The role of age and occupational future time perspective in workers' motivation to learn

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the relationship between employees' chronological age and their motivation to learn, by adopting a lifespan perspective. Based on socioemotional selectivity theory, [the authors] suggest that occupational future time perspective mediates the relationship between age and motivation to learn. In accordance with expectancy-value and self-efficacy theories, motivation to learn was operationalized as employees' learning motivational beliefs (i.e., learning self-efficacy and learning value). To test [this] model, survey data were obtained from...  [+] Show more

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the relationship between employees' chronological age and their motivation to learn, by adopting a lifespan perspective. Based on socioemotional selectivity theory, [the authors] suggest that occupational future time perspective mediates the relationship between age and motivation to learn. In accordance with expectancy-value and self-efficacy theories, motivation to learn was operationalized as employees' learning motivational beliefs (i.e., learning self-efficacy and learning value). To test [this] model, survey data were obtained from 560 workers between the ages of 21 to 64 years. Results demonstrated the importance of taking workers' occupational future time perspective into account to explain relationships between age and learning motivational beliefs.

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