Abstract
INTRODUCTION: This study examined long-term predictive links between different types of anxiety in late adolescence and work-related outcomes in young adulthood. The presence of adaptive personality traits and positive emotion regulation and coping skills were hypothesized to buffer these associations, reducing the negative effects of anxiety on future work outcomes. METHODS: Hypotheses were tested using multi-reporter data from a community sample of 184 youth in the United States followed from ages 17-30. Trait anxiety, anxious arousal, rejection sensitivity, and implicit rejection were each examined in late adolescence as predictors of work-related ambition, work performance, job satisfaction, and career satisfaction in young adulthood. Conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation (ER) and coping skills were examined as potential moderators. RESULTS: Although trait anxiety was the only anxiety variable directly predictive of work outcomes in regression analyses, personality variables and ER skills interacted with multiple types of anxiety to predict work outcomes. Interestingly, findings reflected a pattern in which a combination of greater conscientiousness and greater anxiety, and greater ER skills and greater anxiety, predicted more positive work outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: These findings not only suggest that the development of traits such as conscientiousness and ER skills may be helpful for youth with higher levels of anxiety, but also that higher levels of anxiety, when appropriately balanced by other qualities, may be adaptive for promoting positive career development for some youth.