Antecedents and Outcomes of Callings for University Students: An Examination of Mentoring and Insight Experiences

Abstract

Past research has found that callings have a significant impact on important individual and organizational outcomes, but research on the precursors of callings is limited. In the current study, we contribute to callings research by examining two potentially important calling antecedents for university students: mentoring relationships and insight experiences. Building on extant literature, we also explored how students’ perceptions of callings may relate to school- and career-related outcomes. Using a sample of 536 undergraduate students from one private and two public U.S. universities, we found that high-quality mentoring relationships and insight experiences were positively related to students’ perceptions of callings. We also found support for a relationship between students’ perceptions of callings and their school engagement and absenteeism, along with their career outcome expectations. We discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice.