Latent Profiles of Contextual Constraints and Source-Specific Career Support Among Korean Job Seekers: Psychology of Working and Conservation of Resources Perspectives

Abstract

Grounded in the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT), prior studies have examined whether social support buffers the negative effects of contextual constraints. However, findings remain inconsistent, with some patterns contradicting PWT’s buffering proposition and instead aligning with Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. To explore whether patterns consistent with these two perspectives emerge within specific subgroups, the present study adopts a person-centered approach. We examined configurations of three constraints (economic constraints, university prestige-based marginalization, and age-based marginalization) and three sources of career support (college, family, and friends) among Korean job seekers. Latent profile analysis identified four profiles: (a) advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported, (b) disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported, (c) disadvantaged-and-unsupported, and (d) advantaged-and-supported. Subgroup comparisons revealed that the advantaged-and-supported group showed the most positive career development outcomes, whereas the disadvantaged-and-unsupported group showed the most negative outcomes, consistent with COR’s resource gain and loss spirals. Notably, the disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported group showed higher occupational engagement and job search behaviors than the advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported group. These findings suggest that patterns consistent with PWT’s buffering proposition may emerge in subgroups characterized by moderate constraints and college-based career support. However, no profile with extreme constraints and high support was identified, underscoring the need to ensure equitable access to institutional support for individuals facing substantial constraints.

Keywords

career development conservation of resources theory contextual constraints social support economic constraints marginalization latent profile analysis psychology of working theory

Introduction

Emerging adults in South Korea are among the most highly educated in the world, with 73% having completed college—well above the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 47% (OECD, 2024). However, a college degree no longer guarantees stable employment. The employment rate of Korean college graduates has fallen below the OECD average, and the gap has recently widened (OECD, 2024). Against this backdrop, many Korean college-educated job seekers report low engagement in job search activities, suggesting that limited labor market opportunities may also undermine behavioral engagement in career development (Federation of Korean Industries, 2024). Importantly, these challenges are unlikely to be experienced uniformly across individuals. According to the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT; Duffy et al., 2016), individuals facing structural barriers such as economic hardship and social marginalization are likely to experience greater difficulties in employment and job search preparation, as they often have limited access to resources and opportunities for career development. Consistent with this perspective, empirical studies have shown that economic constraints and marginalization undermine the career development of Korean emerging adults (Kim et al., 2019; Song & Lee, 2023).

Within the PWT, social support is proposed as a key resource that may buffer the adverse effects of contextual constraints (Duffy et al., 2016). However, empirical findings on its buffering role have been inconsistent. Some studies have reported significant buffering effects (e.g., Wan et al., 2025), whereas others have found no effect or even effects that contradict the buffering hypothesis (e.g., Kenny et al., 2022; Song & Lee, 2023; Wang et al., 2019). One factor that may contribute to these inconsistencies is the predominant use of variable-centered approaches, which estimate average relations among variables and implicitly assume that the buffering effect of support operates similarly across individuals. However, individuals often experience distinct combinations of constraints and support, and buffering-consistent patterns may emerge within certain subgroups that variable-centered analyses fail to capture (Spurk et al., 2020). This highlights the need for person-centered approaches such as latent profile analysis (LPA), which identify subgroups of individuals who share similar patterns across variables and reveal configurations of constraints and support that may be obscured in variable-centered analyses.

Furthermore, LPA enables the simultaneous examination of multiple dimensions of constraints and social support, capturing how these variables co-occur and form patterns within individuals’ experiences. As individuals experience multiple forms of constraints and career support from various sources that intersect across domains, their experiences are better understood when these factors are considered a holistic configuration rather than in isolation (Cole, 2009). Accordingly, this study adopts a person-centered approach to identify qualitatively distinct latent profiles based on multiple forms of contextual constraints that are particularly salient for college-educated job seekers in South Korea (economic constraints, university prestige-based marginalization, and age-based marginalization), as well as multiple sources of career support (college, family, and friends).

In doing so, this study conceptualizes social support in a career-contextualized way, rather than treating it as a general form of support, consistent with recent calls to assess support in more context-specific forms (Duffy et al., 2024; Kim et al., 2025). Moreover, although prior research has primarily focused on cognitive outcomes such as work volition, social support may also shape career-related behaviors (e.g., Kim et al., 2018). Accordingly, this study examines not only cognitive outcomes but also behavioral outcomes such as occupational engagement and job search behaviors, which is particularly relevant given that Korean job seekers report difficulty actively engaging in job search activities (Federation of Korean Industries, 2024). Taken together, this study examines whether subgroups characterized by distinct combinations of constraints and support emerge and how these profiles relate to career development outcomes.

Theoretical Framework: Integrating the Psychology of Working and Conservation of Resources Perspectives

The PWT proposes that contextual constraints, such as economic hardship and marginalization, hinder individuals’ career development by limiting their access to decent work (Duffy et al., 2016). Decent work refers to employment that fulfills fundamental human rights, such as safe working conditions and adequate compensation. The PWT posits that structural constraints restrict individuals’ opportunities to secure decent work, primarily by undermining work volition—the perceived ability to make career choices despite constraints (Duffy et al., 2012)—and career adaptability—the readiness to cope with tasks and transitions in a changing work environment (Savickas, 2002). Empirical studies applying the PWT to emerging adults have supported these propositions, demonstrating that economic constraints and marginalization reduce perceptions of future decent work through diminished work volition and/or career adaptability (e.g., Kim et al., 2019; Song & Lee, 2023).

