The influence of parental career interests on adolescents' career choices
Date
2014-04-07
Authors
Sher, Dalene Philippa
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Abstract
The impact of parental interests on their children is a very important aspect of the career
decision-making process of adolescents. The aim of this study was to find further support for this
claim on knowledge, exploring the influence of both the mother and the father,
If parents have any influence over their children’s career choices, one expects a high congruence
between their interests. To investigate whether parents impact on career choices of their children
congruencies in interest based on Holland’s (1985) model were analysed. According to Holland,
an individual’s occupational interests are classified by means of a three-letter code, with each
letter representing one of six personality types - Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social,
- ^ Enterprising, Conventional. Therefore, three-letter codes obtained from the results of girls’ and
their parents’, and boys’ and their parents’ completed Self-Directed Search Questionaries,
formed the basis for investigating congruencies. The lachan Index (1984) was used to interpret
raw data - a precise technique for the assessment of the degree of agreement between any two
three-leltcrcodep.
The mefAk v :^eement scores for the mother-daughter, mother-son, father-son, and father-daughter
g ro u p ^ d n d t point to a close match between pairs of three-letter Holland codes, regardless of
single sex or;%-educational schooling. The only significant difference in mean, agreement scores
between these groups was between the father-son and father-daughter groups - fathers are more
congruent to sons that&|a%#§rs in their interests. Resultant mean agreement scores between
three-letter codes and occupations qf mothers and fathers did not point to a close tiiatch. This
superficially does ntitsupport Holland’s (1985) theory of vocational choice that one’s occupation
must fit one’s interests. There was also no significant difference between mean agreement scores0
^m others and fatheps in this regard, supporting research that Holland’s (1985) theory is relevant
to the female population. Cross-tabulations revealed that females aligned themselves most
frequently with the Social Type, and males most frequently chose the Enterprising Type. This
result was in accordance with previous studies and popular theory on sex stereotypes.
The conclusion was drawn that no generalisation can be made about whether parents do or do
not have an influence on their children’s occupational interests and subsequent career choices.