Hope and self-determination of young adults in the workplace

Abstract

This longitudinal field study tested positive reciprocal longitudinal interactions between components of hope theory and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs in the work environment during 3 years of vocational training. The three annual questionnaire surveys of 414 trainees in young adulthood were analyzed with latent autoregressive cross-lagged models. The tested longitudinal models provided support for a positive reciprocal feedback process between hope and the satisfaction of the need for competency. The 1 year lagged effects between hope and the needs for autonomy and relatedness were not statistically significant, but synchronous relations did exist. The study suggested that perceived vocational competencies lead to increases in hope, while the trainees’ hope in turn also had positive effects on the development of perceived vocational competencies.