In addition to these mediating pathways, PWT posits four potential moderators that may mitigate the adverse effects of contextual constraints: proactive personality, critical consciousness, social support, and macroeconomic conditions. These moderators are theorized to buffer the negative effects of contextual constraints on work volition, career adaptability, and the attainment of decent work. However, empirical findings on the buffering role of social support have been mixed. While some evidence has supported the PWT’s buffering hypothesis (Wan et al., 2025), other studies have found its positive effects to be more pronounced among individuals experiencing lower rather than higher levels of constraints (Han et al., 2023; Kenny et al., 2022; Song & Lee, 2023; Wang et al., 2019).

These findings, which run counter to PWT’s buffering expectation, have often been interpreted through the lens of Conservation of Resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 2001). According to COR, individuals with greater resources are more likely to gain additional resources (gain spirals), whereas those with fewer resources are less likely to gain additional resources and are more vulnerable to resource loss (loss spirals). Thus, individuals with greater contextual resources may also have greater access to social support, which contributes to more favorable career development outcomes. In contrast, those facing greater contextual constraints may have limited access to such support as resource loss processes constrain their ability to obtain additional resources, which may in turn hinder their career development outcomes. Building on this perspective, prior studies have interpreted such findings to suggest that the benefits of social support may be weaker among individuals facing greater contextual constraints (e.g., Song & Lee, 2023; Wang et al., 2019). This COR interpretation, however, appears to be at odds with PWT’s buffering expectation that high social support can buffer the negative effects of contextual constraints. This tension between PWT’s buffering expectation and COR’s resource-based interpretation suggests that the role of social support under conditions of contextual constraints may be more complex than previously assumed.

This seemingly irreconcilable tension between the two theoretical perspectives may partly arise from the predominant reliance on variable-centered approaches, which estimate a single average effect across individuals and thus overlook potential heterogeneity within the population. By contrast, a person-centered approach allows for the simultaneous identification of multiple latent subgroups characterized by distinct configurations of contextual constraints and social support. If subgroups corresponding to patterns consistent with each theoretical perspective are identified, this would suggest that PWT and COR offer complementary rather than competing explanations for different subgroups within the same population. Accordingly, the present study adopts LPA to identify latent subgroups characterized by distinct configurations of contextual constraints and social support. We then compare career development outcomes across these subgroups to examine whether patterns consistent with PWT’s buffering expectation and COR’s resource-based perspective may co-occur within the same population.

Latent Profile of Contextual Constraints and Career Support

We focus on three contextual constraints particularly salient for college-educated job seekers in South Korea: economic constraints, university prestige-based marginalization, and age-based marginalization. Within the PWT framework, economic constraints and marginalization have consistently been shown to undermine career development (Kim et al., 2019; Song & Lee, 2023). Economic constraints, defined as limited access to financial resources necessary for career development (Duffy et al., 2016), represent a critical barrier. In South Korea, the recent decline in job opportunities has extended the average job search period for college graduates to nearly a year (Statistics Korea, 2025). During this prolonged transition, economic constraints often hinder career development by restricting access to career preparation opportunities (e.g., private training, credential acquisition) and draining the time and energy required for occupational engagement (e.g., part-time work for basic living expenses) (Lee & Hwang, 2017).

Marginalization is broadly defined as “being pushed to the margins of society and away from positions of power” (Duffy et al., 2016, p. 132). In this study, we highlight two forms that are especially salient for Korean job seekers: university prestige-based marginalization and age-based marginalization. University prestige-based marginalization reflects pervasive discrimination tied to university prestige. In South Korea, university prestige often functions as a proxy for social standing beyond academic attainment and is particularly influential in the hiring process. Consequently, graduates from less prestigious universities often experience heightened job-seeking stress rooted in fears of exclusion and face significant barriers to career development (Garrison et al., 2018; Song & Lee, 2023).

In contrast to this status-based marginalization, age-based marginalization is rooted in culturally prescribed social clocks. Although explicit hiring age limits were legally banned in the late 1990s, implicit age discrimination persists, as many employers still require applicants’ age on résumés and set informal entry-level age limits often perceived as around 30 (Kim, 2025). Such practices reinforce the internalization of the jeok-ryeong-gi (“appropriate age”) norm, which prescribes that individuals should achieve age-appropriate roles, such as securing employment, within a socially acceptable timeframe. As prescriptive age norms regarding what individuals should achieve at particular ages become internalized (North & Fiske, 2012), individuals may direct societal age-related expectations toward themselves, thereby imposing self-constraints on their career development (Levy, 2009). Empirical evidence also indicates that age-related concerns constitute a major career barrier and a primary source of job-seeking stress in Korea (Kim, 2002; Kim & Ahn, 2020). Reflecting the salience of this norm, nearly half of entry-level applicants perceive themselves as having exceeded the appropriate age for securing entry-level positions (Shin, 2020), suggesting that many feel marginalized based on age during the job search process. Taken together, age-based marginalization represents a culturally embedded contextual constraint within the PWT framework.

