Editorial

This issue continues to serve as a space for reflection on research and stimuli drawn from many parts of the world. The aim is enriching our understanding of the value of research contextualized within the realities of contexts, on the one hand, and on the other, looking for a common thread that could emerge. In some ways, results may differentiate based on contextual specificities but, in other ways, they may unite on common principles and directions.

The journal is also committed to the themes of the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations, as well as on Sustainability Science (Komiyama & Takeuchi, 2006; Sahle et al., 2025; Takeuchi et al., 2017) with its transdisciplinary perspective, and the contributions that the Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development (Di Fabio, 2017, 2021; Di Fabio & Cooper, 2023; Di Fabio & Peiró, 2018, 2023; Di Fabio & Rosen, 2018, 2020; Rosen & Di Fabio, 2023) can offer using psychological lenses in approaching the complexities of sustainability. The aims are to contribute both to a better understanding of processes, and on the bases of research results, to develop practical interventions in education, training, and organizations for issues related to career preparation and career development.

This issue responds to this sustainability perspective with the first invited article by Veronica Hopner, Stuart C. Carr, Evan Valdes, and Ines Meyer which offers an original contribution by presenting an application of the Sustainable Livelihoods Index (SL-I) to green occupations in New Zealand. Positioned within contemporary discussions on ecological transition, decent work, and sustainability, the study highlights the need to move beyond broad definitions of “green jobs” and to evaluate occupations according to their actual environmental, social, and economic contributions. The authors frame their work within the sustainability agenda and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, adopting the “People, Planet, and Prosperity” perspective (Carr et al., 2025) as the conceptual basis for assessing sustainable livelihoods. From this standpoint, sustainable work is understood not only in terms of environmental protection, but also in relation to inclusion, wellbeing, equity, occupational safety, and long-term economic sustainability (Kenny et al., 2024). Green occupations are therefore interpreted as forms of work capable of supporting both ecological regeneration and social development. Drawing on data from New Zealand's national census, the study identifies the ten most prevalent green occupations and evaluates them through a qualitative assessment process based on thirty sustainability indicators. The findings reveal generally high sustainability scores across the occupations examined, although relevant differences emerge among professional roles. Environmental Research Scientist, Urban and Regional Planner, and Environmental Consultant achieved the highest overall evaluations, underlining the importance of environmental planning, scientific expertise, and governance-related professions in supporting sustainable transitions. Another significant aspect of the article concerns its broader reflection on occupational classification systems and sustainable career development. The proposed framework suggests that green work should not be restricted to narrow environmental occupations but should also include professional activities contributing to sustainable organizational practices and responsible production systems. In this sense, the study advances a multidimensional understanding of sustainability in work and careers. Overall, the article provides a valuable proof-of-concept for the future development of comparative tools aimed at evaluating sustainable livelihoods across occupational contexts. The proposed framework appears particularly relevant for career guidance, workforce planning, education, and policy-making, offering useful directions for promoting more sustainable forms of work aligned with current social and environmental challenges.

The second invited article by Jason L. Brown, Louise Lexis, Brianna Julien, and Peter McIlveen investigates the role of psychosocial resources in the development of career identity among undergraduate health science students, with particular attention to students enrolled in non-specialist degree programs characterized by less clearly defined occupational pathways. Positioned within contemporary discussions on employability and career development, the study emphasizes career identity as a key process supporting students’ transition from higher education to future employment and professional life. The authors examine the relationships between dispositional employability, career adaptability, job search self-efficacy, and four career identity conditions: diffused, moratorium, foreclosed, and achieved identity. The study involved more than one thousand Australian undergraduate health science students who participated in a curriculum-based career development intervention integrated within their academic program. In doing so, the article also reinforces the importance of embedding career development learning within higher education curricula. The findings indicate that career motivation and optimism play a particularly significant role in career identity development. Students characterized by achieved career identity reported higher levels of adaptability, confidence in future career prospects, and stronger motivational resources compared with students in the other identity groups. By contrast, students experiencing uncertainty regarding their professional future, especially those in moratorium status, demonstrated lower levels of confidence and greater difficulty establishing stable vocational commitments. The study further highlights the relevance of career agency and job search self-efficacy in supporting exploration and transition processes. Confidence in managing career-related challenges and engaging effectively in job-search activities appeared strongly associated with the development of clearer and more coherent vocational identities. At the same time, many participants showed limited labour market knowledge, suggesting the need for educational interventions aimed at strengthening self-management, career exploration, and awareness of professional opportunities. Overall, the article contributes to current perspectives on employability by emphasizing the psychological and developmental dimensions of career preparation. Rather than reducing employability to technical skills or labour market outcomes alone, the study underlines the importance of fostering personal and adaptive resources capable of supporting students in navigating increasingly complex educational and occupational transitions. These results contribute to enhance the value of sustainable development related to career in line with the fourth paradigm (Hartung & Di Fabio, 2024) as well as sustainability, adaptability, and long-term contribution to individual and societal wellbeing. The findings therefore offer relevant implications for career practitioners, educators, and universities seeking to design more responsive and sustainable career development initiatives to answer pressing needs to building health workforces.

