Associations of health and lifestyle factors with multidimensional quality of life among women with endometriosis: a cross-sectional study.

Employment anxiety is the tension, worry, or even fear people feel when they are unsure whether their skills match the demands of the job market, when their career path seems uncertain, or when the pressure of competition begins to weigh on them (). As the job hunting for college graduates becomes increasingly difficult, this kind of anxiety will only become more and more widespread. One survey of 719 Chinese college students found that employment anxiety is now a widespread issue among students. It closely tied to their mental health and how well they can adapt to their careers (). Previous studies have linked employment anxiety to a range of mental health issues. Students experiencing such anxiety often report physical symptoms such as poor sleep or chest tightness. Beyond these health concerns, research also suggests that employment anxiety can interfere with career planning, which may affect students’ long-term professional development (; ). Within this context, EFL college students face a more complex employment dilemma. Unlike many applied or technically-oriented majors, the training model for foreign language majors has long centered on linguistic skills and humanistic literacy (). However, the current job market increasingly demands talent that combines foreign language proficiency with other professional skills. This structural mismatch makes EFL college students more likely to perceive a gap between their capabilities and job requirements during their job search, thereby exacerbating their employment anxiety. Career adaptability has gained more attention in the literature recently. Scholars tend to see it as a kind of psychological resource, one that helps people navigate career-related challenges and cope with uncertainty. For university students, this resource may offer a greater sense of control when they are looking for a job, which in turn could help reduce employment anxiety (). Yet adaptability resources alone may not tell the full story. There are likely other mechanisms at play in how employment anxiety develops, and how it can be eased. Job search self-efficacy (JSSE), that is, their subjective assessment of their ability to successfully accomplish this task. It helps them respond to emerging difficulties with greater calm and composure, which significantly reduces the level of anxiety associated with job hunting (). In addition, an individual’s behavioral tendencies also play a significant role in this. Proactive personality, a relatively stable trait, may also matter. People who exhibit this trait to a significant degree typically seek out information, ask for support, and adjust their strategies as needed. This further enhances its adaptability in stressful situations, becoming an important protective factor in resisting employment anxiety (). Therefore, a thorough examination of coping mechanisms related to employment anxiety is of great theoretical and practical importance for the development of effective psychological interventions and for facilitating a smooth transition for students from educational institutions to the workforce. Existing studies have shown that career adaptability, JSSE, and proactive personality can each play positive roles in career development. Most studies tend to test the independent contributions of the above variables and rarely incorporate them into a unified framework to systematically examine their synergistic mitigation mechanism on college students’ employment anxiety. In particular, there remains a lack of sufficient empirical testing regarding how career adaptability relates to employment anxiety through psychological beliefs in the job-seeking context, as well as the role that individual proactive traits play within this relational network. To address these questions, this study is based on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (). From an integrated perspective, it looks at how career adaptability, JSSE and proactive personality come together in the employment anxiety situation of college students. Given the particular challenges that EFL students face, both in their training and in the job market’s expectations, this study focuses on their experience. The goal is to offer both theoretical insights and practical suggestions for reducing employment anxiety in this group, and for rethinking how academic programs prepare students for careers. SCCT emphasizes that people’s career development arises from the interaction among personal background, self-efficacy, and environmental factors (). For EFL college students, the uncertainty of the macro-level employment situation and intensified competition for positions matching their majors often expose them to varying degrees of employment anxiety. For students facing career challenges, career adaptability can help them maintain psychological stability and proactively adjust their behavior during career transitions and uncertain environments, thereby alleviating to a certain extent the anxiety that may aris