Career Congruence with Parents from Perspective of Gender

Abstract

Adolescent-parent career congruence was defined as the degree to which the adolescents perceive parents as fulfilling career exploration, career planning, and career goal setting needs, and the degree to which they perceive parents to be happy, proud, satisfied, or agreeable with their career progress, and the degree to which the adolescents perceive that their parents have similar or matching ideas regarding career interests, career values, career plans, and career goals. This construct is very important in understanding adolescent career development. However, little is known about the dynamics of this construct from the perspective of gender. This study aimed to investigate the differences of the level of congruence between adolescents and their parents regarding career matters in female and male students. We collected data from 291 students from a university in Semarang, Indonesia, M age = 19.93 years, SD age = 5.64, 69.1% female. We used the Adolescent-Parent Career Congruence Scale (α = .88). Independent sample t-test demonstrated that there the level of congruence between adolescents and their parents regarding career matters is significantly different in male and female students. Compared to their male counterparts (53.43±8.97), female students (55.81± 8.56) demonstrated higher level of career congruence with their parents, t = (164.32) = -2.12, p =.04 (p < .05). Female students showed higher levels of supplementary aspect, but not complementary aspect, when compared to male students. Findings from this study highlight the important role of gender in formulating intervention to enhance congruence with parents regarding career matters. Recommendations for students, parents, and practitioners are discussed.