Calling and life satisfaction: It's not about having it, it's about living it.

2012/11/19 by Ryan D. Duffy, Blake A. Allan, Kelsey L. Autin +2 · 277 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Job satisfaction #Life satisfaction #Meaning (existential) #Meaning of life #Psychology #Psychotherapist #Relation (database) #Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology #Social psychology #Structural equation modeling #Workplace Spirituality and Leadership

paper · doi:10.1037/a0030635

published in Journal of Counseling Psychology 60(1), 42-52 (American Psychological Association)

openalex publication_date 2012/11/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

The present study examined the relation of career calling to life satisfaction among a diverse sample of 553 working adults, with a specific focus on the distinction between perceiving a calling (sensing a calling to a career) and living a calling (actualizing one's calling in one's current career). As hypothesized, the relation of perceiving a calling to life satisfaction was fully mediated by living a calling. On the basis of this finding, a structural equation model was tested to examine possible mediators between living a calling and life satisfaction. As hypothesized, the relation of living a calling to life satisfaction was partially mediated by job satisfaction and life meaning, and the link between living a calling and job satisfaction was mediated by work meaning and career commitment. Modifications of the model also revealed that the link of living a calling to life meaning was mediated by work meaning. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Citations

• Calling and work-related outcomes: Career commitment as a mediator
• Perceiving a calling, living a calling, and job satisfaction: Testing a moderated, multiple mediator model.
• The Call of the Wild: Zookeepers, Callings, and the Double-edged Sword of Deeply Meaningful Work
• Dispositional effects on job and life satisfaction: The role of core evaluations.
• The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life.
• Religion and the Meaning of Work

Cited by

• The Psychology of Working Theory.
• Prediction of job search intentions and behaviors: Testing the social cognitive model of career self-management.
• Meaningful work and mental health: job satisfaction as a moderator
• Creating Meaning and Purpose at Work
• Medical students with low self-efficacy bolstered by calling to medical speciality. [europepmc]
• Self-Determination and Meaningful Work: Exploring Socioeconomic Constraints. [europepmc]
• Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness, and Beneficence: A Multicultural Comparison of the Four Pathways to Meaningful Work. [europepmc]
• Having a Calling on Board: Effects of Calling on Job Satisfaction and Job Performance Among South Korean Newcomers. [europepmc]
• Job Crafting and Performance in Firefighters: The Role of Work Meaning and Work Engagement. [europepmc]
• The Curvilinear Relationship Between Career Calling and Work Fatigue: A Moderated Mediating Model. [europepmc]
• ME-Work: Development and Validation of a Modular Meaning in Work Inventory. [europepmc]
• Factors Influencing Employees' Subjective Wellbeing and Job Performance During the COVID-19 Global Pandemic: The Perspective of Social Cognitive Career Theory. [europepmc]
• Job Demands and Exhaustion in Firefighters: The Moderating Role of Work Meaning. A Cross-Sectional Study. [europepmc]
• The Mediating Effect of Self-Regulation on the Association Between Growth Mindset About Work and Living a Calling Among Primary and Secondary School Teachers. [europepmc]
• You stay home, but we can't: Invisible 'dirty' work as calling amid COVID-19 pandemic. [europepmc]
• Nurses' duty to care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey. [europepmc]
• Living a Calling During COVID-19: A Resource Gain Perspective. [europepmc]
• The influence of the career calling on the employees' creative deviance. [europepmc]
• The Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Depressive Symptoms among Chinese Adults Aged 35-60 Years: The Mediating Role of Subjective Well-Being and Life Satisfaction. [europepmc]
• The Association Between Work as a Calling and Turnover Among Early Childhood Education Professionals. [europepmc]
• Association between hopelessness and job burnout among Chinese nurses during the COVID-19 epidemic: The mediating role of career calling and the moderating role of social isolation. [europepmc]
• Calling for a meaningful contribution? Bridging contributing to society with motivation theory. [europepmc]
• Examining the Pro-Self and Prosocial Components of a Calling Outlook: A Critical Review. [europepmc]
• "Few things in life are easy and worth doing": how the bi-directional relationships between meaningful work and work-related stress can both help and hinder wellbeing. [europepmc]
• Structural Relationships between Counselors' Sense of Calling, Meaning of Work, Living a Calling, and Psychological Burnout. [europepmc]
• Underemployment, Work Needs, and Job Satisfaction: Does Social Support Matter? [europepmc]
• Predictors of life satisfaction in fathers of children with cerebral palsy. [europepmc]
• Breaches and buffers: Can meaningful work impact turnover during COVID-19 pandemic? [europepmc]
• Factors affecting nurses’ duty to care during the COVID-19 pandemic [europepmc]

Related

• Perceiving a calling, living a calling, and job satisfaction: Testing a moderated, multiple mediator model.
• Work as a calling: A theoretical model.
• Calling and the Good Life: A Meta-Analysis and Theoretical Extension
• Callings and work engagement: Moderated mediation model of work meaningfulness, occupational identity, and occupational self-efficacy.
• CALLING: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SCALE MEASURE