Relationships between Self-Efficacy, Job Instability, Decent Work, and Life Satisfaction in A Sample of Italian, Swiss, and Spanish Students

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

My main criticism refers to the author's lack of combining data on students' perceptions of the labour market and objective data on the labour market. 

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you for your comment. We have expanded paragraph 2.1, including a description of the context also with objective data of the labor market. To address your concern, we have included a suggestion for future research in the conclusions (paragraph 5).

All changes are shown in red.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

the paper is ok

best

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for the positive evaluation of our article.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper is interesting and has an important value given by international data to investigate the relationship between Self-efficacy, Job Instability, Decent Work, and Life Satisfaction. However, I list below some suggestions for improving it:

-          Please, find a catchy title (now it's too descriptive and long)

-          Please, explain why the survey was addressed to university students to study job-related aspects. Indeed, usually, most university students do not have direct work experience. There is therefore a risk of idealizing a job / work experience or otherwise having an abstract idea. It is suggested that the authors better explain the survey target choice and illustrate the risks / impact on the research results in the discussion.

-          It is suggested to better characterize the three regions chosen for the administration of the online questionnaire: Sicily, Canton Ticino, and Andalusia. For example, it is suggested to indicate the employment rates of the three regions, in particular the youth rates, and to add information regarding the diffusion of precarious work in the three regions (for example, the three regions are all considered to be southern compared to other regions of their countries. Does this imply that there are also fewer job opportunities? This is certainly the case for Sicily and Andalusia. Does it also apply to the Canton of Ticino compared to Switzerland?).

-          For transparency, it is suggested to better clarify the origin and socio-personal characteristics of the respondents in a specific table.

-          In the discussion and within the limits of the research, please reflect on why and what impact the fact that women responded to the survey more than men had.

-          The use of a single item as an indicator of access to decent work must be considered among the limitations of the study.

-          It is suggested to rewrite the conclusions by adapting them to the results of the study.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your comments that will help us improve our article.

Here are our responses to your comments:

1. As for the title, we prefer to keep the original one. The article was financed with this title and changing the title could lead to bureaucratic problems. Moreover, we think that this title sums up the characteristics of the article well.
2. We have added a paragraph both in the discussion and in the conclusion and have better explained the motivations that led us to conduct this study
3. For a better characterisation of the regions, we added data covering the labour market of the three regions (paragraph 2.1)
4. We have added Table 1, with the characteristics of the participants
5. This research does not aim to carry out an analysis of differences in relation to the "sex" variable, so we do not analyse its impact. For this reason, we decided not to include this element in the discussion, given that it is not an element that appears in the results. However, we think it is interesting to include this element in the limitations section: In fact, one of the limitations is the imbalance of the sample in relation to the sex variable. Future studies will work towards a more representative and balanced sample. However, it is worth noting that in this type of university studies the proportion of women is potentially higher.
6. We have indicated within the limits the use of a single item to evaluate access to decent work
7. The authors consider the conclusions to represent the research results presented. However, some changes have been made to detail that we are referring to "perceptions".

All changes are shown in red.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

no further comments