Longitudinal Relations of Parental Influences and Adolescent Career Aspirations and Actions in a Collectivist Society

Using social cognitive career theory as a framework, we examined the longitudinal effects of proximal parental contextual influences on career aspirations and actions in a collectivist context. We used a sample of 954 Indonesian high school students and measured parental career expectations, adolescent-parent career congruence, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, career aspirations, planning and exploration, twice, 6months apart. The best-fitting model was reciprocal, with the results showing that parental career expectations predicted subsequent career aspirations and planning, and aspirations and congruence with parents regarding career matters predicted future exploration. Self-efficacy and outcome expectations were reciprocally related over time. Self-efficacy served as an across-time predictor of both parental contextual variables. Career exploration predicted future self-efficacy and planning predicted later outcome expectations.