While these structural constraints hinder career development, social support has long been recognized as a buffering resource against adversity (Cohen & Wills, 1985). Within the PWT framework, it is similarly proposed to mitigate the adverse effects of contextual constraints (Duffy et al., 2016). This study focuses on career-related social support, defined as the degree to which individuals receive support from others in pursuing their careers (Hirschi et al., 2018). This focus responds to growing calls to conceptualize and measure social support in more contextually grounded ways to better capture its buffering role against structural constraints (Duffy et al., 2024; Kenny et al., 2022; Kim et al., 2025; Song & Lee, 2023). Consistent with this perspective, prior research has shown that context-specific measures of support provide stronger predictive validity for career outcomes than general measures (Lent & Brown, 2006).

Furthermore, we distinguish three primary sources of career support—college, family, and friends—to capture potentially divergent roles. Career support can come from multiple sources, and prior research has shown that these sources differentially influence career development by providing emotional support and guidance that enhance career confidence and help individuals manage career-related difficulties (Blustein et al., 2004; Nauta & Kokaly, 2001). Parents are often the most influential source of career support, providing guidance and serving as powerful role models (Nauta & Kokaly, 2001). However, individuals facing contextual constraints frequently have limited access to such support from their parents (Lee & Hwang, 2017). For example, emerging adults from disadvantaged backgrounds often receive minimal career guidance, information, and encouragement from their families (Hwang et al., 2019). In such cases, peers can become an important source of career support by providing emotional validation, sharing information, and serving as accessible role models (Ali et al., 2005; Garrison et al., 2018). Beyond such informal support, college-based institutional support can also play a critical role in career development. This includes interpersonal encouragement from professors and career counselors, as well as institutional resources such as career development programs, guidance services, and career programs (Kim, 2024). Indeed, college students experiencing contextual constraints often rely on university-based career support services to compensate for the lack of informal support (Garriott, 2020; Lee & Chae, 2013; Lee & Hwang, 2017). Accordingly, the present study uses LPA to examine how three contextual constraints and three primary sources of career support intersect to form distinct subgroups, and whether these subgroups differ in career development outcomes.

Group Differences in Career Development Outcomes

Once latent profiles are identified, we examine how four key career development variables differ across groups. Two cognitive variables grounded in core constructs of the PWT are considered first: work volition and the perceived likelihood of securing decent work in the future (Duffy et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2019). We then assess two behavioral variables that are particularly important during the job-seeking stage: occupational engagement, defined as proactive behaviors aimed at exploring career-related opportunities (Cox, 2008), and job search behaviors, defined as efforts to gather information about potential employment opportunities (Blau, 1993).

Prior studies have shown that economic constraints and marginalization based on university prestige and age are negatively associated with work volition and future decent work perception (Kim et al., 2019; Park & Yoo, 2025; Song & Lee, 2023), whereas social support has positive associations with these outcomes (Song & Lee, 2023; Wang et al., 2019). Similarly, occupational engagement and job search behaviors are hindered by high contextual constraints but facilitated by greater support (Hirschi et al., 2011; Kim et al., 2019; Song & Hong, 2010). For example, participation in college-based career programs, such as employment information sessions, job preparation workshops, and internship opportunities, promotes more active job search behaviors among Korean job seekers (Kim, 2024). Accordingly, this study examines differences in these career development variables across latent profiles to understand how distinct combinations of contextual constraints and career support are associated with job seekers’ career development. Comparing these outcomes further enables an examination of whether profile differences correspond to patterns consistent with PWT and COR perspectives.

The Present Study

The present study employs LPA to identify distinct subgroups of Korean job seekers based on their experiences of contextual constraints and career-related social support. Specifically, we address the following research questions: (a) What latent profiles emerge from multiple combinations of contextual constraints and career support? and (b) Do these latent profiles differ in career development outcomes?

In doing so, we examine whether the identified profiles and their associated differences in career development outcomes can be interpreted in relation to propositions derived from PWT and COR perspectives. In particular, we consider whether the emergent patterns align with theoretical expectations regarding the mitigating role of support under conditions of contextual constraints, as well as resource gain and loss spirals.

Method

Participants

Consistent with prior research conceptualizing job search as a goal-directed process initiated by employment intention (Kanfer et al., 2001), job-seeking status was operationalized based on participants’ intention to enter the labor market. The participants were 400 college-educated job seekers in South Korea, comprising senior undergraduate students and recent college graduates from universities across South Korea, all of whom reported a concrete goal of obtaining employment within one year and specified the industries they were preparing to enter. The sample comprised 192 men (48.0%) and 208 women (52.0%), with a mean age of 25.21 years (SD = 1.92). Regarding academic status, 240 participants were final-year undergraduate students and 160 were recent graduates. Participants’ majors were distributed as follows: Engineering (n = 113, 28.2%), Business and Economics (n = 66, 16.5%), Social Sciences (n = 62, 15.5%), Humanities (n = 61, 15.3%), Medical/Pharmaceutical/Nursing Sciences (n = 28, 7.0%), Natural Sciences (n = 26, 6.5%), Arts and Physical Education (n = 23, 5.8%), Education (n = 19, 4.8%), Human Ecology (n = 11, 2.8%), and other disciplines (n = 12, 3.0%). Regarding socioeconomic status, participants reported an average perceived social class of 2.80 (SD = 0.80) on a 5-point scale (1 = lower class, 5 = upper class).

