Career-Specific Parenting Practices and Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Among Chinese Adolescents: The Interactive Effects of Parenting Practices and the Mediating Role of Autonomy.

Yu Chi Zhang,Shulin Yu,Nan Zhou,Qinglu Wu,Xiaoyi Fang,Ruixi Sun,Ruihong Nie,Linyuan Deng,Yue Liang,Ping Li,Qing Xiong,Jian Li,Hongjian Cao

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00363

Abstract

This study examined the unique and interactive effects of various career-specific parenting practices (i.e., parental career support, interference, and lack of engagement) on Chinese high school students’ career decision-making self-efficacy (CDSE) as well as the mediating role of autonomy in such associations. Based on data from 641 Chinese high school students (47.6% male; mean age = 15.28 years old, SD = 0.49) in 2016, two moderated mediating effects were identified. Higher level of parental career engagement strengthened the positive association between parental career support and adolescents’ autonomy, which in turn, was associated positively with adolescents’ CDSE. Parental career interference related negatively with adolescents’ CDSE via autonomy when lack of parental career engagement was low, but related positively with adolescents’ CDSE via autonomy when lack of parental career engagement was high. These findings advance our understanding of the underlying processes between career-specific parenting practices and adolescents’ CDSE. Implications for practices were discussed.

Highlights

Career decision-making self-efficacy (CDSE), which refers to one’s confidence in one’s ability to engage in educational and occupational planning and decision making, is a critical indicator of adolescent career competence (Luzzo, 1993; Chiesa et al, 2016)
The goal of this study is to examine the direct and interactive effects of test career-specific parenting practices on Chinese high school students’ CDSE as well as the mediating role of autonomy in such associations
The factor loadings for the latent variable of autonomy were all significant at p < 0.001 and the model fit the data well: χ2(7) = 4.26, p = 0.75, comparative fit index (CFI) = 1.00, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.00, SRMR = 0.005, indicating an adequate measurement model

Summary

Introduction

Career decision-making self-efficacy (CDSE), which refers to one’s confidence in one’s ability to engage in educational and occupational planning and decision making, is a critical indicator of adolescent career competence (Luzzo, 1993; Chiesa et al, 2016). Most of the research on parenting and CDSE focuses on the effects of general parenting practices (e.g., parental support) with few studies examining associations between career-specific parental practices in relation to adolescents’ CDSE (Garcia et al, 2012). Different career-specific parental practices, may have unique or interactive effects on career development (Guan et al, 2015). It is unclear which type of careerspecific parental practices would play a more vital role in shaping adolescents’ CDSE, and whether different career-specific parental practices cooperate with each other in relation to adolescents’ CDSE

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Conclusion