adolescenti-tineri adulti cariera.pdf

7/27/2019 adolescenti-tineri adulti cariera.pdf

1/10

O R I G I N A L P A P ER

Positive Parenting During Adolescence and Career Successin Young Adulthood

Mellissa S. Gordon Ming Cui

Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Abstract Research findings suggested that positive par-

enting behaviors during adolescence continue to have lastingeffects on children, even when they enter young adulthood;

though few studies have investigated how positive parenting

behaviors affect career success in young adulthood. Career

success is central to young adults identity formation, life

satisfaction, marital relations and mental health. In this

study, we examine how positive parenting behaviors influ-

ence young adults career success. Using a large, nationally

representative, and longitudinal sample, results from

regression analyses suggested that positive parenting

behaviors during adolescence were positively associated

with young adults career outcomes, including career satis-

faction, career autonomy, career commitment, and income.Furthermore, the association between positive parenting

during adolescence and career success was mediated in part

by education attainment in young adulthood.

Keywords Career success Educational attainment

Positive parenting Young adulthood

Introduction

Career success reflects an important developmental mile-

stone for young adults (Arnett2002; Shanahan et al.2002),

as its benefits have been well documented in the literature.

For example, those reporting career success also reportgreater life satisfaction (Khattab and Fenton 2009), less

disruption to marital relations (Schoen et al. 2002), and

better mental health (Paul and Moser 2009). For many,

after receiving copious amounts of education, full-time

employment is particularly challenging (Blossfeld et al.

2005). This difficulty is perhaps further enhanced when the

economic climate is less than ideal (e.g., the current job

market, Bureau of Labor Statistics 2011). However,

regardless of economic conditions, there are variations in

career success among young adults, with some being more

successful in career achievement than others (Mortimer

et al. 2008; Staff et al. 2010).According to Cuzzocrea (2011), several factors may

contribute to successful career achievement; among them,

family of origin (e.g., parenting) plays a rather distinct role

in the career trajectories of young adult children. Few

studies however, have explored the association between

parenting in adolescence and young adults career success

(Evans et al. 2001). Further, family researchers have

examined and found support for the association between

positive parenting during adolescence and various indi-

vidual outcomes, such as externalizing and internalizing

behaviors (Gopalan et al.2009; Kim and Brody2005), and

academic achievement (Benner and Mistry2007; Seyfried

and Chung2002). Relatively less attention, however, has

been directed towards career outcomes for youth once they

have entered young adulthood (Cuzzocrea 2011). Under-

standing the association between positive parenting during

adolescence and young adults career success has signifi-

cant implications for young adults (Hwang and Chang

2009; Franz et al. 1991).

According to Banduras (1977) social learning theory,

parents communicate to their children the importance of

M. S. Gordon (&)Department of Human Development and Family Studies,University of Delaware, 111 Allison Hall West, Newark,DE 19716, USAe-mail: [email protected]

M. CuiDepartment of Family and Child Sciences, The Florida StateUniversity, 216 Sandels Building, Tallahassee, FL 32303, USA

1 3

J Child Fam Stud

DOI 10.1007/s10826-013-9887-y


2/10

certain ideals, suchas education and career, through parenting

behaviors. The theorys strong focus on the importance of

parents in shaping the outcomes of their children provides an

ideal platform from which to explore the association between

parenting behavior during adolescenceandthe eventualcareer

successes of young adults. As social learning theory suggests,

children have the opportunity to learn from their parents,

about the importance of education early on, and what it maymean for later successes in life, such as providing certain

benefits in ones career in young adulthood. Such positive

attitudes and behaviors will likely render adolescence greater

success in the workplace in young adulthood (i.e., higher-

paying jobs, higher-status work).

More broadly, the effect of positive parenting during

adolescence on young adults career success is also con-

sistent with the life course perspective, which suggests that

individuals later life trajectories are influenced by earlier

parenting behaviors (Elder and Giele2009). The concept of

linked lives suggests that parents and children are con-

nected and that parenting affects various aspects of childadjustment. Such parenting effect cumulatively influences

children over the life course (DiPrete and Eirich 2006).

Therefore, based on social learning theory as well as the

life course perspective, we propose that positive parenting

during adolescence is positively associated with career

success in young adulthood.