After the two invited contributions, the following set of articles includes qualitative studies that address targets typically underrepresented in the literature as well as topics in specific contexts, resulting in the advancement of reflection, intervention and preventive perspectives.

This qualitative study by Kateřina Hašková and Martin Vaculík explores how climate change is reflected in the career aspirations and future orientations of Czech high school students. Positioned within contemporary discussions on sustainability, career development, and climate justice, the article examines the ways young people connect environmental concerns with their educational and occupational trajectories. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with Czech secondary school students to investigate how climate-related perceptions influence ideas about work, responsibility, and the future. The study is grounded in the growing recognition that climate change is not only an environmental and economic issue, but also a psychological, social, and career-related challenge. The authors highlight how ecological crises may affect young people's emotional wellbeing, future expectations, and sense of agency, while also transforming labour markets and career opportunities. In this context, career development is framed as increasingly connected to broader life projects, social responsibility, and sustainable ways of living. Two central dimensions emerged from the analysis: students’ “notion of the future” and the perceived “relevance of climate change”. The first dimension refers to how clearly and consistently young people imagine their future lives and the future world, while the second concerns their perceived responsibility and capacity to contribute to climate action. By combining these dimensions, the authors identify four distinct “niches” describing how students relate climate change to their careers. The first niche includes students who see career choices as a direct opportunity to contribute to climate action and broader societal change. The second niche refers to participants who consider climate change important mainly in their personal lifestyles, civic engagement, and everyday behaviours rather than in their occupational plans. The third niche includes students who recognize climate change as a collective issue but perceive limited individual power to influence it through their own careers. Finally, the fourth niche describes participants who view climate change as largely unrelated to their career trajectories, attributing the responsibility mainly to institutions, politicians, or other actors. The findings suggest that perceptions of climate change are shaped by family background, peer influence, educational experiences, and broader sociopolitical contexts. Although some students expressed hope, agency, and motivation to engage in meaningful action, others described uncertainty, limited personal efficacy, or reliance on institutions and political actors to address climate challenges. The study therefore illustrates the diversity of ways in which young people negotiate environmental concerns within their career thinking and future planning. Overall, the article contributes to emerging discussions on sustainable career development by emphasizing the importance of integrating climate awareness into career guidance and educational practices. The authors argue that career counseling may provide an important space for reflecting on collective futures, environmental responsibility, and the relationship between personal career choices and wider societal transformation. The study offers valuable implications for educators, counsellors, and policymakers seeking to support younger generations in navigating increasingly uncertain social, environmental, and occupational futures.

The qualitative study by Peyman Abkhezr and Elyse O'Neill explores how people with refugee backgrounds in Australia conceptualize jobs, careers, and career development following resettlement, while also examining their experiences of career support and perceived gaps in existing services. Drawing on narrative inquiry and interviews with seven participants from diverse refugee backgrounds, the article investigates how meanings attached to work and career are shaped by displacement, migration, resettlement pressures, and changing social contexts. The findings reveal that participants distinguished clearly between “jobs” and “careers”. Jobs were generally described as temporary, survival-oriented, and financially necessary forms of work associated with instability and immediate livelihood needs. Careers, by contrast, were framed as longer-term pathways connected to personal values, identity, passion, and future aspirations. Participants frequently associated careers with stability, self-development, and opportunities for growth, while still recognizing the practical importance of financial security and family responsibilities within post-resettlement life. Another important contribution of the study concerns participants’ evolving understandings of career development. Initially, many described career development primarily as an individual journey involving learning, skill acquisition, and reflection. However, after engaging with broader academic definitions, participants expanded these understandings to include contextual pressures, relational obligations, cultural expectations, and the realities of navigating unfamiliar labor market systems. The study therefore highlights how career development among refugees is deeply interconnected with settlement experiences, community relationships, and structural constraints rather than solely individual choice and agency. The article also examines participants’ experiences with career support services in Australia. Most participants reported limited awareness of formal career counselling beyond schools and universities, and many described available support as primarily focused on immediate job placement rather than longer-term career planning and identity development. Participants emphasized the need for earlier, more culturally responsive, and community-based forms of support that include mentoring, family involvement, practical system navigation, and exposure to successful role models from refugee communities. Overall, the study contributes to contemporary discussions on sustainable and socially just career development by questioning the universal applicability of Western career concepts and by foregrounding refugees’ own situated understandings of work, planning, and future possibilities. The findings underline the importance of culturally responsive career guidance practices capable of integrating livelihood realities, collective responsibilities, and long-term aspirations within post-resettlement contexts. The article offers important implications for career counselling, community support services, and policies aimed at promoting equitable access to meaningful and sustainable work for people with refugee backgrounds.