Measurements

Economic Constraints

The Korean version of the five-item Economic Constraints Scale (Duffy et al., 2019), translated and adapted by Song and Lee (2023), was used to assess the availability of economic resources over the lifetime. Sample items include “Throughout most of my life, I have struggled financially.” The items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). Higher scores indicate greater experiences of economic constraints. The scale was negatively associated with work volition and perceptions of future decent work (Song & Lee, 2023). The internal consistency of the scale was α = .93 in Song and Lee (2023) and α = .94 in the present study.

Marginalization Based on University Prestige

The Korean version of the three-item Lifetime Experiences of Marginalization Scale (Song & Lee, 2023) adapted from Duffy et al. (2019) was used to assess perceived marginalization based on university prestige. An example item is “On the basis of my university prestige, I have had many interpersonal interactions that have often left me feeling marginalized.” The items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree), with higher scores indicating greater perceived marginalization due to university prestige. This scale was negatively associated with work volition and perceptions of future decent work (Song & Lee, 2023). The internal consistency of the scale was α = .92 in both Song and Lee (2023) and the present study.

Marginalization Based on Age

The four-item Age-Related Barriers subscale of the Korean College Students’ Career Barrier Inventory (Kim, 2002), adapted from the Career Barriers Inventory (Swanson & Tokar, 1991), was used to assess perceived age-related barriers to career development. A sample item is “I think I missed the right time to pursue what I really want to do because of my age.” Participants responded to each item on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Higher scores reflect stronger perceptions of age-related marginalization in the career domain. In Kim’s (2002) study, the subscale was found to be significantly associated with anxiety, career indecision, and career decision-making self-efficacy in the expected direction. The internal consistency of the subscale was α = .77 in Kim (2002) and α = .89 in the present study.

Work Volition

The 15-item Korean version of the Work Volition Scale-Student Version (Kim & Lee, 2014) adapted and validated from Duffy et al. (2012) was used to assess individual’s perceived ability to make career choices under constraints. The scale consists of two subscales: volition (7 items) and constraints (8 items, all reverse coded). Example items include “I will be able to choose jobs that I want” and “I feel that my family situation limits the types of jobs I might pursue.” Participants responded to each item on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). Higher scores indicate greater work volition. Item 6 (“I feel total control over my future job choice”) was removed because it showed a low factor loading, and prior studies with Korean samples also reported improved reliability after excluding this item (Kim et al., 2019; Song & Lee, 2023). According to Kim et al. (2018), work volition was associated with social support and occupational engagement. The internal consistency was α = .87 in Kim and Lee (2014) and α = .89 in the present study.

Future Decent Work Perception

The 15-item Korean version of the Future Decent Work Perception Scale (Kim et al., 2019), which was adapted from the Decent Work Scale (DWS; Duffy et al., 2017), was used to assess participants’ perceptions of future decent work. In this adaptation, each item was rephrased to reflect a future orientation and translated into Korean. For example, the original item “At work, I feel safe from emotional or verbal abuse of any kind” was changed to “At my future work, I will feel safe from emotional or verbal abuse of any kind.” Participants were instructed to “Think about the work/job that you will have in the future and respond to each item,” and responses were recorded on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicate greater perception of future decent work. The Korean version of the revised scale demonstrated positive associations with career adaptability and work volition in Kim et al. (2019). The internal consistency was α = .91 in Kim et al. (2019) and α = .94 in the present study.

Occupational Engagement

Occupational engagement was assessed using the Korean version of the Occupational Engagement Scale for Students (OES-S; Cox, 2008), translated and validated by Park (2017). This nine-item scale captures the degree to which university students are actively involved in career-related activities, including exploring personal interests, gathering information about the world of work, and making connections between the two domains. Example items include “I volunteer in an area that I find interesting.” Participants responded on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Higher total scores indicate greater occupational engagement. In Korean samples, this scale was positively associated with career adaptability (Kim et al., 2019). The internal consistency was α = .87 in Park (2017) and α = .89 in the present study.

Job Search Behavior

Job search behavior was measured using the Job Search Behavior Scale (Lee et al., 2005), which was adapted from Blau (1993) for the Korean context. The scale consists of 14 items across three factors: preparatory job search behavior, active formal job search behavior, and active informal job search behavior. Example items include “Prepared or revised a resume in advance” (preparatory search), “Attended a job fair” (active formal search), and “Talked with professors, friends, or alumni about job openings” (active informal search). Participants responded to each item on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never engaged in) to 5 (engaged in very frequently). Higher scores indicate more frequent engagement in job search behaviors. The scale was positively associated with job attainment and negatively associated with career indecision (Lee et al., 2005). The internal consistency of the subscales ranged from .78 to .89 in Lee et al. (2005) and from .76 to .85 in the present study.

