How Family Influences Your Career Choice
Parental influences have a direct effect on the development of an individual’s moral identity, personality, and career choice. During adolescence, it is very likely to be more susceptible to family influence. More importantly, families have a large impact on what career path their children may choose.
A way that parents could directly influence their children’s career path would be by giving the most needed career advice. An example of how parents indirectly influence their children would be by exposing the adolescent to their morals, values, and norms. When children are exposed to their parents’ beliefs, this can result in the individual steering away from certain career choices and following their guardian’s ideals and beliefs.
Other factors such as church and peer influences are generally overridden by home and school. According to the article “An Analysis of how Parents Influence Their Children’s Career Decisions,” the home environment has its strongest influence during preschool and then in primary school years (Chifamba C., 2019). While in school, mostly all of the non-formal career guidance is from his/her immediate environment.
It is also common for parents to influence their children through the socialization process (Chifamba C., 2019). The acknowledgment of gender in an individual often impacts what toys, clothes, and activities their parents will provide for them. Parental perspectives on gender roles are likely to impact the way the child will view society. Another factor of how a parent can influence a child’s career choice may depend on how nurturing the parents are. Or if they provide proper education and financial support. A parents’ values and drive for success also have a tremendous impact on an individual (Chifamba C., 2019).
Parents are often a child’s number one role model. What we value as individuals will be passed onto future generations. Guardians have a substantial effect on the choices that their children will make. So it is important to remind ourselves that our actions have an impact.
