Effects of Parental Influence on Adolescents’ Career Choice in Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of parental influence on adolescents' career choice on secondary schools students in Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State. The sample consisted of three hundred respondents who were randomly selected from ten purposely selected secondary schools (3 Model Colleges, 4 Non-Model Colleges, and 3 Private Colleges). The instrument used was a questionnaire which was administered to the respondents personally by the researcher. Five (5) null hypotheses were formulated and tested. Chi-square, using analysis of contingency table was used to test the hypotheses. All hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance of variable of sex, class of school, and type of school as to the effects of parental influence on adolescents' career choice on secondary schools students in the Local Government Area. The findings of the study showed that 48.36% of the respondents agreed to parents influencing their career choice. On the average, 21.5% of the respondents agreed that their parents' line of business influenced their career choice, while 78.5% disagreed. On the whole, 30% of the respondents agreed that they chose the family career because they need to sustain the family business. In addition, three (3) out of the five (5) null hypotheses tested were accepted because there were no significant differences in the variables compared. These were hypotheses 1, 3, and 5. Hypotheses 2 and 4 were rejected as there were significant differences in the variables compared. The results of these findings seem to indicate that adolescents in secondary schools in Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State have some form of independence in making career choices.