The relationship of parental subsystem to high school and college students' career self-efficacy
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship among three classifications of parental subsystems (intact/nuclear, blended, and single-parent), two educational levels (high school and college), and gender (male and female) on career self-efficacy, in addition to the five career self-efficacy subscales.The assessment of career development and parental relationship issues was undertaken through seven questions included on the demographic information questionnaire. The students responded to the vocational issues (awareness of interest, skills, and values) questions by rating each one on a Likert scale with ratings ranging from little (1) awareness, capability, or closeness to extreme (5) awareness, capability, or closeness. The questions were drawn from Palmer and Cochran's (1988) research on career development. Mean scores are shown for each of the vocational issues questions.A total of 516 students responded to a demographic information questionnaire, in addition to the Career Self Efficacy Decision-Making Scale (CDMSE; Taylor & Betz, 1983). There were disproportionate numbers of subjects representing each educational (354 high school and 162 college students) and gender grouping (320 females and 196 males). The three parental subsystem classifications were intact/nuclear, blended, and single-parent. The definitions for these parental subgroupings were adapted from research conducted by Dentler (1984) and Miller (1984). In this sample, the intact/nuclear subsystem classification was the most highly represented (349), followed by the single-parent (85), and then the blended subsystem (82).Analyzing the hypotheses required a between-subjects factorial multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). All five hypotheses failed to reach the .05 level of statistical significance.The results of the study suggest that varying classifications of parental subsystem, educational level, and gender difference were not related to statistically significant differences in levels of career self-efficacy. There was no significant difference in career self-efficacy levels between subjects who had older siblings as role models and those who did not.