The Origins of Children's Career Aspirations: IV. Testing Hypotheses from Four Theories

Abstract

In a study of 949 elementary students, mixed support was found for four theoretical positions concerning the role of childhood in career development. For Ginzberg's theory, support was found for his observation that interests play the major role in both the selection and rejection of careers throughout the period of childhood. For Roe's theory, the authors found evidence that family configuration influenced occupational choice/no choice. From Havighurst's theory, support was found for the idea that identification with a parent's work is particularly strong among younger children. A number of aspects of each of the theories failed to be confirmed.

‘What Will I Be When I Grow up?’ Children’s Preferred Future Occupations and Their Stereotypical Views

“…Surveys verify International Journal of Social Science Research ISSN 2327-5510 2013 the theory proposed by Gottfredson (1996), who examined how children's career preferences evolve and found that children aged between nine and thirteen years have become aware of social status and tend to view less prestigious occupations negatively (Henderson et al, 1988;Trice et al, 1995;Teig & Susskind, 2008). Another study found that children are aware of the different responsibilities between men and women and the differences in wages in occupations defined by gender (Levy et al, 2000).…”

Career Decision-Making Characteristics of Primary Education Students in Greece

“…Work by Lent and others (1994) provide the value of repeated practice, modeling, and feedback based on significant others that foster children to "develop skills, adopt personal standards, estimate their abilities, and form beliefs about likely outcomes of performing certain tasks" (p. 89). For instance, there has been substantiation for the critical role of parents and the influence of family relations in children's career development (Trice, Hughes, Odom, Woods, & McClellan, 1995), the influence of social valuation on children's occupational aspirations (Helwing, 2001) and the decreasing role of fantasy and the increasing realism in occupational aspiration as children develop.…”

Career maturity and college students : a case study comparison of student-athletes and non-athletes at a Division I institution

“…During this period, career choices are driven by the desire to ascend into adulthood (Super, 1953). With their parents being their closest and most accessible adult models at this point in their lives, children's career choices are most heavily influenced by their parents' advice and occupations (Sedofia, 2014;Trice, 1995). At this point in their lives, children's career ambitions have no grounding in reality.…”

“…While the tentative period is segmented into four stages, a majority of the attention is placed on individuals' interests over any of the other stages (Trice, 1995). The final period, realistic (ages 17 through 24), is the act of actually going through the career development process and making a career choice (Sedofia, 2014).…”

“…Finally, the theories put forth by Super and Tiedman, which are often linked in the literature, designate career development as a continuous, lifetime process (Gies, 1990;Super, 1957), with neither being bound by age or parental influence as are Ginzberg's (Lock, 2005;Sedofia, 2014;Trice, 1995;) and Roe's (Brunkan & Crites, 1964;Hagen, 1960;Ireh, 2000;Lock, 2005) theories. While Super and Tiedman do have this commonality, Super's theory is more strongly tied to the concept of career maturity.…”