Responding to Precarity: Young People’s Ambiguity Aversion, Resilience, and Coping Strategies

Audrey Ansay Antonio, Nadiyah Afifah Niigata Ramadhani and Rita Chiesa ()
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Audrey Ansay Antonio: Department of Psychology “Renzo Canestrari”, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
Nadiyah Afifah Niigata Ramadhani: Department of Psychology “Renzo Canestrari”, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
Rita Chiesa: Department of Psychology “Renzo Canestrari”, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-23

Abstract: The nature of contemporary careers has shifted and is characterized by precarity, emphasizing the need for young people to possess adequate career resources in their pursuit of decent work. Grounded in the dual-process model and the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examines the loss impact caused by ambiguity aversion and low resilience on young people’s responses to career ambiguity, specifically, their coping strategies (i.e., avoidance and approach) and career anxiety. In this cross-sectional study, we collected data using online surveys from young adults aged 18–35 ( N = 156) in Norway, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. Serial mediation analyses were conducted using IBM-SPSS Statistics. Our findings found that ambiguity aversion had significant positive relations with career anxiety. Furthermore, resilience and avoidance coping were found to play mediating roles in the ambiguity aversion–career anxiety association. The results of the exploratory analyses also revealed significant differences in variable levels between the three countries examined. Our results have both theoretical and practical implications that contribute to the knowledge and practices in helping young people navigate the risks of precarity by developing adaptive career resources. We acknowledge the limitations regarding sample size and research design.

Keywords: ambiguity aversion; career anxiety; resilience; coping strategies; career precarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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