2014
Major Advisor: Chyul-Young Jyung, Ph. D
The purpose of this research was to find out how parents of general high school students involve in their children’s career decision making depending on their and their children’s characteristics. To this end, the following factors were studied. First, involvements of parents in the career decision making of their children attending general high schools were studied. Second, different characteristics of the parents whose children are attending general high schools and the relationship between such different characteristics and their involvement in children’s career decision making on career were studied. Third, different characteristics of children attending general high schools as well as the
relationship between such different characteristics and the parents’ involvement in their career decision making were studied. Finally, different types of parents’
involvement in the career decision making of their children attending general high schools were classified and the relationship between those types and different characteristics of parents and children were analyzed.
For the research instrument, a questionnaire was used composed of the instrument when parents use to involve in their children’s career decision making and the instrument used for finding out characteristics of parents and children.
Instrument used by parents involving in their children’s career decision making are composed of interference and support. As for interference, the same instruments used for the research conducted by Dietrich and Kracke(2009) were used. Support has been classified into psychological and behavioral support based on content and instruments of the support introduced at the previous study.
Review by experts and pilot survey were conducted to secure reliability and validity of the research. In addition, existing instruments were used or reconstructed for figuring out characteristics of parents and children.
Data were collected by mail and on-site visits from 28 October to 6 November 2013 and a total of 840 questionnaires were distributed to take into account both the metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions, different years (grades) and sex of students. As a result, a total of 801 questionnaires were handed in and finally 682 questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS 18.0.
The study can be summarized as the following. First, when parents whose children are attending general high schools involve in their children’s career decision making, the most widely used style was psychological support followed by behavioral support and interference. Second, mothers far exceeded fathers in using psychological and behavioral support whereas there was no difference among mothers and fathers in using interference. Third, in regards to different characteristics of parents, expectation of parents was related to interference and behavioral support, whereas education level of parents was related to
psychological and behavioral support, and father’s economic status was related to behavioral support. Whether a mother had her job or not was related to interference and behavioral support, and father’s employment status was related to behavioral support. Fourth, in regards to different characteristics of children, the number of children resulted in differences in psychological and behavioral support, whereas the child’s birth order was related to mother’s psychological support and the child’s academic performance brought differences in psychological and behavioral support. A meaningful relationship was found between parents’
psychological and behavioral support and the children’s career decision making.
Fifth, parents’ involvement in their children’s career decision making was classified into four types through cluster analysis.
Type Ⅰ: interference, psychological and behavioral support all low
Type Ⅱ: interference, psychological and behavioral support all at the average level
Type Ⅲ: very low interference, psychological support above average and low behavioral support
Type Ⅳ: low interference and high psychological and behavioral support
The proportion of parents belonging to Type Ⅲ, low interference and behavioral support with relatively high psychological support, was the highest.
Finally, in TypeⅠ, where parents had low interference as well as low psychological and behavioral support, there was a relatively high proportion of parents with low education level, a large number of children and children with poor academic performance. In Type Ⅳ, where parents had high psychological and behavioral support, there was a high proportion of parents with high education level, a small number of children and children with excellent academic performance and children tended to be the firstborn.
The following conclusions can be drawn based on the result and discussion of the study. First, mother’s psychological and behavioral support was higher than
those of father in their children’s career decision making. It means that mothers still had much more active role in giving support to their children’s career decision making despite father’s increased participation compared to the past.
Second, in regards to characteristics of parents, behavioral support had the largest difference among parents with different characteristics whereas interference and psychological support showed relatively small differences. Third, in regards to characteristics of children, differences in parents’ involvement depending on children’s sex have been reduced compared to the past. Nonetheless, parents still tended to have low support when they had a large number of children and they showed high support for their firstborn child and children with excellent academic performance. Fourth, among the types of involvement showed by parents whose children are studying at general high schools, the type of involvement mostly composed of psychological support had the highest proportion. It means that a large number of parents with children at general high schools help their children in their career decision making mostly through psychological support alone. Finally, a meaningful relationship has been found between parents’ psychological and behavioral support and the children’s decision on career. It implies how important parents’ support is in their children’s decision making on career.
According to the research, I would like to suggest the following. First, there is a need for various kinds of research on parents’ involvement in their children’s career decision making - parents with children at elementary and middle schools, parents with children at non-general high schools such as specialized high schools and special high schools, and single-parent family. Second, study on parents’ involvement in their children’s career decision making should be conducted not only through the children’s perspective but also through a direct reply from the parents. Third, various factors need to be studied related to the parents’ involvement in their children’s decision on career. Fourth, there needs to be a research on the parents’ involvement at a more specific and detailed level.
Fifth, in terms of methodology, other methods can be used to classify different types of parents’ involvement apart from cluster analysis. Finally, we need to raise awareness among parents that their involvement in their children’s career decision making is highly important.
____________________
Keywords: parents, involvement, career decision making, general high school, characteristics of parents, characteristics of children
Student ID: 2009-30961