Parental involvement and counselling services as predictors of effective career decision
Introduction
Education has over the years been regarded as key to entire individual’s development (Ali, McWhirter and Chronister, 2005). Throughout one’s life, it is education that remains central to shaping the goals and ideals of an individual; pace of coping with daily challenges and integral development. Society’s development is also determined by the standards of education that people undergo. Hence aspects that determine an individual’s academic achievement remain vital to any member of the society that values development. Though academic achievement is vital at every stage of personal growth it is regarded as crucial at adolescent stage; as this stage determines one’s success or failure in life in what is described as identity crisis (Boon, 2007).
Bassey, Bassey and Omono (2012) reported that career refers to a job or profession that someone has been trained for and intends to do or pursue for several years in his or her life time. The Free Encyclopedia (2015) has it that career is an individual’s journey through learning, work and other aspect of life. There is every tendency that a person’s success in the career direction could be as a result of positive high relationship between the career choice and the person’s personality, interest, values, skills and determination. Weinert (2001) reported that career can be defined as a pattern of work experiences comprising the entire life span of a person and which is generally seen with regard to a number of phases or stages reflecting the transition from one stage of life to the next. Career is just an area of life which an individual has totally tolled in order to make a leaving out of it. McQuerrey (2015) advised that choosing a career path can help you set professional goals and develop a strategy for getting where you want to be. If a student refuses to pick an interest in any professional path as a career, the same individual will turn out to be a loafer in the realm of representation. McQuerrey (2015) has it that when you have an idea of the career path you want to pursue, it can help you make the best decisions about your training and educations. Ferry (2006) opined that career development for most people, is a lifelong process of engaging the work world through choosing among employment opportunities made available to them. Each individual undertaking the process of career is influenced by many factors, including the context in which they live, their personal aptitudes and educational attainment (Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara&Pastorelli, 2001). In line with the view above, it is pertinent to assert that the career choice that adolescents make is a decision that is influenced not only their development but also by the context in which they live (Chen, 1997). Initial career decision-making is a cultural, developmental task that adolescents are expected to have accomplished by the end of their high school year (Super, Savicks, & Super, 1996).
Career selection is one of many important choices students will make in determining future plans. This decision will impact them throughout their lives. The essence of who the student is will revolve around what the student wants to do with their life-long work (Rosenstock& Steinberg, 1996, p. 3). Every student carries the unique history of their past and this determines how they view the world. That history created, in part by the student’s environment, personality, and opportunity, will determine how students make career choices. It then follows that how the student perceives their environment, personality, and opportunity also will determine the career choices students make.
Factors in Career Choice, the first factor in career choice, environment, may influence the career students choose. For example, students who have lived on an island may choose a career dealing with the water, or they may choose to leave the island behind, never to have anything to do with water again. Maybe someone in the student’s life has made a significant impact or impression, leading to a definite career choice.
Opportunity is the third factor that has shaped career choices for students. Opportunity may influence how students have perceived their future in terms of the reasonable probability of a future in particular career fields. The issue of poverty has played an important determining role in the opportunities available to all. The income level of high school families may determine what career a student chooses during a specific time in the student’s life; choices that will determine a large part of that student’s future. Some students will have to budget education according to their personal income. Thout (1969) addressed those in desperate need, “Where necessary, these persons [Individuals described as living under the poverty level] must be assisted through special training programs to overcome educational and social handicaps so that minimum job standards can be met” (p. 1). Students in many cases will need the proper mentoring Career Choice Factors 13 opportunities to succeed. These support groups will be another opportunity that if properly implemented, can help a student in the career choice process.
The most common factor is parenting style. The family is a place in which children learnto interpret reality (Way and Rossmann 1996b). Parents serve as significant interpreters for children of information about the world and children’s abilities (Hall, Kelly, Hansen, and Gutwein 1996). Researchers have studied the influence of parents and the family on children’s career choice and development. Much of this research has demonstrated links between career development and such factors as socioeconomic status, parents’ educational and occupational attainment, and cultural background. This Digest highlights a different body of research that considers the effects of family relationships. This research is based on attachment theory, which suggests that close relationships provide experiences of security that promote exploration and risk taking (Ketterson and Blustein 1997), and social learning theory, which views “early experiences as a basis for developing career self-efficacy and interests as well as career goals and choices throughout life” (Altman 1997, p. 241). The Digest looks at the ways in which parenting styles, family functioning, and parent-child interaction influence career development.
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