Longitudinal relations between future time perspective and academic engagement among chinese college students: the mediating role of career adaptability.

Academic engagement stands as a pivotal factor in fostering college students' academic success and bolstering their competitiveness in the job market. However, college students are generally insufficiently invested in academic pursuits. Future time perspective (FTP) has been shown to be correlated to students' academic engagement, and career adaptation is an essential competency for college students during the vocational transition phase. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the longitudinal relationship between FTP and academic engagement, and to explore the potential mediating role of career adaptability in this relationship. This three-wave longitudinal design included data from 259 first-year Chinese college students regarding their FTP, career adaptability, and academic engagement over six-month intervals (Time 1, October 2021; Time 2, April 2022; Time 3, October 2022). Cross-lagged models indicated that (1) FTP significantly and positively predicted subsequent academic engagement across all time points, (2) academic engagement significantly and positively predicted subsequent FTP across all time points, and (3) the relationship between FTP at Time 1 and academic engagement at Time 3 was mediated by career adaptability at Time 2. Thus, a significant temporal and bidirectional association exists between FTP and academic engagement with career adaptability as a mediator. These findings extend FTP and career construction theories to non-Western cultures and have implications for interventions targeting academic engagement and dropout rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]