This qualitative article by Stephen Sowa, Julie Smith, and Andrew Manches explores how career education systems can support young people's preparedness for automation and ongoing occupational change within increasingly dynamic labour markets in Scotland. Focusing on the Scottish career education system as a case study, the authors examine how policymakers, career practitioners, and teachers conceptualize automation and address the challenges associated with preparing children and adolescents for a rapidly changing world of work. Grounded in Social Cognitive Career Theory, the study combines document analysis with interviews and focus groups involving policymakers, career practitioners, and primary and secondary school teachers. Findings indicate that stakeholders generally interpreted automation not primarily as a source of mass unemployment, but rather as a process likely to generate new occupations, especially within digital, STEM, and technology-related sectors. At the same time, participants acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding future labour market developments, also recognized that routine manual and cognitive tasks may become increasingly vulnerable to technological replacement. This produced a more nuanced understanding of automation, combining optimism regarding emerging opportunities with awareness of the instability and unpredictability characterizing future career pathways. The study further highlights how career education stakeholders increasingly emphasize transferable competencies, career management abilities, and so-called meta-skills to help young people navigate non-linear career trajectories and multiple occupational transitions. However, the authors argue that promoting general adaptability alone may be insufficient. Beyond encouraging flexible skills, career education may also need to support a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying automation and job transformation, enabling students to critically interpret technological change and its implications for future occupations. Another important contribution concerns the developmental and psychological dimensions of career preparedness. Participants suggested that introducing career learning and discussions about technological change during the early years of schooling could broaden children's career horizons and stimulate curiosity toward emerging opportunities. Nevertheless, stakeholders also reported practical and emotional challenges, including information overload, difficulties understanding the speed of change, limited access to future-oriented role models in disadvantaged communities, and anxiety associated with uncertain labour market futures. Overall, the article contributes to contemporary debates on sustainable career development by emphasizing the need for career education systems capable of balancing adaptability, critical understanding, and psychological support in the context of accelerating technological transformation. The findings offer valuable implications for policymakers, educators, and career practitioners seeking to design more responsive and future-oriented career development interventions for younger generations.

The qualitative study by Fangjie Xu, Tengyao Huang, and Zihan Jia examines the increasing transition of Chinese doctoral graduates from academia to secondary school teaching, exploring the institutional, professional, and psychological mechanisms underlying this career shift. Using a grounded theory approach and interviews with doctoral graduates employed in secondary education, the authors develop a multi-level explanatory framework based on the Push–Pull–Mooring (PPM) model integrated with human capital and social cognitive career perspectives. The findings suggest that this transition cannot be explained solely by the scarcity of academic positions. Participants frequently described academic careers as characterized by publication pressure, intense competition, uncertain promotion pathways, and prolonged employment insecurity. Many portrayed academic work shaped by continuous performance evaluation and persistent instability, contributing to emotional exhaustion and uncertainty regarding long-term career prospects. At the same time, secondary school teaching emerged as an increasingly attractive professional pathway. Participants emphasized the appeal of institutional stability associated with the Chinese system, together with more sustainable work rhythms, clearer professional structures, and improved work–life balance. The possibility of experiencing more immediate educational impact and meaningful social contribution also appeared highly relevant, with many participants describing teaching as a profession capable of generating visible outcomes through direct interaction with students. Another important contribution of the study concerns the role of psychological and contextual moderating factors in shaping career transitions. Self-efficacy, perceived transferability of doctoral skills, family support, role models, and regional opportunity structures influenced how participants interpreted academic risks and evaluated alternative professional pathways. In this respect, the article conceptualizes mooring not as a static constraint, but as an active cognitive and contextual process through which structural pressures on one hand and professional opportunities on the other are translated into career decisions. Overall, the study contributes to contemporary discussions on career sustainability and professional mobility by reframing the transition into secondary education as an active process of occupational recalibration rather than a passive withdrawal from academia. The findings offer relevant implications for teacher workforce policy, doctoral career support, and sustainable career development in China and comparable educational contexts.

