Social optimism during studies supports school-to-work transition
Students' social skills and behavior in social situations during their university studies contribute to their success in the transition to work
2011-03-01
(Press-News.org) Students' social skills and behaviour in social situations during their university studies contribute to their success in the transition to work. The social strategies adopted during university studies also have an impact on work commitment and early-career coping with working life. These results have been uncovered in a research project investigating the relationship between the social strategies students show at university and how well they cope with work-related challenges. The research has been carried out with funding from the Academy of Finland.
"The higher the initial level of social optimism and the bigger the increase during university studies, the greater the level of early-career work engagement, dedication and career-related commitment," explains Professor Katariina Salmela-Aro, the principal investigator of the research project, from Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Work engagement is defined as a positive, motivating work-related state of mind characterised by vigour, enthusiasm and dedication. The results of the research project also suggest that social withdrawal and avoidance during university studies are indicative of a distant attitude towards work and an increased likelihood of exhaustion and burnout after the transition to working life.
The longitudinal study spanned 18 years and involved a sample of 292 students at the University of Helsinki, investigating the social strategies young adults adopt and how they make the transition to adulthood. The study is part of the ongoing Helsinki Longitudinal Student Study (HELS).
Little research has been carried out on the role of social strategies adopted during university studies in coping at work and work burnout. "Our findings indicate that social optimism during university studies translates into a high level of work engagement up to 10-15 years after the study-to-work transition. On the other hand, pessimism and social avoidance seem to increase the likelihood of work burnout and exhaustion during the 10-15 years after the studies," says Salmela-Aro.
According to Salmela-Aro, the ways in which people deal with social situations may have far-reaching implications for future life success. "Good interpersonal skills, an active social approach and a sense of community and involvement can equip students with the personal resources necessary in making the transition to everyday work and the competitive world of career-making."
The results of the study suggest that more attention should be paid to students' community engagement and the development of their social competence, since these are factors greatly facilitating a successful study-to-work transition.
INFORMATION:
The results of the study will be published in an article in the Journal of Vocational Behavior:
Salmela-Aro, K., et al., Social strategies during university studies predict early career work burnout and engagement: 18-year longitudinal study, Journal of Vocational Behavior (2011)
More information:
Professor Katariina Salmela-Aro, firstname.lastname(at)helsinki.fi, tel. +358 50 415 5283, +358 9 191 23255
Academy of Finland Communications
Riitta Tirronen
Communications Manager
tel. +358 9 7748 8369, +358 40 828 1724
firstname.lastname(at)aka.fi
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2011-03-01
The growth in the demand of smartphones has highlighted the complexities of wireless communications through problems of reduced sensitivity when the user holds some devices. New research has been investigating this problem, along with developing new solutions to overcome the loss of connectivity.
The study by academics in the field of antennas and propagation in the University of Bristol's Centre for Communications Research (CCR) is published in the journal IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.
The paper builds on previous work that analysed multi-antenna ...
2011-03-01
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a cheap and easy method for assembling nanowires, controlling their alignment and density. The researchers hope the findings will foster additional research into a range of device applications using nanowires, from nanoelectronics to nanosensors, especially on unconventional substrates such as rubber, plastic and paper.
"Alignment is a critical first step for developing devices that use nanowires," says Dr. Yong Zhu, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State and co-author of ...
2011-03-01
Ulysses Balis, M.D., clicks a mouse to identify a helicopter in a satellite photo of Baghdad, Iraq. With another click, an algorithm that he and his team designed picks out three more choppers without highlighting any of the buildings, streets, trees or cars.
Balis isn't playing war games. The director of the Division of Pathology Informatics at the University of Michigan Medical School is demonstrating the extreme flexibility of a software-tool aimed at making the detection of abnormalities in cell and tissue samples faster, more accurate and more consistent.
In a ...
2011-03-01
UPTON, NY - A brain imaging study at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory reveals a subtle difference between ordinary obese subjects and those who compulsively overeat, or binge: In binge eaters but not ordinary obese subjects, the mere sight or smell of favorite foods triggers a spike in dopamine - a brain chemical linked to reward and motivation. The findings - published online on February 24, 2011, in the journal Obesity - suggest that this dopamine spike may play a role in triggering compulsive overeating.
"These results identify dopamine ...
2011-03-01
Nanometre-scale gold particles are currently intensively investigated for possible applications in catalysis, sensing, photonics, biolabelling, drug carriers and molecular electronics. The particles are prepared in a solution from gold salts and their reactive gold cores can be stabilised with various organic ligands. Particularly stable particles can be synthesised by using organothiolate ligands that have a strong chemical interaction to gold. The chemical process of preparing such particles has been known since the mid-1990s and many different stable sizes and compositions ...
2011-03-01
Sexuality and religion are generally considered uncomfortable bedfellows. Now, for the first time, a team of researchers from Nottingham have carried out a detailed study around these issues and how they affect and influence the lives of British 18 to 25 year olds.
Led by The University of Nottingham, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, experts spent two years investigating the attitudes, values and experiences of sex and religion among young adults.
The study, which involved nearly 700 young people from six different religious traditions; Buddhism, Christianity, ...
2011-03-01
One in eight Americans will fall prey to Alzheimer's disease at some point in their life, current statistics say. Because Alzheimer's is associated with vascular damage in the brain, many of them will succumb through a painful and potentially fatal stroke.
But researchers led by Dr. Dan Frenkel of Tel Aviv University's Department of Neurobiology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences are working on a nasally-delivered 2-in-1 vaccine that promises to protect against both Alzheimer's and stroke. The new vaccine repairs vascular damage in the brain by rounding up ...
2011-03-01
Ever get a flu shot and still get the flu? If so, there's new hope for flu-free winters in the years to come thanks to a new discovery by researchers who found that a drug called DMXAA, originally developed as anti-tumor agent, enhances the ability of flu vaccines to ward off this deadly virus. A new research report appearing in the March 2011 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology (http://www.jleukbio.org) suggests that DMXAA could assist flu vaccines by causing the body to produce its own antiviral proteins, called interferons, which interfere with the virus's ability ...
2011-03-01
Be it a heart transplant or a Cesarean section, every operation requires a wide variety of surgical instruments, from simple retractors, clamps, scalpels and scissors to more specialist devices such as cerclage wire passers, which surgeons employ to repair long, oblique fractures in bones. These are shaped in such a way as to half encircle the broken bone, and incorporate a hollow channel. In a process not unlike stringing a parcel for posting, thread or wire is fed through the channel around the damaged bone and then knotted in place, both to support the bone and to hold ...
2011-03-01
More and more often, abdominal surgeries are being carried out in a minimally invasive manner. A small incision in the abdominal wall is sufficient for the surgeon to be able to insert the instrument and make the organs visible with an endoscope. This technique is gentler and does not stress the body as much as traditional surgeries do. However, these minimally invasive surgeries pose a special challenge to the surgeons. In particular, the suturing – meaning joining the tissue with needle and suture material - demands great skill and dexterity. Very often, piercing the ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Social optimism during studies supports school-to-work transition
Students' social skills and behavior in social situations during their university studies contribute to their success in the transition to work