Further, as social learning theory suggests (Bandura

1977), young adults are afforded the opportunity to observe

and further internalize the beliefs and values of their par-

ents as it relates to education. Indeed, it is likely that with

positive parenting during adolescence, young adult chil-

dren may achieve better educational attainment (Bureau ofLabor Statistics2011; Malanchuk et al.2010). Educational

attainment, in turn, promotes subsequent career success

(Arum and Hout1998). Therefore, based on social learning

theory, we also propose that the effect of positive parenting

during adolescence on career success could be mediated

through educational attainment in young adulthood.

Establishing career success is a salient feature of

adulthood. As Arnett (2002) suggests, career establishment

may in fact, be of higher importance than other demarca-

tions of adulthood such as marriage and parenthood.

Howard et al. (2010) examined factors that contribute to

life satisfaction within a sample of young adults between

the ages of 18 and 25. They found that career success and

life satisfaction were highly correlated. Similarly, other

researchers have established positive associations between

career success and marital success as well as between

career success and better mental health outcomes (Amato

and Beattie 2011; Paul and Moser 2009). Given the

important implications associated with career success, the

current study explores the effects of positive parenting

during adolescence on career success in young adulthood.

Empirical findings relating to career success tend to be

somewhat ambiguous because researchers differ in their

conceptualizations of what exactly constitutes career suc-

cess (Mahmood et al. 2011). For example, it is not

uncommon for researchers to attempt to conceptualize this

concept into a single variable of career satisfaction

(Grandey et al. 2005). However, career satisfaction alone

may fail to adequately capture the different dimensions ofcareer success. Such operationalization may lead to mis-

interpretations of the findings relating to individual

dimensions of ones career. Therefore, it is imperative that

the domains of career success are assessed adequately,

which would involve assessments of various domains

(Boerjan et al. 2010). One goal of the present study is to

establish an association between positive parenting during

adolescence and the specific aspects of career success in

young adulthood. A review of the literature suggested that

career success entails career satisfaction, career autonomy,

career commitment, and income (Mahmood et al. 2011;

Boerjan et al. 2010; Meyer and Allen 1991; Malanchuket al. 2010). In this study, we will evaluate these four

aspects of career success.

Career satisfaction, by far, has been one of the most

frequently assessed variable of career success in the

research literature (Haihua et al. 2011; Mahmood et al.

2011; Cohrs et al. 2006). Defined broadly, career satis-

faction refers to employees general emotional relatedness

to matters relative to their place of employment (Mahmood

et al.2011). Career autonomy is another important aspect

of career success. It pertains to the freedom that one has to

self-govern as well as their ability to manage and organize

important aspects related to their career (Boerjan et al.2010; Morgeson et al. 2005). A higher level of career

autonomy reflects the importance and flexibility of the

nature of ones career and is indicative of lower levels of

career-related stress (Boerjan et al. 2010; Lee and Phillips

2006; de Rijk et al. 1998). Career commitment encom-

passes psychological and circumstantial (e.g., emotional

and situational events) states that relate to specific com-

mitment-related attitudes and behaviors to ones career

(Meyer and Allen1991; Mowday et al. 1979). These atti-

tudes and behaviors further reflect the individuals desire to

either maintain or discontinue their involvement with their

place of employment (Meyer and Allen1991). Finally, as

adults enter paid employment with the intention of earning

a wage, income conceivably serves as a demarcation of

career success. Employees tend to perceive their earnings

more favorably when they feel they are earning a wage

comparable to that of their fellow employees (Ram and

Prabhakar 2010). It is important to note that the four

aspects of career success are inter-related. For example,

those who have higher income tend to also display higher

levels of commitment to their employers (Hwang and

J Child Fam Stud

1 3


3/10

Chang 2009; Wang et al. 2010) and tend to also report

higher satisfaction with their careers (Bozeman and Gau-

ghan 2011; Pouliakas and Theodossiou 2010). However,

these four aspects, though related, represent four different

dimensions of career success.

With many studies examining the association between

parenting and various aspects of child outcomes, very few

empirical studies have focused on career success in youngadulthood (e.g., Rasdi et al. 2009). Weisner et al. (2003)

found that individuals who reported greater parental

involvement during childhood and adolescence were also

likely to report being consistently employed and college

educated in young adulthood. Hargrove et al. (2002) had

similar findings relative to parentchild relationships and

career success in young adulthood. These studies are lim-

ited, however, in that they focused on career choice, such

as the level of parents approval towards ones chosen

career, rather than career success (Altman 1997; Heslin

2005). Given the implications associated with successful

career outcomes, it is important to establish how positiveparenting during adolescence may contribute to career

success in young adulthood. In this paper, we will examine

how positive parenting during adolescence influence career

success in young adults. Based on social learning theory

and the limited research evidence, we hypothesized a

positive association between positive parenting during

adolescence and career success in young adulthood.

