Exploring the Influence of Family-of-Origin on the Career Aspirations of High Ability Adolescent Women

Abstract

The current study sought to understand how girls' perceptions of their parents' gender role attitudes and the career aspirations parents have for their daughters influence girls' career aspirations and planfulness in regard to multiple roles. A non-experimental field survey explored how variables of interest related to each other in a sample 161 female junior and senior students attending an urban, single-sex, public high school populated primarily college-bound women. Cluster analyses revealed three groupings of girls with varying levels of career aspiration and planfulness for future multiple roles depending on their perceptions of themselves as achievers, their perceptions of their parents' career aspirations. Findings also included significant relationships between parents' and daughters' attitudes in regard to vocational and relational gender roles, and in regard to agreement between their levels of career aspiration for the daughters. Implications of the study and suggestions for future research building upon the findings are discussed.