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International Journal for theAdvancement of Counselling ISSN 0165-0653 Int J Adv CounsellingDOI 10.1007/s10447-015-9248-1

Career-Related Parental Support forVocational School Students in China

Jiahong Zhang, Mantak Yuen & GaoweiChen

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Career-Related Parental Support for Vocational SchoolStudents in China

Jiahong Zhang1 & Mantak Yuen1 & Gaowei Chen1

# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract Career-related parental support plays an essential role in the process of promotingyoung people’s career development. Currently, research on career-related support from parentsin China is still fairly limited; but at a time when the employment situation in China is changingrapidly, it is considered especially important to study this topic with reference to studentsattending Chinese vocational schools. This paper briefly summarizes some of the Western andChinese research on career-related parental support, with a focus on identifying any differencesbetween the two, as influenced by gender, socioeconomic status, or other factors. The literaturewas also examined for any longitudinal effects of career-related parental support on aspects ofcareer development. Suggestions are provided for strategies to help promote this type ofparental support in low socio-economic families where inappropriate expectations may prevail.Brief suggestions for future research and intervention are also provided.

Keywords Career-related parental support . China . Vocational students

Introduction

Vocational education is an important component in the Chinese education system, and plays acrucial role in advancing students’ technical knowledge, skills and talents. To provide sucheducation there are secondary vocational schools, and higher vocational colleges in China,catering for the needs of students between the ages of 15 to 22 years.

Vocational education represents a main channel through which young people are helped toplan their career paths. However, for historical, cultural and other reasons, the ‘perceivedstatus’ of vocational education in China is still lower than that of other forms of highereducation (Li. S and Song 2014). There seems to be emerging, however, a new emphasis on

Int J Adv CounsellingDOI 10.1007/s10447-015-9248-1

* Mantak Yuenmtyuen@hku.hk

1 Centre for Advancement of Inclusive and Special Education, Faculty of Education, University ofHong Kong, Hong Kong, China

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the value of education with vocational content, and this may ultimately help to raise its status.Since 2014, increased attention has been paid by the Chinese State Council to accelerating thedevelopment of modern vocational education (Xinhua Net 2014). It is believed that this formof education may be instrumental in influencing the nation’s economic development andmodernization. Promoting students’ career development is also considered one of the mostappropriate approaches to improving the quality of the work force. After they graduate, mostvocational students inevitably will be part of the global labor market, and over the next twodecades China is expected to become the world’s main source for skilled workers (Unitedworkers of the world 2012).

There are, of course, many different factors that can influence students’ career developmentand aspirations. Among these, parents are now being recognized as playing an essential role(Hou 2004). Parents are usually the primary influence in encouraging adolescent sons anddaughters to explore their career targets and plan their appropriate paths (Young 1994). Atalmost all points along an individual’s career trajectory, career-related parental support is oneof the important factors contributing to successful development. Parents are also one of theresources (personal capital) that students can draw upon to help them cope with the stressesand challenges regularly faced when they are studying at vocational or other institutions andlater seeking employment (Du and Xie 2005).

Career-related parental support is essential for enhancing vocational students’ aspirations,self-efficacy, career decision-making, and career expectations: and for developing skills andattitudes that will increase employability. These qualities will ultimately help young adultsadapt to different types of career and work opportunities.

Career-related parent support can be conceptualized by drawing on Bandura’s (1977) notionof four sources or influences that affect the development of any individual’s self-efficacy. This isillustrated well by Turner et al. (2003) in their Career-Related Parent Support Scale. The scalecontains four main areas of parental support for educational and vocational development. Theseare: (a) instrumental assistance, which refers to parents’ material and financial support foryouths’ career-related skill development; (b) career-related modeling, which refers to parents’own working examples of relevant career behaviors and attitudes; (c) verbal encouragement,which refers to parents’ praise and positive comments associated with educational and careerdevelopment; and (d) emotional support, which refers to supporting adolescents through anytrials and obstacles they may encounter in relation to their educational and career development.