Further, such positive association between parenting in

adolescence and young adults career success could be

explained through the cumulated educational attainment in

young adulthood. Some studies have demonstrated an

association between parenting and young adults educa-tional attainment (Fass and Tubman2002; Gordon and Cui

2012). For example, Weisner et al. (2003) reported that

young adults whose parents were highly involved during

adolescence were also more likely to report higher educa-

tional attainment in young adulthood. Findings were also

consistent with those provided by Fan and Chen (2001).

Additionally, researchers have demonstrated an associ-

ation between educational attainment and career success in

young adulthood. Weisner et al. (2003) suggested that

young adults with greater levels of educational attainment

were also more likely to report being consistently

employed. Furthermore, Ng et al. (2005) reported that

educational attainment in young adulthood was related to

higher salaries and greater career satisfaction. Given the

literature relating to the associations between positive

parenting during adolescence and young adults educa-

tional attainment and between educational attainment and

career outcomes, we proposed that the association between

positive parenting during adolescence and young adults

career success would be mediated through their educational

attainment.

In sum, the goal of the present study is to investigate

whether there is an association between positive parenting

during adolescence and young adults career success. We

hypothesized that there was a positive association between

positive parenting during adolescence and career success

among young adults (H1), and that such an association

would be partially mediated through young adults educa-

tional attainment (H2). Several family and individualcharacteristics will be controlled for, as earlier studies

suggests that they may influence career success, including

gender (e.g., Mahmood et al.2011), age (e.g., Cheung and

Tang 2010), race/ethnicity (e.g., Guillory 2001), parental

education (e.g., Gibbons et al. 2011), and family structure

(e.g., Louis and Zhao2002).

Method

Participants

Data utilized in this study came from the National Longi-

tudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), in which

data was collected in four waves (Wave I in 1994/5, Wave

II in 1995/6, Wave III in 2001/2, and Wave IV 2007/8).

Add Health is a nationally representative school-based

sample and is funded in part by the National Institute of

Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Because

parenting measures were collected in Wave I and young

adults career outcomes were available in Wave IV, the

current study used Wave I and Wave IV of Add Health.

There were N =18,749 participants included in the

analyses at Wave I, due to 1,282 excluded because ofinvalid sampling weights, and an additional 714 excluded

due to missing data on the variables of interest. Of the

15,701 participants who complete follow-up interviews at

Wave IV, only 9,291 had valid sampling weights. Of those

with valid sampling weights, 8,770 provided data on the

variables of interest. Therefore, N =8,770 were included

in the analyses (Biemer and Aragon-Logan2010; Chantala

2006; Tourangeau and Shin1999). The final sample sizes

varied slightly by each career outcome variable. Based on

attrition analyses, males, African American, and those in

lower grades in previous waves were more likely to have

dropped from the study. Attrition bias is further minimized

by longitudinal weights, which were provided by the Add

Health investigators.

Procedure

Wave I of the Add Health project went under way during

the 19941995 school years, and data were collected from

20,745 adolescents in grades 7 through 12, attending 132

schools. Participants completed in-home interviews

J Child Fam Stud

1 3


4/10

relating to demographic information, family structure,

parenting, parent-adolescent relationship, peer relations

and adolescent adjustment. Follow-up interviews for Wave

IV is the most recent data collected to date. Interviews

were completed in 2007 and 2008 and included 15,701

participants. The participants ranged from 24 to 32 years

of age at Wave IV. Detailed descriptions of sampling

procedures provided by Harris and colleagues (2008) canbe found at the following website:http://www.cpc.unc.edu/

projects/addhealth/design.

Measures

Positive Parenting Behavior During Adolescence

Positive parenting behavior during adolescence variable

was assessed in Wave I and included three sub-scales. The

first is parental involvement. Adolescent participants were

asked about their parents involvement in their school-

related activities, such as how often the parent had talkedabout their schoolwork or grades, talked about other things

they were doing in school, and worked with them on a

project for school (0 = no and1 = yes). There were three

items asked for mothers and fathers; the scores for mothers

and fathers were averaged across parents. The alphas were

.59 for mothers and .59 for fathers. The correlation between

scores for mothers and fathers were .64 (p\ .00). The

second sub-scale of parenting was parental expectation.