Social Support From College, Family, and Friends

Perceived social support was measured using the Social Support subscale of the Career Resources Questionnaire–Adolescent Version (Marciniak et al., 2021). Consistent with previous validation research involving university students (Pace & Sciotto, 2025), we employed the adolescent version of the scale because our participants were in the school-to-work transition stage and had not yet gained substantial work experience. This subscale assesses the extent to which individuals perceive receiving career-related support from college, family, and friends. Following the procedure suggested by Brislin (1986), the original subscale was translated into Korean and adapted to the college context. The scale consists of nine items, with three items corresponding to each support source. Sample items include: “My family provides support in answering my career questions” (family), “My friends help me in my career development” (friends) and “My school offers support in my career development” (college). Participants rated each item on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Higher scores reflect greater perceived social support from each source. The subscale demonstrated positive associations with career involvement and career control in a college student sample (Pace & Sciotto, 2025). The internal consistency ranged from .83 to .92 in Pace and Sciotto (2025) and from .86 to .88 in the present study.

Procedure

The study was conducted following the approval of the Institutional Review Board. Participants were recruited through Macromill Embrain, a specialized online research company in South Korea. They received monetary compensation equivalent to approximately $2 USD for completing the survey. Participants were provided with an informed consent form, and their participation was voluntary. To ensure data quality, two attention-check items were embedded in the survey (e.g., “Please select ‘strongly agree’.”), and participants who failed either of these items were excluded from the final dataset.

Analysis Strategy

We conducted LPA using Mplus 8.8 to identify subgroups of job seekers based on their experiences of contextual constraints and career-related social support. Model fit was evaluated using a combination of statistical criteria, including the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC), sample-size adjusted BIC (SaBIC), the Lo–Mendell–Rubin (LMR) adjusted likelihood ratio test, the Bootstrap Likelihood Ratio Test (BLRT), and entropy values. The optimal number of profiles was determined based on a balance of model fit, parsimony, and interpretability, following Spurk et al. (2020). After identifying the latent profiles, we used the BCH (Bolck–Croon–Hagenaars) method to compare career development outcomes across profiles and conducted pairwise comparisons to test group differences, accounting for classification error (Bakk & Vermunt, 2016).

Results

Preliminary Analyses

Preliminary analyses were conducted using SPSS Statistics 27.0. To examine normality, we used the skewness (>|2|) and kurtosis (>|7|) thresholds, as proposed by Curran et al. (1996). The results indicated that the study variables did not exceed these critical values. Univariate outlier analysis identified one case in future decent work perception with a Z-score exceeding |3.29|. As noted by Osborne and Overbay (2004), up to 1% of a sample may exhibit such extreme values. In this study, the outlier accounted for only 0.25% of the sample, and analyses conducted with and without the case showed no significant differences. Accordingly, we retained the outlier in the final analyses. In addition, the multivariate outliers were checked using Mahalanobis distance with a significance threshold of p < .001; no cases met the criteria for exclusion. There were no missing values, as the survey platform required participants to respond to all items. Table 1 presents descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations among the study variables.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics and Correlations Among the Study Variables

Variable	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1. EC	-
2. Marg-UP	.33*	-
3. Marg-age	.30*	.36*	-
4. CS-college	−.19*	−.19*	−.28*	-
5. CS-family	−.48*	−.35*	−.27*	.37*	-
6. CS-friends	−.34*	−.27*	−.28*	.38*	.65*	-
7. Work volition	−.43*	−.35*	−.48*	.29*	.47*	.44*	-
8. FDWP	−.32*	−.30*	−.30*	.44*	.55*	.55*	.55*	-
9. OE	−.21*	−0.06	−.28*	.45*	.49*	.56*	.45*	.63*	-
10. JSB	−.09	.07	−.05	.28*	.23*	.27*	.20*	.36*	.55*	-
M	3.35	2.58	3.18	3.34	3.46	3.39	4.36	4.74	2.97	2.79
SD	1.46	1.27	1.05	.94	1.01	.90	.88	1.01	.84	.76

Note. EC = economic constraints; Marg-UP = marginalization based on university prestige; Marg-age = marginalization based on age; CS-college = career support from college; CS-family = career support from family; CS-friends = career support from friends; FDWP = future decent work perception; OE = occupational engagement; JSB = job search behaviors.

*p < .001.

Latent Profile Analysis of Contextual Constraints and Career Support

We conducted an LPA using contextual constraints and career support, testing solutions with two to six profiles (see Table 2). Lower values of AIC, BIC, and SABIC indicate better model fit (Spurk et al., 2020). The results showed that AIC and SABIC consistently decreased as the number of profiles increased, whereas BIC reached its minimum at the five-profile solution and rose thereafter. BLRT was significant at p < .01 for all models, but LMR was significant only up to the four-profile solution (p < .05) and non-significant for the five- and six-profile solutions. All entropy values exceeded the acceptable threshold of 0.70, with the four-profile solution showing the highest value of 0.81, indicating strong classification accuracy (Clark & Muthen, 2009). Overall, although both the four- and five-profile solutions were plausible, the four-profile solution was favored due to its significant LMR value, highest entropy, greater parsimony, and theoretically meaningful subgroups.