The qualitative study by Ali Eryılmaz and Ahmet Kara explores the development of career adaptability among prospective psychological counsellors, focusing on how counselling students interpret their vocational identity and preparedness for future professional challenges. Grounded in a phenomenological framework, the study examines the subjective meanings participants attribute to their educational and career development experiences. Positioned within Career Construction Theory, the article conceptualizes career adaptability as a psychosocial resource that supports individuals in managing transitions, uncertainty, and evolving professional demands. The authors emphasize that counsellors’ own adaptability is especially important, given their future role in supporting clients’ career development and decision-making processes. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with counselling students in Turkey, the findings identify two major thematic areas related to vocational identity formation and factors that strengthen career adaptability. Participants frequently associated professional suitability with personal characteristics such as empathy, openness, emotional awareness, and interpersonal competence. Many students also described counselling as a socially meaningful and ethically grounded profession rather than solely a technical field of expertise. The study further highlights the role of self-determination, practical experience, and professional engagement in reinforcing career adaptability. Opportunities to apply counselling skills, interact with clients, and observe positive change contributed to stronger professional confidence and a greater sense of belonging to the profession. At the same time, some participants reported uncertainty and vocational indecision, suggesting that the construction of vocational identity may involve periods of misalignment and difficulty. Another relevant aspect of the study concerns the influence of contextual conditions on career adaptability. Participants emphasized the importance of practice-oriented education, supportive learning environments, smaller class settings, and broader sociocultural recognition of the counselling profession. These findings suggest that career adaptability should be understood not only as an individual resource, but also as a process shaped by educational, institutional, and social conditions. Overall, the article contributes to current discussions on sustainable career development by underlining the dynamic relationship between vocational identity, professional meaning, and contextual support in counsellors’ career construction processes. The findings suggest that, when viewed through the lens of sustainable development, career adaptability can be understood as the ongoing process to maintain a flexible and evolving balance between themselves, working lives, and the broader social context. Beyond a career preferences approach in line with the contemporary framework of sustainable development as the fourth paradigm of twenty-first century careers (Hartung & Di Fabio, 2024) career adaptability is offered as the key ingredient to support “a long-term orientation” for constructing a career personally evaluated full of meaning, balance, and valuable also for others.

The following article is a scoping review by Annamaria Di Fabio and Letizia Palazzeschi aimed at examining the literature on meaning in life and meaning in work among gifted individuals—a target tending to be traditionally underrepresented in the literature. This review examined the theoretical perspectives adopted to investigate meaning in life and meaning in work among gifted individuals. It also explored how giftedness had been conceptualized and operationalized in studies addressing meaning in life and/or meaning in work. Furthermore, attention was given to the methodological approaches used in the literature, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods designs. Finally, the review aimed to identify the main themes emerging from the literature, as well as existing research gaps and likely future directions regarding the development of talent in gifted individuals. More recently, in the framework of the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development the concept of sustainable talent (Di Fabio, 2022) was introduced also relying on the authentic self and self-attunement (Di Fabio, 2014), grounded in personal values, meaning and well-being. However, sustainable talent appears not sufficiently operationalized in the current literature. In relation to key themes, gaps, and future directions, meaning in life and meaning in work emerged as central dimensions for the well-being and development of gifted individuals. Major gaps include the scarcity of longitudinal studies, limited cultural diversity, and the lack of standardized models and measures for sustainable talent in relation to sustainable careers (Baruch et al., 2023; De Vos et al., 2020; Donald et al., 2024; Hartung & Di Fabio, 2024; Van der Heijden & De Vos, 2005). Future research should integrate meaning-centred and sustainability-oriented perspectives introduced by sustainable development as a fourth paradigm for twenty-first century careers (Hartung & Di Fabio, 2024). Future research should also engage in longitudinal studies, as well as embracing cultural diversity.

The second set of articles in this issue presents quantitative articles offering studies from diverse geographical areas and addressing diverse topics, all of which can be traced back to valuable contributions to the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

The study by Xianghui Tian, Wenping Wang, and Yanlin Tang examines the role of vocational education in promoting poverty alleviation and career development in low-income rural areas of China. Using large-scale longitudinal survey data collected across central and western regions of the country, the article investigates whether vocational education contributes to improved employment, income, and social capital outcomes compared with general secondary education. Positioned within broader discussions on sustainable development and rural revitalization, the study frames vocational education as both an economic and social intervention capable of supporting long-term career growth among disadvantaged populations. Drawing on data from nearly 9,000 young people aged 16 to 25, the study employed propensity score matching and hierarchical regression analyses to reduce selection bias and examine the effects of vocational education participation. The findings indicate that vocational education was associated with significantly higher employment rates, increased income levels, and stronger social capital. Beyond direct economic outcomes, vocational education also appeared to strengthen community participation, social trust, and broader social integration, suggesting that its benefits extend beyond employability alone. Another important contribution concerns the identification of the mechanisms through which vocational education supports poverty alleviation and career advancement. The analyses highlighted three key pathways: skill enhancement, expansion of employment opportunities, and improvement of social capital. Stronger alignment between vocational curricula and labour market demand emerged as a crucial factor associated with better employment and income outcomes. The study also revealed important heterogeneity effects across gender and region. Vocational education appeared especially beneficial for women and for participants living in western China, where improvements in employment and income were particularly pronounced. At the same time, regional disparities in training quality and access to vocational certification highlighted the need for more equitable educational investment and stronger school–labor market connections in disadvantaged rural contexts. Overall, the article contributes to contemporary discussions on career development and social equity by demonstrating how vocational education can function as a multidimensional resource supporting employability, social mobility, and sustainable rural development. The findings offer relevant implications for policymakers and educational systems seeking to strengthen career opportunities and reduce structural inequalities in low-income communities.

