Career Decision-making Difficulties among Secondary School Students in Nigeria

Abstract

Career decision is a process that secondary school students must undergo. Many students find it difficult due to the obstacles that they may encounter. The problem of this study, therefore, is what these difficulties are and whether they differ on gender basis. Two research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. The sample size was 341 students made up of 161 males and 180 females. The instrument for data collection was the Career Decision Making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ), developed by Gati et al (1996). The reliability of the instrument was ascertained with Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient and a coefficient of 0.90 was obtained for the whole instrument. Data were analysed using mean, standard deviation and independent samples t-test. The results revealed that secondary school students are confronted with career decision-making difficulties in nine out of the ten levels used for the study. Moreover, gender was not significant except for one out of the ten distinct levels. The conclusion was drawn that students are faced with career decision-making difficulties and that there were no gender differences in all the difficulty levels.