Children's Career Expectations and Parents' Jobs: Intergenerational (Dis)continuities

• Published in: The Career development quarterly Vol. 68; no. 1; pp. 63 - 77
• Main Authors: Oliveira, Íris M., Porfeli, Erik J., Céu Taveira, Maria, Lee, Bora
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Alexandria National Career Development Association 01-03-2020; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Access to Education; Adult-child relations; Analysis; Auto Mechanics; Career Development; Career development planning; career expectations; Career Exploration; Careers; Child Development; childhood career development; Childhood Interests; Children; Children & youth; Cognitive Mapping; Community; Community Relations; Economic crisis; Employment; Employment Level; Families & family life; Family; Family (Sociological Unit); Family relations; Fathers; Females; Gender; Individual Characteristics; intergenerational occupational transmission; Labor Force; Males; Occupational Aspiration; Occupations; Parent Influence; parents; Parents & parenting; Preschool Teachers; Reputation; Self knowledge; Social aspects; Social Class; Social Environment; Social Influences; Social Networks; Social Structure; Socialization; Socioeconomic factors; Workforce; Portugal
• ISSN: 0889-4019; 2161-0045
• DOI: 10.1002/cdq.12213

Children develop career expectations as they increase self‐knowledge and perceive societal affordances and barriers to life roles. Parents are powerful agents in the socialization of children to work, transmitting occupational concepts that influence children's career development. The authors used Gottfredson's (1981) and Holland's (1973) theories to test associations between children's career expectations and parents' jobs in terms of gender, prestige, and interest typology among same‐sex and cross‐sex child‐parent dyads. Data were collected from 185 Portuguese children (51.4% boys, 48.6% girls; Mage = 10.41 years) from 2‐parent families. Children reported their parents' jobs and shared personal career expectations. Correlation and linear regression results indicated that fathers' male‐dominated jobs put boys at risk of gender‐based circumscription of career expectations. An intergenerational cycle of prestige inequalities was also evidenced, although parents seemed to support children's exploration of various interest areas. Future research could explore these relationships across family structures. Practice should foster children's in‐breadth career exploration and engage parents as key partners.