How Career Hope and Career Social Support Affect College Students' Career Engagement: The Role of Planned Happenstance Skills

ABSTRACT While hope and social support are recognised as key resources for college students' career development, the intricate mechanisms through which they jointly and dynamically influence career outcomes, and the critical role of proactive skills in translating these resources into action, remain insufficiently understood. This research programme systematically investigates these processes, integrating Hope Theory with the Planned Happenstance Theory. Across four studies using experimental, longitudinal and cross‐sectional methods, we demonstrate that career hope is a pivotal driver of career engagement (Study 1, N = 175), but its impact is contingent upon individuals' planned happenstance skills (Study 2, N = 172). Critically, our longitudinal data (Study 3, N = 320) revealed a virtuous cycle: career social support and career hope reciprocally mediate each other's positive relationship with engagement. A final confirmatory study (Study 4, N = 321) validated this complex network, showing that the mediating pathways are amplified when students possess high levels of planned happenstance skills. Collectively, these findings not only extend Hope Theory into the career domain but, more importantly, integrate it with Planned Happenstance Theory, revealing how internal agency (career hope) and external resources (career social support) interact with proactive skills (planned happenstance skills) to shape career engagement. This research provides a robust, multimethod foundation for designing targeted interventions to improve student career outcomes.