Significance of Studying Career-Related Parent Support for ChineseStudents

Chinese vocational students represent a population that merits a detailed study of career-relatedparental support. The general community view is that the academic performance of vocationalstudents is lower than that of university students (Ran and Chen 2014), and therefore they are oftenconsidered inferior to university students (Yu 2010). This situation causes some graduates to lackself-confidence when applying for jobs if they have to identify themselves as ‘vocational students’.For them, career-related support from parents (verbal and emotional) is particularly important.

Vocational students are also of interest to researchers and counselors, because their agerange (15 to 22 years) is an important stage in life when they transition from youth toadulthood. It is the stage during which they must develop an occupational (vocational) identity(Erikson 1959) and choose a career path (Porfeli and Savickas 2012). At this stage, all positive

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forms of career-related parent support are likely to make a contribution (Dietrich and Kracke2009; 이현주 2009, 2010a, b; Flores and O’Brien 2002). It has been reported that at least 40 %of vocational students consider their parents’ opinions carefully when making career choices(Zhang and Xia 2008).

An additional reason for studying parental support in this population is to discover any factorsrelating to parental socioeconomic status (SES), such as family income, parental education, andoccupational status that may affect the amount and quality of the support they might give. Thisinformation is important for vocational counselors and careers staff to know, because any advice thatthey give has to be compatible with the family’s ability to respond and make use of it. Research hasindicated that social class is often significantly related to career-related parent support and plays animportant role in young adults’ school-to-work transitions (Blustein et al. 2002). Studies suggest thatstudents from high SES background aremore likely to have parents who are not only supportive andwho actively encourage exploration in relation to career paths, but who are also instrumental inhelping with career planning. In contrast, those from low SES background typically do not receiveany significant instrumental help from parents regarding career exploration or obtaining informationabout career-related opportunities (Blustein et al. 2002).

It has been suggested in earlier studies that SES levels are relatively low in typicalvocational students’ families in China (Fu and Yang 2009; Wang 2014; Wang et al. 2013;Yu 2010). For example, an investigation showed that household incomes, vocational levels,and parental education levels of secondary vocational students’ families were significantlylower than those of regular high school students’ families (Wang et al. 2013). It was found thatworkers and agricultural laborers comprised the highest proportion of occupations amongparents of vocational students (Wang 2014), whereas the occupations of regular high schoolstudents’ parents were more diverse and included officials, enterprise administrators, techni-cians, and businessmen (Wang et al. 2013). In some cases, parents of vocational students wererural migrant workers who had recently moved to cities (Yu 2010).

Traditionally, China is a country that attaches great importance to ‘family’ and to family values.Parents usually play a very important role in their children’s education and career development, andthey usually possess high expectations regarding their children’s future (Hou et al. 2012; Hou andLeung 2011; Liu et al. 2015). This can be traced in part to the Chinese cultural stance of ‘Wang ZiCheng Long’, ‘Wang Nü Cheng Feng’ (望子成龙,望女成凤)―meaning parents hope that theirchildren will have a bright future. This hope has become even more of a driving force against abackground of the ‘one child policy’, where families tend to invest great efforts in supporting asingle child’s career path. However, families all differ in the extent to which they can offer support,due to such factors as family income, parents’ educational levels, and parents’ vocational status (Fuand Yang 2009; Wang 2014; Wang et al. 2013; Yu 2010).

Research on Career-Related Parent Support in Western Cultural Contexts

Evidence reported in Western countries has indicated that career-related parental support ispositively associated with students’ career decision-making self-efficacy (Gushue andWhitson2006; Lee and Mun 2011), career self-efficacy (Restubog et al. 2010; Turner and Lapan 2002;Young 1994), career expectations (McWhirter et al. 1998), career exploration (Dietrich andKracke 2009), career aspirations (Ma and Yeh 2010), career identity (Dietrich and Kracke2009; 이현주 2009, 2010a, b), career certainty (Constantine et al. 2005), career-related stress(Dietrich and Salmela-Aro 2013) and career salience (Diemer 2007).

