Curiosity saved the cat: socio-emotional skills mediate the relationship between parental support and career exploration.

According to career literature, greater parental support seems to be associated with higher levels of career exploration. This relationship may be mediated by self-regulatory processes, such as social-emotional skills, as curiosity. However, despite the large number of empirical studies that analyze the antecedents of career exploration, there are no references, to our knowledge, to the role of socio-emotional skills.

Socio-emotional skills profiles and their relations with career exploration and perceived parental support among 8th grade students.

Socio-emotional skills can play a crucial role in students career development. This study used a person-centered approach to explore socio-emotional skills (curiosity, optimism, empathy, sociability, and responsibility) profiles among 8° grade students ( = 310). We also explored the relations of these profiles with career exploration (self and environmental), perceived parental support (emotional support, instrumental assistance, career-related modeling, and verbal encouragement) and school achievement.