Economic constraints serve as a significant career barrier that limits individuals' career exploration and preparation. The Psychology of Working Theory (PWT; Duffy et al., 2016) proposes that contextual constraints negatively impact decent work attainment, while suggesting proactive personality, social support, and critical consciousness as potential moderators. However, empirical findings regarding these moderators have been inconsistent across studies. This study employed latent profile analysis (LPA) to examine how combinations of economic constraints and PWT moderators relate to work and life well-being outcomes.


Data were collected from 392 Korean full-time workers (mean age = 39.4 years, 62.5% female) through an online survey. Economic constraints, proactivity in career tasks, social network resources, critical agency, and critical action were used as classification indicators. Work and life well-being were assessed through decent work, withdrawal intention, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction.


LPA revealed five distinct profiles: (1) Adaptive with Stability (23.5%): low economic constraints with high psychological resources but low critical action; (2) Average (50%): moderate levels across all indicators; (3) Disempowered with Constraints (10.7%): high economic constraints with minimal psychological and social resources; (4) Resistant with Constraints (7.9%): highest economic constraints combined with high critical action; and (5) Transformative with Stability (7.9%): lowest economic constraints with highest levels of all moderators.


The Transformative with Stability group demonstrated the most favorable outcomes across all well-being indicators. Notably, among groups experiencing economic constraints, the Resistant with Constraints group showed higher withdrawal intention than other profiles. The Disempowered with Constraints group exhibited the poorest outcomes across all indicators. These findings suggest that when addressing economic constraints in career counseling, interventions should particularly focus on enhancing career-specific proactivity, social network resources, and facilitating critical action rather than solely cognitive awareness. Practical implications for career interventions targeting economically constrained populations are discussed.