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It is particularly worth noting that there appears to be a divergence between students andparents’ perceptions of supportive behavior, and these contrasts may have differential effectson goal orientation and career decision-making self-efficacy. In a study by Garcia et al. (2012),using a large sample of undergraduate students, it was evident that the students perceived theamount and nature of the support they received differently from the parents’ own perceptionsof that support. These differences in perception were related also to the relationship betweenstudents’ career decision-making self-efficacy and learning-goal orientation, which may pro-mote individuals to pursue continuous improvement and increased competence (Dweck andLeggett 1988; Elliott and Dweck 1988).

In terms of gender influences, results have also indicated that there is often a difference inperceived parental support as received from fathers and from mothers. The types of career-related support provided by fathers (e.g., instrumental advice and factual information aboutemployment) had a different effect on career decision-making self-efficacy, compared to theeffects of support received from mothers (e.g., emotional support, discussion and verbalencouragement) (Lee and Mun 2011). Similarly, in a different study involving MexicanAmerican female students (McWhirter et al. 1998), higher support received from motherspredicted greater career commitment, while higher support received from fathers had asignificant positive effect on educational plans. It was also found that levels of fathers’ supporthad a significant direct effect on female students’ career expectations.

Parental involvement not only appears to have a lateral relationship with career decision-making, career self-efficacy, career expectation, aspirations, career exploration, career identity,and career certainty, but also has longitudinal effects on goal-related stress and work salience(Diemer 2007; Dietrich and Salmela-Aro 2013). For example, research in Finland with asample of 807 adolescents examined the interaction of adolescents’ career goal motivation(autonomous vs. controlled) and appraisals (goal attainability, effort, progress, and stress) withtheir perceptions of parents’ career-related involvement (support or lack of engagement) duringpost-school transition. The adolescents were assessed twice in high school (at the ages 17 and18) and once after graduation (at age 21). Correlations were found between parents’ career-related involvement at age 18 and goal motivation, goal stress and goal attainability at age 21.It was also found that lower parental warmth at age 17 and higher lack of engagement at age 18predicted higher controlled motivation for pursuing career goals at age 21. In turn, higherlevels of controlled motivation at age 21 were found to predict higher levels of career goal-related stress at that same age (Dietrich and Salmela-Aro 2013).

A longitudinal American study investigated the impact of relational and instrumentalparental support on vocational expectations and work salience among disadvantaged youthof color (Diemer 2007), selected from a large-scale National Educational Longitudinal Studyin a group of American high schools. In this study, relational parental support was operation-alized into four indicators, (i) how often participants engaged in activities with their parents,(ii) how often participants discussed their troubles with parents, (iii) how often parentsdiscussed troubles with their adolescent children, and (iv) how frequently parents spent timetalking with their children. Instrumental parental support in this context referred to (i) howoften parents contacted the school about their teenager’s post-secondary plans, (ii) whetherparents attended any program about employment opportunities for their teenager, (iii) howoften parents discussed job opportunities with their teenager, and (iv) how often parentsdiscussed their teenager’s career plans with parents of their teenager’s friends. Work saliencewas operationally defined as how important participants felt it was to be successful in their lineof work and to be able to find steady employment.

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Participants were examined longitudinally from 12th grade to 2 years after they had finished highschool. Results suggested that relational and instrumental parental support had a direct effect onwork salience; and instrumental parental support had a significant indirect effect on the samedimension 2 years later. Furthermore, relational parental support had direct effects on vocationalexpectations and non-significant indirect effects on the same dimension 2 years later (Diemer 2007).

It needs to be noted here, that subjects investigated in most Western research on career-related parental support would not be classed as ‘vocational school students’, so directcomparisons with Chinese vocational students are not appropriate, given the differences ineducational focus involved, and the distinctive cultural differences (parenting styles; expecta-tions; aspirations; opportunities) between Eastern and Western countries.

