Introduction This cross-sectional study investigated the sequential mediating effect of hope and career adaptability on the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and vocational outcome expectations among preservice teachers. Methods Data were collected from 311 preservice teachers (239 female, 72 male) across various teaching disciplines. The SPSS Amos software package was used for data analysis. Results The findings indicate that trait emotional intelligence is significantly associated with vocational outcome expectations. Crucially, the results demonstrate that both hope and career adaptability collectively mediate this relationship through a sequential mediation effect. Discussion These results reveal that vocational outcome expectations are also shaped by emotional and motivational resources, thereby contributing to the existing literature on the professional development processes of preservice teachers.
Duru et al. (Mon,) studied this question.