University Students and Working People’s Occupational Aspirations in Different Stages of Their Lives

Section E: Vivian 30/05/23

Table of contents

01

02

03

04

05

Methodology

Data Collection

Target Respondents

Introduction

Background

Literature Review

Research Questions

Results & Discussion

Follow the growing development

Conclusion

References

What job do you want to do in the future?

Introduction

Introduction

• Occupational Aspiration: a set of preferences regarding future occupational roles and activities (Lent et al. 1994)
• There are factors that set or change people’s occupational aspirations in different stages of their lives.

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Literature Review

College and Graduate School

College Major

Preadolescents

Personal Interest

Job Gender Stereotype

Current Career

The degree of Realization

Childhood

Parental Involvement

Occupational Aspiration:

Childhood (Lee and Jodl)

• Children's occupational aspirations are influenced by their parents
• Different involvement between fathers and mothers
• The less importance of parental involvement when children grow up

Occupational Aspiration:

From Junior high school to College (Schutte, Whal, and Liao)

• They focus on their interests and on aspects of certain jobs
• The appearance of gender stereotype in jobs, especially on boys
• College majors are closely connected to university student’s aspirations

Research Gap: Reality

The realization of people’s occupational aspirations when they enter the workplace.

Research Questions

• What affects people’s occupational aspirations?
• What affects people more? Parental involvement or personal interest?
• Why do people give up their occupational aspirations?

Methodology

Data Collection

Survey

• Quantitative research
• Consist of 5 parts which follows the growing development
• Multiple choices questions and Open-ended questions
• Promoted on social media from April to May 2023

Target Respondents

Respondents

• University and graduate students
• People who currently have job
• Total 75 respondents

Results & Discussion

Results and Discussion

Follow the growing development

Childhood

Junior and Senior High School

College and Graduate School

The Practice of Occupational Aspiration

Results of Childhood

Teachers (27%), doctors (15%), and flight attendants (6%) are the popular careers

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Results of Childhood

Personal interest (44%), Jobs’ image in the media (29%), and parental involvement (10%) are the popular reasons

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Discussion of Aspirations in Childhood

• Teachers are the most popular career
• The honor and respect of teacher in Chinese culture
• The positive image in the media

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• Compare to Jodl’s study, the result do not show obvious tendency between maternal and paternal influence
• More parents inspire their children more on academic aspect instead of athletic aspect

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Discussion of Aspirations in Childhood

• Respondents set their occupational aspiration based on their self-interest (44%)
• Parents give children plenty of space to develop and explore.

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• Parental involvement started to weaken in the following stages
• respondents started to spend more time with others outside their families.

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Results of Junior and Senior High School

• More careers are mentioned in this stage
• Teachers (20%), doctors (9%) and flight attendants (6%) are still the popular careers

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Results of Junior and Senior High School

• 80.6% respondents change their aspirations

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• Personal interest (39.6%),

Jobs’ social images (16.65%) and media images (16.65%) are the main reasons

Results of Junior and Senior High School

19.4% respondents remain their aspirations

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Personal interest (65.5%) and Jobs’ media image (15.4%)

Discussion of Aspirations in Junior and Senior High School

Jobs’ social images and images in the media

• Correspond to Schutte’s study that they focus on the aspects of certain jobs
• Find a sense of identity in the group or even society

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Discussion of Aspirations in Junior and Senior High School

The career awareness

• Personal interests is still the main reason
• Enable to consider and explore more careers (Lee 124)
• The mature career development makes them do not have obvious gender career stereotype

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Results of College and Graduate School

The most diverse aspirations among the stages

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Teachers (13%), Civil Servants (9%) are the popular occasions

Results of College and Graduate School

• 66.7% respondents change their aspirations
• Personal interest,

college majors and jobs’ social images are the main reasons

Results of College and Graduate School

• 34.3% respondents remain their aspirations
• Personal interest (34.8%) and college majors (30.4) are the main reasons

Results of College and Graduate School

1 for totally irrelevant

5 for directly related

Average result: (4.03/5)

1 for parental involvement

5 for personal interest

Average result: (4.02/5)

Discussion of College and Graduate School

• The mature occupational development and college majors lead to diverse aspirations
• College majors affect the most and are considered as the preparation for entering to workplace
• Personal preference affects much more which reveals respondents become more independent

Results of the realization of occupational aspirations

The reasons they affect them to realize or give up their occupational aspirations

• Only Half of the respondents realize their occupational aspirations
• Personal decisions (86.7%) and parents’ decision (13.3%)

Results of the realization of occupational aspirations

The reasons why they give up realizing occupational aspirations

83.5% of respondents are not able to adapt to the environment

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Discussion of the realization

Most working people decide their own realization

• Working people are adults and have high independence

Discussion of the realization

The collective culture in Eastern countries

• Emphasize high harmony and low autonomy
• Unable to fit themselves into specific workplaces

But! None of them regret their decision

• Occupational aspiration serves as a guide for the personal development
• It is fine to not to fulfill or strictly follow it

Conclusion

Conclusion

• What affects people’s occupational aspiration?
• Personal interest, parental involvement, jobs’ images etc. in different stages of their lives.

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• What affects people more? personal interest or parental involvement.
• Personal interest affects more that it is the most popular reason mentioned in each period.

Conclusion

• Only half of the respondents finally realize their occupational aspirations.

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• Why do people give up their occupational aspirations?
• The collective society causes some people to give up realizing their aspirations.

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Limitation Suggestion

Limitation

- Respondents are all from Taiwan

- Limited time for doing this research

Suggestion

- Discuss the realization of occupational aspirations

- Analyzing people consider how significant the aspirations are before entering the workplace

Thanks for Listening

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References

Jodl, Kathleen M., et al. “Parents’ Roles in Shaping Early Adolescents’ Occupational Aspirations.” Child

Development, vol. 72, no. 4, July 2001, pp. 1247–1265.

Lee, Hung-Chang. “’What Do You Want to Do When You Grow Up?’ Occupational Aspirations of Taiwanese Preschool Children.” Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, vol. 40, no. 1, Scientific Journal Publishers, 2012, pp. 115-127.

Liao, Chen-Ning, and Chang-Ho Ji. “The Origin of Major Choice: Academic Commitment, and Career-Decision Readiness Among Taiwanese College Students.” Career Development Quarterly, vol.2, no. 2, Jun. 2015, pp. 156-170.

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References

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Schuette, Christine T., et al. “Middle School Children’s Career Aspirations: Relationship to Adult Occupations and Gender.” Career Development Quarterly, vol. 60, no. 1, Mar. 2012, pp. 36–46.

Tsai, Feng-Jen, et. al. “Individual and Family Preferences of Job Qualities Matter: Association Between Face Needs, Locked-In Job Status, and Burnout among High-Tech Works in Taiwan.” BMC Public Health, vol. 21, no. 1, 28 Jun. 2021, pp. 1-10

Wahl, Kay Herting, and Anne Blackhurst. “Factors Affecting the Occupational and Educational Aspirations of Children and Adolescents.” Professional School Counseling, vol. 3, no. 5, 2000, pp. 367–69.

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