Planned happenstance skills relation to subjective well-being and academic adjustment of students

Abstract

In the world marked by continuous changes and complexity, chance events play an important role in everyone’s career. The construct of planned happenstance refers to the set of competencies allowing to deal effectively with random events in career development process. These skills enable individuals to recognize, create and use unplanned events as their career opportunities. The planned happenstance skills are particularly important to students since apart from developing their professional qualifications, they should also seek to acquire the strengths which facilitate a successful adaptation to the professional environments, and even more, to prepare for their career management in the rapidly changing world. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether planned happenstance skills affect the subjective well-being and academic adjustment of Lithuanian students. The study was conducted using the quantitative method - questionnaire survey. The data analysis indicated that planned happenstance skills are positively related to students’ subjective well-being and academic adjustment. Analysis of the research data demonstrated that higher level planned happenstance skills are associated to a higher perceived academic achievement. Planned happenstance skills were also found to be positively correlated to the students’ autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life and self-acceptance.