Parental influences on youths' career construction

Increasingly, scholars are urging that there should be a careful examination of the role of social relations, especially those between parents and children, on the professional development of youth. In this chapter, we first present the recent models and theoretical approaches (e.g., contextual action theory, social cognitive model, and the life design approach) that recognize the need to carefully consider the role that parents play in their children’s career development. Next, the parental support role in their children’s professional development is explored, in relation to socioeconomic circumstances. Poverty, unemployment, precariousness, and underemployment are becoming characteristic of the context even in the richest countries; thus today’s parents find themselves playing their support role in their children’s professional development within much more complex societies. Some parents, especially those with low socioeconomic status (SES), are pessimistic in their overall perception of the economy, and, despite being concerned about their children’s future, may find it hard to plan for it; thus, they do not encourage their children and do not start interactions centered on the future with them. Adolescent career development is affected by two interdependent contextual family factors: (a) structural family variables and (b) process family variables (e.g., parents’ aspirations, parental support, family interactions). As regards structural variables, we examined socioeconomic background and social class. In research across multiple cultures, youth from families of low SES and social class have been found to have more limited opportunities for career development and more difficulties in accessing educational and social opportunities. Social class is a more difficult structural variable to define than SES. It is characterized as a cultural, psychological, and subjective factor internalized by the individual which goes beyond income, upbringing, and education, and shapes the construction of the self. As regards contextual process family variables, we focused on parental support and family interactions. Across ethnic groups (e.g., African-Americans, Italian, North Americans, French), adolescents who report greater support and more positive interactions with their parents are more engaged in designing their school–career future. Specifically, greater parental support and positive relationships between parents and children are associated with more career decision-making, vocational exploration, career self-efficacy beliefs, career adaptability, less irrational career beliefs, and a greater propensity to optimism and hope in youth. In addition, it is in the family that children begin to give meaning to the world of work and construct their idea of education and work and of their career lives. Lastly, in relation to the relevance of relationships between parents and their children for the latter’s career development, in this chapter we discuss how to help parents to support the realization of their children’s professional projects. Parents are a key source for enabling youth to achieve preventive goals related to career education. Specifically, we provide two examples of parent training programs that are aimed at promoting parental skills in supporting their children’s career construction.