Parental Influence on Career Choice Traditionalism among College Students in Selected Cities in Ethiopia

The study explored the influence of parents on choosing career among college students in selected private colleges situated around Bahirdar City, Ethiopia. Choosing a suitable career is a vital part in every student’s life. Further, it ignites a person’s future life for his/her own job preference and life style. In this context, influence of social members is inevitable; generally the influence of family members and most particularly parents play a major role as a influencer and determiner on choosing a career option. Students in Ethiopia are not exceptional to this phenomenon of selecting right and suitable career. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted and multi stage sampling technique was employed to identify the participants. Totally, 175 participants Male=99 and Female =76 responded to Holland Personality Inventory Holland, 1997 and Career Choice Traditionalism Scale Hensely, 2003 . The collected data were statistically processed using SPSS version 16. Descriptive and inferential statistics was employed to analyse the data. The results revealed that there is a significant influence of parents on career choice among students. Specifically, father’s influence is found to be more significant on career choice decision making among students than their mothers.

___

  • Alika, I. H. (2010). Parental and peer group influence as correlates of career choice in humanities among secondary school students in Edo State, Nigeria. Journal of Research in Education and Society, 1(1), 1-8.
  • Alika, H. I. & Egbochuku, E. O. (2009). Vocational Interest, Counselling, Socio-economic Status and Age as Correlates of the Re-entry of Girls into School. Edo Journal of Counselling, 2 (1), 9-15, doi: 10.4314/ejc.v2i1.52649
  • Altman, J. H. (1997). Career development in the context of family experiences. In H. S. Farmer (Ed.), Diversity and women's career development: From adolescence to adulthood (pp. 229-242). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Bright, J. H, Pryor, R. L, Wilkenfeld, S., & Earl, J. (2005). Influence of social context on career decision making. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Counseling, 5, 19-36.
  • Brown, B. et al. (2002). Career choice and development (4th Ed). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • Caldera, Y. M, & Robitschek, C., Frame, M., & Pannell, M. (2003). Intrapersonal, familial, and cultural factors in the commitment to a career choice of Mexican American and non-Hispanic White college women. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50, 309–323, doi:10.1037/0022-0167.50.3.309
  • Fend, H. (1991). Identitätsentwicklung in der Adoleszenz. Lebensentwürfe, Selbstfindung und Weltaneignung in beruflichen, familiären und politisch-weltanschaulichen Bereichen [Identity Development in Adolescence. Life Plans, Self-Discovery, and Appropriation of the World in the Career, Family, and Politics Domains]. Bern, Switzerland: Huber.
  • Hashim, H. M., & Embong, M. A. (2015). Parental and Peer Influences upon Accounting as a Subject and Accountancy as a Career. Journal of Economics, Business and Management, 3(2), 251-25, doi: 10.7763/JOEBM.2015.V3.189
  • Hensley, L. (2003). The Influence of Gender Role and Gender Stereotyping on the Career Choice and Career Commitment of Adolescents. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 20, 409-417.
  • Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices (3rd Ed). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
  • Kracke, B. & Noack, P. (2005). Die Rolle der Eltern für die Berufsorientierung von Jugendlichen [The role of parents in adolescents' career development]. In B. H. Schuster, H.-P. Kuhn, & H. Uhlendorff (Eds.), Entwicklung in sozialen Beziehungen (pp. 169-193). Stuttgart, Germany: Lucius & Lucius.
  • Kinnier, R. T., Brigman, S.L., & Noble, F. C. (1990). Career indecision and family enmeshment. Journal of Counseling & Development, 68, 309-312.
  • Mortimer, J. T., Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., Holmes, M., & Shanahan, M. J. (2002). The process of occupational decision making: Patterns during the transition to adulthood. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61(3), 439, doi:10.1006/jvbe.2002.1885
  • Mkhize S, Nzimande S. Career Choices in Relation to Nursing: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study Investigating the Career Choices of School Leavers in Relation to Nursing, and What Influences These Choices, Project funded by the National Department of Health, Published by Health Systems Trust, South Africa. 2007.
  • Oechsle, M., Maschetzke, C., Rosowski, E., & Knauf, H. (2002). Abitur und was dann? Junge Frauen und Männer zwischen Berufsorientierung und privater Lebensplanung [Abitur and then? Young people between career choice and future private life]. Zeitschrift für Frauenforschung und Geschlechterstudien, 20(4), 17-27.
  • Otto, L. B. (2000). Youth perspectives on parental career influence. Journal of Career Development, 27(2), 111-118, doi:10.1177/089484530002700205
  • Phillips, S. D., Blustein, D. L., Jobin-Davis, K., & White, S. F. (2002). Preparation for the school-to-work transition: The views of high school students. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61(2), 202-216, doi:10.1006/jvbe.2001.1853
  • Phillips, S. D., Christopher-Sisk, E. K., & Gravino, K. L. (2001). Making career decisions in relational context. Counseling Psychologist, 29(2), 193-213, doi:10.1177/0011000001292002
  • Roach, K. L. (2010). The Role of Perceived Parental Influences on the Career Self-Efficacy of College Students, Counselor Education Master's Theses Counselor Education. The College at Brockport: State University of New York.
  • Ryan, T. (2005). Using information in Education. Available at http://www.parental//involvement/html.
  • Schultheiss, D. E. P., Kress, H. M., Manzi, A. J., & Glasscock, M. J. (2001). Relational influences in career development: A qualitative inquiry. Counseling Psychologist, 29(2), 214-239, doi: 10.1177/0011000001292003
  • Sharf, R. S. (2002). Appling career development theory to counseling (3rd Ed). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
  • Tella, A. (2003). Parental involvement, home background and school environment as determinant of Academic achievement of secondary school students in Osun State, Nigerian. African Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology and Sports Facilitation, 5(2), 42-48.
  • Trost, J. & Levin, J. (2000). Step family as Direct and Indirect Relationship. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 31(2), 137-154.
  • Taylor, J. D., Harris, M. B., & Taylor, S. R. (2004). Parents have their say. About their college- age children’s career decisions. Journal of National Association of Colleges and Employers, 15-20.
  • Wikelund, K. (2005). Parent involvement in Education Available at http://www.nwrel.org.s.
  • Whiston, S, & Keller, B. K. (2004). The Influence of the Family of Origin on career Development: A Review and Analysis. The Counseling Psychologist, 32,493-568, doi:10.1177/0011000004265660
  • Young, R. A., Valach, L., Ball, J., Paseluikho, M. A., Wong, Y. S., DeVries, R. J., et al. (2001). Career development in adolescence as a family project. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 48(2), 190-202, doi:10.1037/0022- 0167.48.2.190