Adolescent participants were asked to report how disap-

pointed their father or mother would be if they did not

graduate from college (one item) and high school (one

item). The response ranged from 1 = lowto 5 = high. Thetwo items for mothers (r = .45, p\ .00) and for fathers

(r =.50, p\ .00) were averaged across parents (r = .57,

p\ .00 between fathers and mothers). The last sub-scale of

parenting was parental support. Adolescent participants

were asked of each parent, how close they feel to their

parents, and how much they think their parents care about

them. The response ranged from 1 =not at allto 5 = very

much. The two items were asked about mothers (r = .61)

and fathers (r = .53), and the items were combined to

create an average across fathers and mothers (r =.43).

Finally, the three subscales were standardized and then

averaged together to create a score of positive parenting

during adolescence. The overall alpha was .73.

Career Success in Young Adulthood

Career success was assessed in Wave IV with four separate

outcome variables, career satisfaction, career autonomy,

career commitment, and income. Career satisfaction was

created by asking the target participant how satisfied (are/

were) you with this job, as a whole. Responses ranged from

1 =extremely satisfied to 5 = extremely dissatisfied.

Scores we reverse coded so that higher scores indicated

higher satisfaction. Career autonomy was created by ask-

ing target participant, overall, how often (do/did) you have

the freedom to make important decisions about what you

(do/did) at work and how you (do/did) it? Responses ran-

ged from 0 = none to 3 = all the time. Career commit-

mentwas created by asking target participants, Which oneof the following best describes your (current/most recent)

primary job? Possible responses were, 1 = it is part of my

long-term career or work goals, 2 = it is preparation for

my long-term career or work goals,3 = it is not related to

my long-term career or work goals, and4 =I do not have

a long-term career or work goals. Scores were reverse

coded so that higher scores indicated higher career com-

mitment. Finally, income was created by asking partici-

pants the following question, In the previous year, how

much income did you receive from personal earnings

before taxes, that is, wages or salaries, including tips,

bonuses, and overtime pay, and income from self-employment? Participants reported a dollar amount cor-

responding to their income. Due to the skewness of the

data, amount in dollars was quintiled (i.e., divided into five

equal categories), then categorized as follows: 1 = less than

or equal to 12,000; 2 = greater than 12,000 and less than

or equal to 25,000; 3 = greater than 25,000 and less

than or equal 35,000;4 =greater than 35,000 and less than

or equal to 50,000; and 5 =greater than 50,000.

Educational Attainment in Young Adulthood

Educational attainment in young adulthood was alsoassessed in Wave IV. Respondents were asked to report the

highest level of education they had completed. The coding

listed various degrees completed (e.g., 8th grade or less,

completed college,completed a doctoral degree,etc.). The

list was then converted to a continuous variable of educa-

tional attainment level, ranging from 8 = eighth grade or

lessto 20 = complete doctoral or other equivalent degree.

Covariates

Family and individual covariates were assessed at Wave I.

Adolescentage was measured in years. Adolescent gender

was coded as 0 = maleand 1 = female.Race and ethnicity

were assessed by five dummy variables, including White

(reference category), African American, Hispanic, Asian,

and others. Parents education was assessed by four

dummy variables: college education or more, some college

education, high school graduation (reference category), or

less than a high school education. Last, family structure

was assessed by five dummy variables: two-biological

parents (reference category), stepfamilies, single-mother

J Child Fam Stud

1 3
http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/designhttp://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/designhttp://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/designhttp://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/design


5/10

families, single-father families, and other families (Cui

et al. 2012).

Results

Add Health data collection incorporates a complex

approach, which includes the oversampling of certaingroups. This was done in order to generate a nationally

representative sample and to account for the possible

influence of subsequent attrition rates. Using the statistical

software package Stata, svy estimation, and the

weighting variables determined based on the wave that was

used at each stage of the analysis (Chantala 2006; Tou-

rangeau and Shin 1999), Stata is most appropriate for

addressing the stratified and clustering design of the Add

Health data. For such reasons, the current study uses Stata

to analyze the data.