Table 2.

Latent Profile Identification Fit Indices

	LL	AIC	BIC	SaBIC	LMR (p)	BLRT (p)	Entropy
2-Profile	−3418.932	6875.863	6951.701	6891.413	0.0007	0.0000	0.794
3-Profile	−3339.028	6730.055	6833.833	6751.333	0.0000	0.0000	0.782
4-Profile	−3314.009	6694.017	6825.736	6721.025	0.0305	0.0000	0.807
5-Profile	−3289.061	6658.123	6817.781	6690.859	0.5550	0.0000	0.753
6-Profile	−3272.979	6639.957	6827.556	6678.422	0.4104	0.0050	0.754

Note. LL = log-likelihood; LMR (p) = p-Value for the adjusted Lo-Mendell-Rubin-test; BLRT (p) = p-Value for the bootstrapped likelihood ratio test.

Figure 1 presents the four latent profiles of contextual constraints and career support, based on standardized means. The first profile, “advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported” (n = 24, 6%), showed advantageous characteristics in terms of low economic constraints and low university-prestige-based marginalization. Career support from family and friends was high, yet the profile was distinctly marked by a lack of institutional career support from their college. Although this profile had a relatively small size, Spurk et al. (2020) emphasized that class size should be evaluated based on relative proportions rather than absolute numbers. Given that many LPA studies have retained profiles with less than 3% of the sample, the 6% profile in this study is acceptable. The second profile, “disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported” (n = 195, 48.8%), was disadvantaged in terms of economic constraints and university-prestige-based marginalization, yet was distinctly characterized by high institutional career support from their college. The third profile, “disadvantaged-and-unsupported” (n = 50, 12.5%), was characterized by a pattern of compounding adversity, exhibiting extremely high contextual constraints and limited career support across all sources. Finally, the fourth profile, “advantaged-and-supported” (n = 131, 32.8%) was characterized by low contextual constraints and high career support across all sources, reflecting a resource-rich profile.

Figure 1.

Standardized means of contextual constraints and career support across four latent profiles

Differences in Career Development Across Latent Profiles

We examined group differences in career development outcomes using the BCH method. All four outcomes showed significant differences across latent profiles (see Table 3). Work volition was highest in the two advantaged profiles, which did not significantly differ from each other (χ² = 3.162, p = .075). Both profiles reported significantly higher work volition than the disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported profile (χ² = 72.294 and 13.794, respectively; both p < .001), which in turn scored higher than the disadvantaged-and-unsupported profile (χ² = 18.430, p < .001).

Table 3.

Mean Scores and Comparisons of Career-Related Variables Across Latent Profiles

Variable	Advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported	Disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported	Disadvantaged-and-unsupported	Advantaged-and-supported	Post hoc
Variable	1	2	3	4	Post hoc
WV	4.70	4.12	3.41	5.00	1, 4 > 2 > 3
FDWP	4.60	4.56	3.46	5.51	4 > 1, 2 > 3
OE	2.55	2.91	2.01	3.52	4 > 2 > 1 > 3
JSB	2.30	2.83	2.37	2.98	2, 4 > 1, 3

Note. WV = work volition; FDWP = future decent work perception; OE = occupational engagement; JSB = job search behaviors.

Future decent work perception showed a similar pattern. The advantaged-and-supported profile reported the highest levels and exceeded all other profiles (vs. advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported: χ² = 14.940, p < .001; vs. disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported: χ² = 71.372, p < .001; vs. disadvantaged-and-unsupported: χ² = 137.126, p < .001). Both the advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported and disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported profiles scored higher than the disadvantaged-and-unsupported profile (χ² = 18.369 and 40.742, respectively; both p < .001), with no difference between them (χ² = 0.040, p = .842).

For occupational engagement, all four profiles differed significantly from one another. Engagement was highest in the advantaged-and-supported profile, followed by the disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported profile (χ² = 33.511, p < .001). This was followed by the advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported profile (χ² = 4.863, p = .027), which scored higher than the disadvantaged-and-unsupported profile (χ² = 9.185, p = .002).

Finally, job search behaviors were highest in the two supported profiles. The advantaged-and-supported and disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported profiles did not significantly differ from each other (χ² = 1.934, p = .164), but both scored higher than the advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported (χ² = 10.380, p = .001; χ² = 6.798, p = .009, respectively) and the disadvantaged-and-unsupported profiles (χ² = 19.894 and 12.538, respectively; both p < .001). No significant difference was observed between the advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported and disadvantaged-and-unsupported profiles (χ² = 0.096, p = .756).

Discussion

This study aimed to identify heterogeneous subgroups based on the joint configuration of contextual constraints and career support, and to examine how these subgroups differed in their career development outcomes. Using LPA, we identified four distinct profiles of Korean job seekers: (a) advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported, (b) disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported, (c) disadvantaged-and-unsupported, and (d) advantaged-and-supported.

