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Transitions to and within university studies can be associated with heightened distress in students. This study focusses on the less studied transition from a bachelor’s to a master’s degree. During a master’s degree, study requirements and autonomy increase compared to bachelor’s studies. The present study examines how students’ experiences of study-related burnout, their approaches to learning and their experiences of the teaching and learning environment (TLE) change during this transition. Moreover, the study examines how approaches to learning and the TLE can affect study-related burnout.

Questionnaire data were collected from 335 university students across two timepoints (bachelor’s degree graduation and the second term of their master’s degree).

The results show that students’ overall experience of study-related burnout increases, as does their unreflective learning, characterised by struggling with a fragmented knowledge base. Interestingly, students’ experiences of the TLE seem to have an effect on study-related burnout in both master’s and bachelor’s degree programmes, irrespective of learning approaches. These effects are also dependent on the degree of context.

The study implies that students’ experiences of study-related burnout could be mitigated by developing TLE factors during both bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes. Practical implications are considered for degree programme development, higher education learning environments and student support.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether young people’s peer networks can be an asset in finding employment during the transition from school to work. It examines whether peer networks size and peers’ self-efficacy regarding their own job search are associated with job seekers’ career-relevant behaviors and outcomes, i.e., the number of applications completed and the number of job offers received.

Associations between job seekers’ peer networks and their job search behaviors and outcomes were investigated during their final year of vocational training. Sociometric measures were used to assess young people’s peer network size. Sociometric and self-report measures were used to establish the characteristics of the peers that comprise each job seekers’ network, resulting in the overall self-efficacy across each job seekers’ network.

The results show that peers’ efficacy beliefs are positively associated with young people’s engagement in job search activities (i.e. a greater number of applications completed) and indirectly associated with their job search outcomes (i.e. a greater number of job offers, which are mediated by the number of applications) that are independent of the peer network size.

The results underline that although peers might not provide instrumental support, encouraging interactions with (efficacious) peers may nonetheless be beneficial to young job seekers. Methodologically, the results demonstrate that the operationalization of self-efficacy as a network characteristic might provide us with valuable insights into the characteristics that turn social networks into beneficial social resources.

The purpose of this study was to explore school principals’ job crafting profiles during the prolonged COVID-19 crisis in 2021, and investigate profile differences regarding principals’ own perceived servant leadership, stress and work meaningfulness.

Using latent profile analysis (LPA), two job crafting profiles were identified: (1) active crafters (55%) and (2) average crafters (45%). By auxiliary measurement-error-weighted-method (BCH), we examined whether and how job crafting profiles differed in terms of servant leadership, stress and work meaningfulness.

Active crafters reported higher than the overall mean level of approach-oriented job crafting (increasing job resources and demands), whereas average crafters reported an overall mean level of approach-oriented job crafting. Avoidance-oriented job crafting by decreasing hindering job demands did not differentiate the two profiles. Active crafters reported significantly higher servant leadership behavior, stress and work meaningfulness than average crafters.

Study findings provide new knowledge and reflect the implications that the unprecedented pandemic had for education. This study contributes to the existing literature within the scholarship of job crafting through empirical research during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. For practitioners, these study findings reflect contextual constraints, organizational processes and culture, and leadership in workplaces.

The transition from comprehensive school to either an academic or a vocational track and from academic track to tertiary education are the key educational transitions during adolescence and young adulthood in many European educational systems. The present chapter approaches engagement and disengagement during these key educational transitions in the context of the 4-C (channelling, choice, co-regulation, compensation) life-span model of motivation and phase-adequate engagement model. In accordance with the life-span model of motivation and the phase-adequate engagement model, school transitions are triggers that channel the engagement and disengagement processes. The former process reflects school-related engagement, whereas disengagement is a key element of the school-burnout process. Engagement in the school context is defined as a positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind characterized by vigor and energy, dedication, and absorption. School burnout comprises three dimensions in terms of exhaustion due to school demands: a cynical and detached attitude toward the school, feelings of inadequacy as a student, and disengagement. Cynicism is manifest in an indifferent or distal attitude toward school work in general, a loss of interest in it, and not seeing it as meaningful. Inadequacy refers to a diminished sense of competence, achievement, and accomplishment as a student.

Purpose – Our study focuses on the impacts of young adults’ financial situation and agency on success and satisfaction regarding developmental tasks (attainments in educational, work and social domains) in the context of economic upheavals.

Methodology/approach – The study is part of the longitudinal Finnish Educational Transitions Studies (FinEdu), in which high school students (N=614 at baseline) participated once before and three times after graduation (ages 19–25) while progressing to tertiary education and employment.

Findings – Agency (indicated by achievement and social approach strategies) increased, whereas achievement and social avoidance decreased from ages 19 to 25. Financial situation improved from an objective but not subjective perspective. Both high and increasing levels of agency were related to high levels of success and satisfaction regarding developmental tasks at age 25. In particular, social approach was related to educational attainment, sense of belonging, and romantic relationship satisfaction. High initial levels of agency and an improved financial situation predicted low economic pressure at age 25.

Research implications – Both sociopolitical structures and individual agency are important in shaping life course transitions in early adulthood. The apparent discrepancy between the macro-level national economic recession and young adults’ relatively high economic satisfaction could be explained by high agency in a welfare state context.

Social implications – The study shows important links between individuals’ life course and the societal context of Finland, a secure Nordic welfare state in the midst of global economic upheavals.

Originality/value of paper – Our longitudinal study makes a significant contribution to life course research by comprehensively conceptualizing the developmental tasks and considering their individual and social determinants.

This study utilises a person‐oriented view to examine what kind of motivational orientations employees have, and how they contribute to their well‐being. Two separate studies were carried out. A total of 286 white‐collar workers employed in a public sector educational institution in a middle‐sized town in Central Finland participated in the first study (116 men and 170 women). All the participants filled in Little's Personal Project Analysis and burnout inventory, a work ability index, Beck's Depression and Diener's Satisfaction with life scales. Analysis of the results found four motivational orientations, work‐, self‐, hobby‐ and health‐orientations among the employees. The work‐orientation was related to burnout and low working ability, the self‐orientation was related to depression and burnout, and the hobby‐ and health‐orientations were related to high life‐satisfaction. Study 2, conducted among 186 IT workers replicated the main results. The results are discussed in relation to workaholism and well‐being at work.

Clifford Broman is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Michigan State University. His general research area is psychosocial factors in physical and emotional health. Recent research has focused on the role of race/ethnicity in substance use; psychosocial stress; and family formation behaviors and attitudes among African-Americans. His recent publications have appeared in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Race and Social Problems, and Psychological Services.

Beginning in 2007, many countries around the globe began to experience substantial downturns in their respective economies. Stock markets began to falter, unemployment rates began to climb, and it became readily apparent that a worldwide economic recession was underway.