The adolescents' primary concern is career decision making, and many researchers have suggested that there be gender difference in high school students' career development. It is also noted that there is a difference in career development of high scho...
The adolescents' primary concern is career decision making, and many researchers have suggested that there be gender difference in high school students' career development. It is also noted that there is a difference in career development of high school students by their departments in High School.
The purpose of this study is to examine the factors of gender and the divisions in the high school system. It is also shown that in Korea parental support has a greater influence on the career decisions of their children than in other countries.
Thus the relation of student's cognition level about their parents' support for their career development is also examined.
This study focused on giving answers to the following questions to clarify the above concerns.
1. Are there differences in the level of career development according to the level of parental support and gender and division in a specific high school system ?
2. Is there correlation between career development and parental support concerning gender and division ?
3. What are the effects of parental support on career development by gender and divisions ?
4. What are the effects of the level of self-efficiency and vocational identity in career decision making?
For this study, 1,468 students from 15 classes(different divisions) at 9 high schools (3 Academic high schools, 3 Industrial technology schools, 3 Vocational high schools) in Seoul were examined from June 21st, 2004 to June 26th, 2004.
The four kinds of instruments for this study were: (1). Barrera's(1981) Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors(ISSB) to assess parental support, (2) CDMSES-SF(Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale Short Form), (3) Vocational Identity Scale of my Vocational Situation, (4) Career Decision Scale.
The data were analyzed by Statistical techniques of frequency analysis, t-test, Anova, Scheffe method for multiple comparisons, Person's correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis using SPSS/PS+ 10.0.
The results of the study were as follows:
1. There is significant difference, statistically, in the relation between parental support and career development by gender.
2. As for the division factor, the recognition level of parental supports was higher in girls than in boys and the average of their career development factor was also higher
3. As for the division factor, the recognition level of parental supports was most high in academic high school students than in other groups and the average of their career development factor was also the highest.
4. There was significant correlation between the parental supports and CDMSE, VIS, CDS; the parental supports were in close correlation with CDMSE.
5. As for the effects of parental support on the student's career development, CDMSE Scale was higher than other VIC, CDS. The R2 value was weak but still statistically significant.
6. As for the effects of the CDMSE & VIC to CDS, it is shown that the effects of CDS was higher than CDMSE. Moreover, sub-variables such as self-acquaintance, vocation understanding, career convince decision ability, career plan, life-mark establishment, self-evaluation etc. are shown to be very statistically significant.
And discussions are as follows ;
Firstly, this study shows that the career development variable was higher in girls rather than boys by all factors, which differs from the results of others studies. This difference seems to partly result from the change of girls' consciousness concerning career development and the change of the educational circumstance.
Secondly, as for the division comparison; academic high school students got the highest score. On the other hand vocational high school students got the lowest score. This is due to the relation between parental support and career development and also due to the fact that more vocational students apply for a school of higher grade(62%) than plan to work.
Thirdly, there was a significant correlation of parental support and children's career development, which shows that in our society parents have significant influence on their children till post adolescence. Parental support influenced CDMSE significantly, which means that the parents are also able to lead adolescents to enhance the level of self-esteem by giving them praise, encouragement, recognition, etc. The positive influence from the parents helps the adolescents to make positive career decisions, improving the level of self-efficiency & vocational identity.
Fourth, To raise the level of student's career decision needs and to raise the level of their vocational identity should be discussed. For this parents should give them personal respect, encouragement and recognition that will help the students to form a positive idea about their self-identity.
In conclusion, according to the statistical significance parental support can have positive effects on the adolescent's career development, though the power is shown to be weak because of influences of other circumstantial factors like the mass media.
Suggestions of this study: To help the adolescent's career development and career decision making; first of all, the parent's role should change into a positive one and the programs should be developed to improve the vocational identity of the students.