The emergence of the two extreme groups—advantaged-and-supported (32.8%) and disadvantaged-and-unsupported (12.5%)—is consistent with COR theory (Hobfoll, 2001), which emphasizes resource gain spirals and loss spirals. Specifically, the advantaged-and-supported group was characterized by minimal contextual constraints alongside strong career support from multiple sources and showed the most favorable career development outcomes. In contrast, the disadvantaged-and-unsupported group exhibited a pattern of co-occurring contextual constraints and limited support across sources and consistently showed the lowest outcomes. This pattern aligns with prior research showing that high contextual constraints are often accompanied by limited career-related social support, thereby compounding disadvantages in career development (Hwang et al., 2019; Lee & Hwang, 2017).

The emergence of the disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported group (48.8%) is particularly notable. Despite elevated contextual constraints, this group reported average levels of family and peer support but relatively high levels of access to college-based career support. This pattern is consistent with prior studies suggesting that individuals facing contextual constraints often draw on college-based resources to cope with structural barriers (Garriott, 2020; Lee & Chae, 2013; Lee & Hwang, 2017). Notably, this profile represents a configuration in which contextual constraints and institutional career support co-occur, thereby providing the preconditions under which patterns consistent with PWT’s buffering proposition can be explored from a person-centered perspective. Although this group tended to report less favorable outcomes than the advantaged-and-supported, it showed similarly high levels of job search behavior and demonstrated significantly better outcomes than the disadvantaged-and-unsupported group across all indicators. However, it remains unclear whether the relatively more favorable outcomes of this group, compared with the disadvantaged-and-unsupported group, are primarily attributable to the presence of institutional career support or differences in contextual constraints, given that the two profiles also differed in their overall levels of contextual constraints.

A more nuanced distinction emerges when comparing the disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported group with the advantaged-but-institutionally-unsupported group (6.0%). The latter represents a subgroup that is relatively advantaged in terms of contextual constraints and informal support from family and peers but has limited access to college-based career support. Compared with this group, the disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported group showed lower work volition but similar levels of future decent work perception and even higher occupational engagement and job search behaviors. This suggests that contextual advantage and informal support alone may be insufficient to sustain behavioral engagement in the absence of institutional career support. Importantly, this pattern cannot be fully explained by differences in contextual disadvantage alone, suggesting the distinct role of institutional career support beyond informal support in fostering behavioral engagement. These findings are in line with prior research indicating that behavioral aspects of career development, such as exploration, are more directly facilitated by information, emotional encouragement, and practical support from one’s environment (Hirschi et al., 2011). Extending this line of research, the present study highlights the distinct importance of college-based institutional career support in fostering behavioral engagement during the transition to work. Our findings also align with arguments that structural or institutional interventions beyond individual-level efforts can play an important role in addressing systemic barriers to career development (Blustein et al., 2019). Taken together, college-based institutional career support may play a particularly important role in sustaining behavioral engagement among individuals facing contextual constraints, consistent with PWT’s buffering proposition. In light of the recent decline in job-search activity among young job seekers in Korea (Federation of Korean Industries, 2024), college-based career support may serve as a critical resource during the transition to work.

However, most prior studies have not distinguished between different sources of social support and have focused primarily on cognitive outcomes such as work volition. Although prior research has found support for the buffering effect of social support on work volition (Wan et al., 2025), several studies have reported stronger effects of social support on work volition when constraints were low rather than high (e.g., Kenny et al., 2022; Song & Lee, 2023; Wang et al., 2019). Similarly, in our study, work volition was higher in the two advantaged profiles than in the two disadvantaged profiles, regardless of the presence of institutional career support. In contrast, occupational engagement and job search behaviors were higher in the two profiles characterized by the presence of institutional career support, regardless of disadvantage. Overall, these results indicate that institutional career support may promote behavioral engagement even when work volition remains relatively low, suggesting that the role of institutional support may vary across domains of career development. Future research could examine whether different sources of support play distinct roles across domains of career development outcomes.

Theoretical and Practical Implications

By adopting a person-centered approach, this study offers several theoretical contributions to the PWT and career development literature. First, it contributes to reconciling COR and PWT perspectives by identifying distinct subgroups whose configurations and associated outcome patterns align with each theoretical perspective. Specifically, the advantaged-and-supported and disadvantaged-and-unsupported profiles reflected COR’s resource gain and loss spirals, whereas the disadvantaged-but-institutionally-supported profile exhibited a pattern consistent with PWT’s buffering proposition. These findings suggest that the two theories, which may appear to compete in variable-centered analyses, may instead offer complementary explanations when examined through a person-centered lens. In doing so, this study responds to Wang et al.’s (2019) call to examine whether PWT or COR better explains the joint effects of constraints and support on career outcomes by demonstrating that the two theories may operate in complementary ways across distinct subgroups.

Second, this study offers a potential explanation for the inconsistent findings in prior PWT research regarding the buffering effect of social support. While many variable-centered studies have struggled to find robust evidence for the buffering proposition (e.g., Kenny et al., 2022; Song & Lee, 2023; Wang et al., 2019), our findings suggest that buffering patterns may not operate universally but instead emerge within specific subgroups. In particular, these patterns were observed in behavioral aspects of career development among individuals who had access to institutional career support despite facing contextual constraints. These findings highlight that the buffering role of support may be more domain-specific and source-dependent than previously assumed, emerging more clearly in behavioral aspects of career development when institutional career support is available, rather than in cognitive aspects such as work volition.