Research on Career-Related Parent Support in a Chinese Cultural Context

As stated earlier, research in this field in China is a fairly new phenomenon, especially whencompared to the number of studies of career-related parental support inWestern countries. A searchof Mainland Chinese journal data-bases resulted in locating only one paper (Sun et al. 2015) andonly oneMaster’s-level dissertation published in the ‘ChineseMaster andDoctoral ThesisDatabase’(Hu 2009). A search of international journal data-bases (‘Web of Science’) revealed only two papersreferring to ‘career-related parental support’ for Chinese students (Cheng andYuen 2012; Guan et al.2015). The main points from these various studies are summarized below.

Hu (2009) developed an assessment scale focused on this research theme. The scalecontains thirty-six items and covers four dimensions―verbal encouragement, emotionalsupport, career-related modeling, and instrumental assistance. This is consistent with thestructure of the Career-related Parent Support Scale designed by Turner et al. (2003). AChinese version of this scale was developed in 2012 (Cheng and Yuen 2012), and proved tohave sound reliability and validity for use with Hong Kong high school students.

Hu’s (2009) modified version of the original scale―the Chinese Career-related ParentSupport Scale―was used by Sun et al. (2015) to investigate 324 Chinese medical universitystudents. The results revealed that there were significant differences in perceived career-relatedparent support (i) between male and female students, (ii) between students from one-child andmore-than-one-child families, and (iii) between students from urban and rural areas (Sun et al.2015). Specifically, the verbal encouragement and emotional support perceived by femaleuniversity students was significantly higher than that perceived by male students. The amountof career-related modeling provided by parents from one-child families was perceived bystudents as being significantly higher than that in families with more than one child, and alsoby students from urban areas more than from rural areas. The research also found that the morecareer-related parent support the students perceived, the less difficulties they encountered incareer decision-making (Sun et al. 2015).

A recent study (Guan et al. 2015) explored the effect of career-specific parent behaviors oncareer exploration and career adaptability in Chinese university graduates. Results showed thata high level of parental support and low level of parental interference had positive effects onstudents’ career exploration. This in turn positively predicted their career adaptability. Bycontrast, lack of parental career engagement had a direct negative effect on career adaptability.

It is evident that our knowledge of the situation in regard to career-related parental supportfor Chinese vocational students is inadequate. To overcome this, several limitations in theextant Chinese research need to be addressed in future studies. First, participants in studies so

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far have been either standard university students (Sun et al. 2015; Hu 2009) or high schoolstudents (Cheng and Yuen 2012). Future research needs to explore vocational and technicalstudents in particular. Second, in Chinese contexts in general we have yet to determine therelationships between career-related parent support and variables such as career decision-making, career self-efficacy, and career identity, as well as the impact of this area of supporton career expectations, career aspirations, career exploration, and career certainty. Third,studies should investigate in practical ways how interventions might be used to enhance andencourage career-related parental support.

Implications for Practice

In order to develop effective strategies to support vocational school students’ career develop-ment, career guidance counsellors need to take into account the possible effects of the career-related support students may or may not be receiving from home. In some cases this supportmay be of tremendous help to the student, providing him or her with clear goals, emotional andmaterial support, and a sense of direction. In this situation, career staff and teachers can oftenwork collaboratively with parents to the benefit of the student. In other cases, it may be that theexpectations of parents are unrealistic, and cause the student to make bad choices. Unrealisticexpectations and parental pressure may also cause some students to experience ongoing stress.In some situations, there may be a total lack of involvement from parents of vocationalstudents, leading to the student feeling as if he or she is unsupported in matters of careerdecision-making and goal-setting. This can also lead to stress (Dietrich and Salmela-Aro 2013)and later may have negative effect on career adaptability (Guan et al. 2015).

Where possible, it may be helpful for vocational school staff to meet with parents andstudents to help modify expectations and to plan for more achievable career paths. In thisrespect, it may be important sometimes to recognize that parents may interact differently withsons and with daughters, and may have different career expectations for each (Lee and Mun2011; McWhirter et al. 1998).

In the case of families where parental support is lacking or insufficient, counselors andcareer staff may encourage students to take the initiative, and communicate more assertivelywith their parents about their future and their career paths. If this serves to open up betterchannels of communication, counselors may then invite parents to participate in the counselingprocess to discuss their child’s career development. The counselor may need to specify clearlyto parents the types of instrumental and emotional support that have proved elsewhere to beeffective in helping with career planning. This can be strengthened by providing parents andstudents with concrete examples.

