed, as expected, a positive relationship between the promotional strategy and all components of the career adaptability. Mediation analysis revealed that the promotion regulatory focus acted as a mediator in the relationship between transitive life orientation and all five categories of career adaptability within the transitive orientation dependence model and, similarly to preventive regulatory focus, between moratorium orientation and the dimensions of concern and control. Preventive regulatory focus turned out to be a mediator between transitive orientation and career adaptability variables only in the case of three out of five variables-concern, control and curiosity.