The study by Yi-Chun Lin investigates the factors that promote innovative work behaviour among self-initiated expatriates (SIEs), focusing on the roles of cultural intelligence, learning goal orientation, and protean career orientation. Positioned within contemporary discussions on global mobility and sustainable career development, the article conceptualizes SIEs as proactive professionals who independently pursue international experiences to support career growth, personal development, and cross-cultural learning. The study examines how personal resources are translated into innovative workplace behaviours. Cultural intelligence is framed as a capability that enables individuals to adapt effectively to culturally diverse environments, whereas learning goal orientation is conceptualized as a motivational resource encouraging continuous learning, experimentation, and skill development. Protean career orientation is interpreted as a self-directed and values-driven mechanism through which these personal resources are transformed into proactive career behaviours and innovation. The study involved self-initiated expatriates working in Taiwan across different professional sectors. Using structural equation modelling, the findings showed that protean career orientation partially mediated the relationships between both cultural intelligence and innovative work behaviour, and learning goal orientation and innovative work behaviour. Individuals characterized by stronger self-directed career attitudes appeared more likely to transform cross-cultural competencies and learning motivations into creative problem-solving, proactive engagement, and innovative contributions within organizations. Another important contribution concerns the integration of expatriation research with broader career development perspectives emphasizing adaptability, sustainability, and self-management in increasingly uncertain and internationalized labour markets. The article suggests that innovative work behaviour among SIEs is not simply the result of technical competence, but also of psychological resources that support flexibility, initiative, and the capacity to navigate cultural complexity. In this sense, protean career orientation emerges as a central mechanism linking personal development with organizational innovation. The findings offer relevant implications for organizations and human resource practices, particularly regarding the importance of fostering culturally intelligent and learning-oriented work environments capable of supporting expatriates’ professional growth and innovative potential. Overall, the article contributes to contemporary discussions on global careers by highlighting how self-directed career management and cross-cultural competencies may enhance innovation and sustainable career development in international work contexts.

This study by Olasunkanmi Kehinde, Mubarak O. Mojoyinola, Jeff Walls, and Amanda Mayeaux analyses the psychometric properties of the Decisional Capital (DC) Scale for novice teachers in United States through the application of the Multidimensional Graded Response Model (MGRM), an advanced multidimensional item response theory approach, to further examined the validity of this recently developed Scale. Positioned within contemporary discussions on teacher development and professional decision-making, the article conceptualizes decisional capital as a multidimensional construct involving agency, reflective capacity, and confidence in navigating complex educational environments. The study highlights the importance of strengthening novice teachers’ decision-making processes during the early and often vulnerable stages of professional development. Using data from novice teachers in the United States, the research evaluated the functioning of a 20-item decisional capital instrument originally developed to assess teachers’ instructional and professional decision-making capacities. The findings supported the three-factor structure of the scale and confirmed that all items contributed meaningfully to the measurement model. The MGRM analysis further demonstrated that a four-response-category structure provided a better fit than the original six-category format, improving the psychometric functioning of the instrument while maintaining the interpretability of the construct. An important contribution of the article concerns the detailed item-level analysis made possible through multidimensional item response theory. The discrimination parameters indicated that the items effectively differentiated between teachers with lower and higher levels of decisional capital across the dimensions of agency, reflection, and confidence. Difficulty estimates also suggested that the scale was particularly sensitive to low and moderate levels of decisional capital, making it potentially useful for identifying early-career teachers requiring additional support and professional development. The study further situates decisional capital within broader contemporary perspectives on career development and sustainability. Drawing on recent theoretical contributions emphasizing adaptive, meaningful, and socially responsible professional lives, the authors frame decisional capital not merely as a technical teaching competency, but as part of a wider process of sustainable professional growth within increasingly complex educational and societal contexts. In this respect, reflective judgment, autonomy, and confidence are interpreted as essential resources for navigating uncertainty and ongoing change in educational work. Overall, the article provides robust structural and item-level evidence supporting the use of the Decisional Capital Scale in educational research and practice. The findings contribute to current efforts aimed at better understanding and supporting novice teachers’ professional development and offer valuable implications for mentoring, teacher education, and targeted intervention strategies designed to strengthen decision-making capacities during the initial stages of teaching careers.

