Youth Sustainable Career: Integrating the Career Construction Model of Adaptation and the Sustainable Career Framework

This study examined individual antecedents of sustainable career development in emerging adulthood by integrating the Career Construction Model of Adaptation (CCMA) with the Sustainable Career Framework (SCF). We hypothesized that proactive personality and protean career orientation would be positively related to career adaptability, which in turn would be associated with proactive career behaviors and, subsequently, with education-related satisfaction, affective well-being, and perceived employability. Data were collected via an online survey of 1,634 students aged 17–29 years (66% women; M = 19.9, SD = 2.88). Structural equation modeling supported the expected associations among CCMA components and revealed serial indirect effects through career adaptability and proactive career behaviors. Furthermore, associations varied across well-being dimensions, with non-significant effects for comfort and depression and positive associations with anxiety and enthusiasm. Findings support the integration of the CCMA and SCF, highlighting differential links between adaptation processes and specific sustainability outcomes in early career development.