Third, this study contributes to PWT by highlighting that the applicability of its buffering propositions may be structurally limited among individuals facing severe contextual constraints. Individuals facing the highest levels of contextual constraints consistently reported low support across sources, and no profile emerged that combined severe contextual constraints with high levels of support. These findings suggest that the buffering role of social support may be difficult to observe because access to support itself may be restricted under conditions of severe structural barriers. This perspective offers an alternative interpretation of prior findings showing weaker support effects among individuals facing greater constraints (Song & Lee, 2023; Wang et al., 2019). Rather than reflecting differences in individuals’ capacity to utilize support, such patterns may instead reflect structural differences in access to support. Consequently, these findings highlight that equitable access to career support may be a prerequisite for buffering effects to emerge under severe contextual constraints.

This study also offers important practical implications for universities, particularly with respect to equitable access to institutional career support. Our findings indicate that job seekers experiencing moderate constraints had access to higher levels of institutional support and demonstrated more favorable behavioral career development outcomes, whereas those facing severe contextual constraints had limited access to such support, suggesting that limited access itself constitutes an additional structural barrier for this group. Such restricted access may stem from psychological barriers (e.g., helplessness, self-stigma) and structural barriers (e.g., insufficient dissemination of program information) that hinder service utilization (Kim, 2014; Park et al., 2009). To address these barriers, universities should identify students experiencing high levels of contextual constraints and systematically link them to structured career services. Prior intervention research has shown that universities can identify target populations using administrative risk indicators such as financial aid status, first-generation background, or academic vulnerability (Bettinger & Baker, 2014; Page et al., 2020). Building on these data-informed approaches, institutions can proactively implement structured outreach strategies, including personalized text messaging and systematic follow-up communication, which have been demonstrated to increase engagement with institutional resources (Page et al., 2020). Coaching and proactive advising can further enhance job seekers’ persistence in their job search and goal-directed behaviors by reducing psychological and informational barriers to service utilization, particularly for those experiencing high levels of contextual constraints (Bettinger & Baker, 2014). These interventions may function as resource passageways that facilitate access to institutional resources (Hobfoll, 2001) and enhance engagement with career services. Future research could implement such interventions and examine PWT’s buffering proposition more rigorously by comparing outcomes before and after the intervention, as well as between intervention and non-intervention groups.

Limitations and Future Research Directions

The present study has several limitations that may guide future research. First, as all variables were measured using self-report questionnaires, the results may be subject to common method bias. Although self-report measures are widely used in psychological and vocational research, they can inflate observed associations among variables due to shared method variance (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Future studies would benefit from incorporating multi-method approaches to reduce the potential impact of common method bias. Second, this study employed LPA using cross-sectional data to identify subgroups within the sample. Because of its cross-sectional nature, the relationships observed between the profiles and career-related outcomes should not be interpreted causally. Future longitudinal research is needed to clarify the directionality of these associations. Third, the generalizability of the findings may be limited, as the forms of marginalization examined in this study are particularly salient among college-educated job seekers in South Korea. Future research is encouraged to examine whether similar subgroup-specific buffering patterns occur across diverse cultural and demographic contexts (e.g., working adults or non-college populations). In addition, person-centered approaches could be employed to examine how other PWT moderators (e.g., critical consciousness) intersect with contextual constraints to produce distinct patterns of career development and work experiences. Finally, although this study identified universities as critical sources of career support for job seekers facing contextual constraints, it did not specify which types of support universities should prioritize to most effectively support disadvantaged individuals. Recently, Kim et al. (2025) conceptualized work support as four distinct types (emotional, informational, instrumental, and appraisal support) and suggested that the effectiveness of each type may vary depending on the source of support. Future research could employ person-centered approaches to clarify which combinations of support sources and type are most beneficial for disadvantaged individuals.

Conclusion

Using a person-centered approach, this study identified distinct subgroups of Korean job seekers whose configurations of contextual constraints and source-specific career support and their associated career development outcomes reflected patterns consistent with both COR and PWT. Specifically, individuals characterized by moderate contextual constraints and access to institutional career support showed relatively favorable patterns of behavioral career development, consistent with PWT’s buffering proposition. However, no profile emerged that combined severe contextual constraints with high support. Instead, individuals facing severe contextual constraints were characterized by limited access to career support, a pattern consistent with COR’s resource loss spiral. These findings suggest that limited access to support may itself constitute an additional structural barrier, underscoring that ensuring equitable access to career support may be a prerequisite for observing the buffering role of support among individuals facing severe contextual constraints.

Footnotes

ORCID iDs

Cheongra Heo

Heeeun Lee

Ethical Considerations

This study was approved by the Yonsei University Institutional Review Board (Approval Number: 7001988-202502-HR-2410-04).

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Data Availability Statement

All study materials, data, and analytical codes are available upon request.*

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