The study by Mehmet Emin Turan, Alican Kaya, Najmah Abdallah Alzahrani, Carlos Laranjeira, and Murat Yıldırım examines the relationships between career and talent development self-efficacy and career decision-making self-efficacy among adolescents, focusing particularly on the mediating roles of academic expectation stress and planning as a coping strategy. Grounded in Social Cognitive Career Theory, the article highlights adolescence as a critical developmental stage in which young people begin to formulate vocational goals, evaluate personal abilities, and navigate increasing academic and social expectations. The study involved Turkish adolescents and proposed a serial mediation model linking career and talent development self-efficacy, academic expectation stress, planning, and career decision-making self-efficacy. The findings revealed positive associations among all variables examined. Career and talent development self-efficacy emerged as positively related to career decision-making self-efficacy, while academic expectation stress and planning both showed significant mediating effects, individually and sequentially, within this relationship. An important contribution of the article concerns its nuanced interpretation of academic expectation stress. Rather than conceptualizing stress exclusively as detrimental, the authors suggest that moderate levels of academic pressure may function as motivational forces when interpreted as manageable challenges rather than threats. Within the Turkish sociocultural context, characterized by strong family and educational expectations, academic stress may therefore coexist with enhanced self-efficacy and stronger achievement orientation. The study further emphasizes the role of planning as an adaptive self-regulatory mechanism supporting adolescents’ confidence in career decision-making. Students with stronger beliefs in their capacity to develop talents and manage future career paths appeared more likely to engage in structured planning behaviours, which in turn contributed to greater clarity and confidence regarding vocational decisions. The findings therefore underline the relevance of both emotional regulation and future-oriented coping processes within career development during adolescence. Overall, the article contributes to contemporary career development research by integrating stress regulation and planning processes within a unified explanatory framework of career self-efficacy. The findings offer relevant implications for school counselling and career interventions, suggesting the importance of supporting adolescents not only through career exploration activities, but also through strategies aimed at stress management, emotional resilience, goal setting, and adaptive planning in increasingly complex educational and occupational contexts. These practices could help to support individuals to develop more aware and sustainable career choices.

From the Articles That Make up This Issue, Some Concluding Considerations can be Made with Reference to the Themes of Sustainability Science as Well as Sustainable Development Goals of the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations

Examining the twelve articles, the first invited article by Veronica Hopner, Stuart C. Carr, Evan Valdes, and Ines Meyer, provides promising directions for enhancing more sustainable forms of work to cope with current and pressing social and environmental challenges. It enriches the large array of valuable contributions previously offered (Carr, 2023; Carr et al., 2023a, 2023b, 2025; Caringal-Go et al., 2024; Hopner, 2023; Hopner & Carr, 2024, 2025; Hopner et al., 2024, 2025a) in line with the fourth paradigm for careers in the XXI century (Hartung & Di Fabio, 2024) and its two pillars: Sustainability Science (Komiyama & Takeuchi, 2006; Sahle et al., 2025; Takeuchi et al., 2017) and Psychology of Security (Hodgetts et al., 2023; Hopner et al., 2025b). In relation to the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations, this contribution yields useful results for many SDGs, in particular SDG n. 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, but also SDG n. 4 Quality Education, and SDG n. 3 Good Health and Well-Being.

The second invited article by Jason L. Brown, Louise Lexis, Brianna Julien, and Peter McIlveen focuses on psychosocial resources and career identity development (Brown et al., 2021), referring to a special target among undergraduate health science students. The participants to this study, being students involved in non-specialist degree programs not able to guarantee clearly defined occupational pathways, are an interesting target to pay attention to. The results could inspire for more sensitive sustainable career development initiatives and practices in relation to health workforces and their employability (Brown et al., 2024; Healy et al., 2022, 2025). This study contributes to many SDGs, starting from SDG n. 3 Good Health and Well-Being, SDG n. 4 Quality Education as well as SDG n. 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth.

The third study by Kateřina Hašková and Martin Vaculík addresses climate change, sustainable career development, the value of integrating climate awareness into career guidance and sustainable development as the fourth paradigm for XXI century careers (Cohen-Scali et al., 2025; Guichard, 2022; Hartung & Di Fabio, 2024; Maree, 2026, 2025, 2024) and educational practices. Being inherently aligned with the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations, offers stimuli for a new awareness including collective futures, environmental responsibility, personal career choices as well as wider societal transformation to pay attention to considering the challenges of One Planet (Gerhards & Greenwood, 2021; Rockström et al., 2009) and future generations (Hartung & Di Fabio). This contribution offers useful results for many SDGs and specialty for SDG n. 13 Climate Action but also for SDG n. 14 Life on Land, as well as for SDG n. 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

and many other SDGs including SDG n. 3 Good Health and Well-Being.

The fourth article by Peyman Abkhezr and Elyse O'Neill helps in reflecting about sustainable and socially fair career development practices (Laughton et al., 2026) in relation to a specific target: people with refugee backgrounds (Abkhezr et al., 2020; Abkhezr & Tang, 2024; Yazdankhoo et al., 2025, 2026). The results of the study enhance the need to take care of designing culturally responsive career guidance practices to promote equitable access to meaningful and sustainable work. It also takes charge of questioning the universal applicability of Western career concepts (McMahon et al., 2026; McMahon & Abkhezr, 2024), asking for envisaging future flexible and sensitive practices to specific targets that deserve particular attention. This contribution is inherently aligned with a sustainable career-development agenda, reinforcing results for sustainability science using psychological lenses from the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development framework. The results from this study provides useful inputs especially for SDG n. 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, and for SDG n. 3 Good Health and Well-Being.

