Anticipatory emotions at the prospect of the transition to higher education: A latent transition analysis

Abstract

While some attention has been devoted to the study of emotions in vocational psychology, research on the emotional anticipation of future career events is scarce. Using latent transition analysis, we investigated profiles of anticipatory emotions at the prospect of the transition to higher education during the last year of high school. We also investigated two career-related antecedents of profile membership and transitions between profiles: career decidedness and career adaptability. Our results shed light on three distinct profiles. First, most students experienced mostly positive anticipatory emotions with few negative anticipatory emotions (i.e., a positive dominant profile). Second, students in the mixed emotions profile displayed high levels of both positive and negative anticipatory emotions. Third, students in the negative dominant profile experienced mostly negative anticipatory emotions. Our results also showed that the positive dominant profile was relatively stable and that the mixed and the negative dominant profiles related to more transitions across time. With regard to the antecedents, our results demonstrated that students with higher career decidedness and career adaptability were more likely to belong to the positive dominant profile. When looking at transitions between profiles, students with high career decidedness and career adaptability were more likely to remain in or transition to the positive dominant profile. Identifying students with different anticipatory emotions profiles and the nature of transitions between these profiles have implications for implementing tailored career interventions and educational practices.