In the case of low SES families, it is presumed that there may be fewer resources in the home,and less time, consciousness or incentive to provide active support to adolescents needing toready themselves for employment. Counselors may, therefore, need to take on more responsi-bility for supporting students, but at the same time helping the parents, where necessary, to seekmore social supports and resources in the community. But even in these extreme cases, parentsfrom low SES backgrounds can still be counseled and encouraged to show interest in their son’sor daughter’s career explorations, and to give them emotional support.

Finally, all schools should consider providing parents with timely information and advice onhow to encourage their child’s career planning in a positive and supportive way. This advice couldoccur towards the end of the primary school stage, and could then be reinforced throughmeetings

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and communications during secondary and vocational school years. It should not be assumed thatall parents naturally understand their roles in supporting a student on the path to employment.This may be particularly true of parents with poor educational standards. Advice on ‘supportingyour child’s career plans’ should be a core item of information passed on to all families.

Future Research

Several suggestions can be made for improving future research in this domain within theChinese context. First, most of the recent studies on career-related parental support have beencross-sectional rather than longitudinal; and even in the few extant longitudinal studies thefocus has been on high school students rather than young adults (Diemer 2007; Dietrich andSalmela-Aro 2013). Future studies are likely to reveal more valuable information if they caninvolve a longitudinal design that allows vocational students’ career aspirations, influences andoutcomes to be studied over time, from adolescence through to young adulthood.

Most of the research methods used in recent studies have involved descriptive statistics,correlation analysis and regression analysis. Future designs could employ differential itemfunction (DIF), which is an advanced statistical method stemming from item response theory(IRT), to discover effect factors besides the trait levels in different groups (Cao 2003). Anotherlimitation is that different instruments have been used to investigate career-related parentsupport across studies, which means that results from these studies cannot be compared easily.It is, therefore, recommended that a unified measure (such as the Career-related ParentSupport Scale; Turner et al. 2003), with suitably assessed validity and reliability for localsettings, be used within both Western and Eastern cultures to meet future research needs.

It is recommended here, that empirical studies yielding practical implications should beemphasized in future research. The effects of specific interventions to improve career-specificparent behaviors may be explored, with particular reference to low SES families, familieslacking support, and with vocational students who are not confident in their career pathdevelopments. In the Chinese context, cultural differences exist due to the one-child policy.It would be valuable to investigate in more detail how this policy influences the nature, depthand quality of career-related support families provide, especially for vocational students.

Additionally, studies have suggested that support from fathers and mothers play differentroles in an individual’s career development (cf., Lee and Mun 2011; McWhirter et al. 1998).Future research could explore this aspect to discover more precisely how fathers and mothersdiffer in their career-related interactions with sons and daughters, and how their careerexpectations may perhaps differ for boys and girls. This knowledge could better inform thesupportive communications that professionals have with parents; for example, fathers may bepraised for the instrumental type of support they provide, while at the same time encouragingthem to perhaps include more verbal and emotional support. Mothers can be praised for theiruse of emotional support and their willingness to talk with their son or daughter, while beingmade aware also of the value of providing information and guidance on career options.

Conclusion

Career-related parental support plays an essential role in the process of promoting students’career development. Research has confirmed that this form of support is positively associated

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with career decision-making, career self-efficacy, career expectations, career aspirations, careerexploration, career identity, career certainty, career-related stress and career salience. Career-related support from parents is of particular importance for students in Chinese vocationalschools, especially those coming from families with low SES standing and low educationalbackground. However, compared with research on career-related parent support in Westerncountries, studies in China are still at a very preliminary stage. To date, there is only limitedresearch data involving Chinese vocational students, and there is the potential for much moreto be done to help families and students in this regard.

Acknowledgments The paper is based on Jiahong Zhang’s PhD research under the supervision of Mantak Yuenand Gaowei Chen.

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