The fifth article by Stephen Sowa, Julie Smith, and Andrew Manches presents contributions on sustainable career development (Cohen-Scali et al., 2025; Guichard, 2022; Hartung & Di Fabio, 2024) referring to the context of accelerating technological transformation (PwC, 2018). The study also allows to reflect about the opportunities that could arise from balancing adaptability, critical understanding, and psychological support adequately taken into consideration in related career education systems (Marciniak et al., 2022; Watson & McMahon, 2022). This contribution offers insights for SDG n. 4 Quality Education, SDG n. 3 Good health and well-being, but also for SDG n. 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, until the SDG n. 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

The sixth study by Fangjie Xu, Tengyao Huang, and Zihan Jia addresses a current issue in relation to Chinese doctoral graduates and their increasing transition to secondary school teaching abandoning future academic paths (Arimoto et al., 2019; Chen, 2021; Horta & Dai, 2025; Li & Horta, 2024; Seo et al., 2021). The study offers the opportunity to reflect about the value attributed by participants to experience a prompt educational impact as well as meaningful social contribution in their interactions with students, rather than considering the paucity of academic positions as the main reason for a withdrawal. The topics of career sustainability and professional mobility in this study put in figure the possibility to reframe the choice of being engaged in secondary education in terms of an active process of occupational readjustment based on values and personal awareness rather than a passive giving up the challenge of the academy competition. Among SDGs, SDG n. 3 Good Health and Well-Being, and SDG n. 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth are especially relevant in relation to the results of this study.

The seventh study by Ali Eryılmaz and Ahmet Kara addresses the importance of vocational identity and preparedness for future professional challenges for counseling students. The results of this study with Turkish participants contribute to sustainable career development (Hartung & Di Fabio, 2024) paying attention to the dynamic relationship that emerge in terms of vocational identity, professional meaning, and contextual support as valuable ingredients to enhance career construction processes in prospective psychological counselors (Akıncı & Eryılmaz, 2022; Eryilmaz & Kara, 2020, 2022; Kara et al., 2022; Kara & Eryılmaz, 2021). These results contribute to SDG n. 4 Quality Education, SDG n. 3 Good Health and Well-Being, and to SDG n. 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth.

The eighth article, the scoping review by Di Fabio and Palazzeschi, shades a light to sustainable career development by highlighting the importance of meaning in life and meaning in work for gifted individuals. It also introduced the concept of sustainable talents (Di Fabio, 2022) by considering the innovations introduced by the sustainable development paradigm for twenty-first century careers, considering present as well as future generations and the planet (Hartung & Di Fabio, 2024). In relation to this study, the SDGs mainly interested are the SDG n. 8 Decent work and Economic Growth with implications also for other SDGs and the SDG n. 3 Good Health and Well-Being.

The ninth study by Xianghui Tian, Wenping Wang, and Yanlin Tang addresses a topic of great interest for the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations and many of the Sustainable Development Goals. Considering low-income rural areas of China (Xu et al., 2021), presenting vocational education (Tian et al., 2023; Wang et al., 2024) engaged in reducing poverty (Di Fabio & Maree, 2016; Huang et al., 2023) on one hand, and in promoting career development on the other, this study is interested in giving a concrete contribution for designing future economic and social intervention based on vocational education and paying attention to disadvantaged populations. Vocational education emerges as an opportunity to be considered to contribute to both long-term career growth of disadvantaged populations in terms of employability, social mobility as well as sustainable rural development for the progress of disadvantaged areas (Black et al., 2025; McIlveen et al., 2025, 2026). This study has results in line with SDG n. 1 No Poverty, SDG n. 2 Zero Hunger, SDG n. 4 Quality Education, SDG n. 3 Good Health and Well-Being, but also for SDG n. 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth.

The tenth study by Yi-Chun Lin considers another specific target, self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) working in Taiwan across different professional sectors. This study is in line with many Sustainable Development Goals of the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations. Addressing issues of global mobility and sustainable career development, innovative work behaviour, culturally intelligent and learning-oriented work environments it also asks for supporting and protecting professional growth and innovative potential in expatriates, as well as discussing on global careers and internationally sustainable career development supporting self-directed career management and cross-cultural competencies (Chen et al., 2023; Jannesari & Sullivan, 2021; Lin, 2026). This contribution offers insights for many SDGs, starting from SDG n. 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth with implications also for others SDGs starting from SDG n. 3 Good Health and Well-Being to SDG n. 4 Quality education, and SDG n. 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

The eleventh study by Olasunkanmi Kehinde, Mubarak O. Mojoyinola, Jeff Walls, and Amanda Mayeaux offers a tool for evaluate decisional capital in terms of agency, reflection, and confidence for United States teachers, in particular for identifying early-career teachers that could benefit of receiving additional support for their professional development (Kehinde et al., 2024). This study offers an example of a concrete contribution to career development and sustainability (Guichard, 2022; Hartung & Di Fabio, 2024) paying attention to increasingly complex educational and societal contexts in an early preventive approach aligned with sustainable development and strength-based prevention perspectives (Di Fabio & Saklofske, 2021) at the early stages of teaching careers. This research presents inputs for SDG n. 4 Quality Education, SDG n. 3 Good Health and Well-Being, and SDG n. 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth.

