Relationship between Parenting Style and Career Decision-Making among Higher Secondary School Students

Abstract

Background: Parenting style reflects parental control and the emotional climate of parent-child relationships, while career decision-making involves the process of choosing a career path. Effective parenting is crucial for adolescents’ positive growth, which can influence their career decision-making. This study assessed the relationship between parenting style and career decision-making among higher secondary school students.

Methodology: A quantitative cross-sectional design was adopted. The study population consisted of higher secondary level students from a school in Rupandehi. A probability systematic random sampling technique was used to collect the 170 sample size. Self-administered standard validated tools, Diana Baumrind’s Parenting Style scale, and Kirandeep Singh’s Career Decision-Making scale were used. Descriptive statistics, including frequency, mean, median, and standard deviation, and Inferential statistics, Karl Pearson’s correlation coefficient, were used to analyze the data.

Findings: The mean age of respondents was 17.7+ 0.8 SD. More than half (57.1%) were male. 78.8% resides in urban residences and belong to a nuclear family (75.3%). Authoritative parenting was the most common parenting style, and most of the respondents (67.6%) of the respondents showed an average level of career decision-making ability. Correlation analysis showed that authoritarian parenting style had a statistically significant positive relationship with career decision-making (r = 0.640, p = 0.046).

Conclusion: There is a positive correlation between authoritarian parenting style and the career decision-making ability of the respondents. So authoritarian parenting is recommended for improving the ability of the children in taking decision regarding future goals. The authoritative and permissive style of parenting style should be discouraged.