The twelfth study by Mehmet Emin Turan, Alican Kaya, Najmah Abdallah Alzahrani, Carlos Laranjeira, and Murat Yıldırım contributes to sustainable development issues focusing on career development in terms of talent development self-efficacy and career decision-making self-efficacy without losing sight of the complexity introduced by academic expectation stress and planning (Turan, 2021). The contribution underline reflections on the importance of career exploration activities as well as strategies to cope with stress management, to enhance emotional resilience, to place goal setting, and to reinforce adaptive planning considering how much educational and occupational contexts become more and more complex and challenging with a dizzying acceleration (Amaral et al., 2023; Gati & Kulcsár, 2021; Marciniak et al., 2022). The SDGs relevant to this study are in SDG n. n. 3 Good Health and Well-being, and SDG n. 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth but also SDG n. 4 Quality Education.

We can highlight some reflections that lead us to the following statements. Research and studies on careers and career development are proving to be highly productive in terms of contributing to Sustainability Science and Sustainable Development.

Many of these lines of research in reference to career and career development come from far, for example in reference to guidance and career counselling (Di Fabio & Bucci, 2016; Jasman & McIlveen, 2011; McIlveen, 2015; Plant, 1999, 2013, 2015), to individual and gender differences (Barth & Rieckmann, 2012; Bulger, 2013; Chaudhary, 2020; DeSimone et al., 2017; Di Fabio et al., 2015; Di Fabio & Blustein, 2010; Di Fabio & Kenny, 2021; Di Fabio & Rosen, 2019; Di Fabio & Saklofske, 2019; Jung & Takeuchi, 2016; Lans et al., 2014; Shockley et al., 2017; Sudyasjayanti, 2017; Vanhove et al., 2016; Watt et al., 2013), to decent work (Blustein et al., 2016; Di Fabio & Blustein, 2016; Duffy et al., 2016; Kossen & McIlveen, 2018), to well-being (Carr & Meyer, 2018; Di Fabio et al., 2020; Di Fabio & Peiró, 2018, 2023; García-Buades et al., 2020; Johnson et al., 2018; Peiró, 2022; Peiró et al., 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023; Robertson & Cooper, 2010), and many other topics, generating a flourish of contributions.

Given that Sustainability Science is valuable and challenging in contemporary contexts, our journal emerges as fully aligned in recognizing its importance and value. Furthermore, it also arises as useful in advancing awareness and research evidence to support evidence-based interventions for the scientific community, professionals, and our readers from various contexts around the world.

Topics that may be of particular interest related to career and career development include insights into disability (Chan & Hutchings, 2025; Estreder et al., 2025; Fajardo-Castro et al., 2025a, 2025b, 2024; Jalili et al., 2025, 2024; Maniezki et al., 2025; Martínez-Tur et al., 2025; Molina et al., 2026), social justice (Carringal-Go et al., 2024; Carr et al., 2023a, 2023b, 2026b; Hopner, 2023; Hopner & Carr, 2025; Kraak et al., 2024), inclusion (Ali et al., 2025; Bulger, 2024; Bulger & Hoffman, 2018; Carr et al., 2026a; Carr & Meyer, 2019; Fan & Potočnik, 2021; Griep et al., 2025; Meyer et al., 2025, 2026; Teng-Calleja & Meyer, 2024), decent work and decent lives (Kenny et al., 2023, 2024; Peiró, 2025; Peiró et al., 2025), life stages (Barbosa-Silva et al., 2026; Hallpike et al., 2025; Patel et al., 2026; Steffan & Potočnik, 2023, 2025; Tweneboah-Koduah et al., 2026), mental health (Dimoff & Kelloway, 2019a, 2019b; Fisher et al., 2023; Kelloway, 2019; Kelloway et al., 2023; Thibault & Kelloway, 2020), competences (Peiró et al., 2021; Peiró & Martínez-Tur, 2022), green management (Abdallah et al., 2025; Dzokom, 2025; Peddi & Manoharan, 2025; Yorulmaz, 2025), artificial intelligence and technological innovations to be studied in depth, and new areas such as agricultural psychology and the fight against poverty.

We welcome submissions with studies and research in which career and career development can be implicated to make useful contributions to the SDGs. We hope to continue along this path to provide evidence and results for further advancements in research and intervention.