Descriptive statistics were provided in Table1. The

mean for positive parenting was .31 (SD = 2.31). Partici-pants reported a mean career satisfaction of 3.86, a mean of

1.89 for career autonomy, and a mean of 2.98 for career

commitment. The majority of participants reported an

income less than $35,000. The mean for educational

attainment in young adulthood was 14.67. Participants

average age was 15.76 in Wave I, and approximately half

were females. Most identified as White (70.6 %), while,

13.8 % identified as Black, 11.3 % as Hispanic, .03 % as

Asian, and .01 % as other race and ethnicity. Most parents

reported having completed college (35.4 %), 21.7 %

reported they had come college experience, 31.5 % of the

parents completed high school, and 11.4 % reported theyhad obtained less than a high school diploma. About 59 %

of the participants reported belonging to a two-biological

parent household.

H1 proposed that positive parenting during adolescence

would have a significant positive relationship with career

success (i.e., career satisfaction, autonomy, commitment,

and income). To test this hypothesis, multiple regressions

were used. Before testing the final models, we tested the

associations between positive parenting and career success

separately by gender. Results (not shown) suggested that

parenting was significantly and directly related to each

individual dimension of career success similarly for both

males and females. For example, for the career satisfaction

outcome, the coefficient from parenting was .091 (p\ .05)

for males and .106 (p\ .05) for females. Given that par-

enting works in similar ways across gender, we tested the

model using the whole sample. Specifically, positive par-

enting during adolescence was included as a predictor, and

career success variables (i.e., career satisfaction, career

autonomy, career commitment, and income) were included

as separate outcomes. In addition, covariates were also

included. Table2 shows the results. For all parameter

estimates, unstandardized parameters were reported.

The results in Table2 displayed several important

findings. First, as was hypothesized, positive parenting

during adolescence was positively and significantly asso-

ciated with each dimension of young adults career success,

including career satisfaction (b =.10, p\ .01), career

autonomy (b = .08, p\ .01), career commitment

(b =.13, p\ .01), and income (b =.18, p\ .01). The

R-squares for the models were 2 % in career satisfaction,

2 % in career autonomy, 4 % in career commitment, and

12 % in income. In addition, regarding the covariates,

compared to their male counterparts, female participants

reported significantly lower career autonomy, commitment,

and income. Compared with Whites, Blacks reported

Table 1 Summary of descriptive variables (N =8,770)

Variable Mean or%

SD Min Max

Career satisfaction 3.86 .94 1 5

Career autonomy 1.89 .94 0 3

Career commitment 2.98 .98 1 4

Income\12,000 21.9 %

12,00025,000 21.8 %

25,00035,000 20.2 %

35,00050,000 18.9 %

[50,000 17.2 %

Positive parenting .31 2.31 -6.66 4.47

Educational attainment 14.67 2.20 8 20

Covariates

Age 15.76 1.57 11.56 21.14

Female 50.1 %

Race and ethnicity

White (reference) 70.6 %

Black 13.8 %

Hispanic 11.3 %

Asian 2.96 %

Other race/ethnicity 1.34 %

Parental education

Less high school 11.4 %

High school (reference) 31.5 %

Some college 21.7 %

College 35.4 %

Family structure

Two-biological parents(reference)

59.0 %

Step families 16.1 %

Single-mother families 19.2 %

Single-father families 2.8 %

Other families 2.9 %

J Child Fam Stud

1 3


6/10

significantly lower career satisfaction, autonomy, commit-

ment, and income. Finally, parents higher education was

positively associated with young adults career autonomy,

commitment, and income.

H2 proposed that the effect of positive parenting duringadolescence was partially mediated through educational

attainment. In order to test this hypothesis, multiple

regressions were used where positive parenting in adoles-

cence at Wave I, along with young adults educational

attainment at Wave IV, were included to predict career

success at Wave IV. In addition, covariates were also

included. Table3shows the results.

First, educational attainment was strongly related to all

career success variables: career satisfaction (b = .09,

p\ .01), career autonomy (b =.06, p\ .01), career

commitment (b = .08, p\ .01), and income (b = .11,

p\ .01). The R-squares for the models were 2 % in careersatisfaction, 2 % in career autonomy, 10 % in career

commitment, and 18 % in income. Second, though the

significance was reduced, positive parenting during ado-

lescence still had a significant effect on all career success

outcomes. Separate analyses (not shown) indicated a sig-

nificant association between positive parenting during

adolescence and educational attainment. Formal tests of

mediating effects (Baron and Kenny 1986; Kenny et al.

1998; Shrout and Bolger 2002) suggested that educational

attainment in young adulthood partially mediated the

association between positive parenting and each measure

of career success (i.e., 3.32, p\ .05 for career satisfaction,

2.30,p\ .01 for career autonomy, 3.91,p\ .01 for career

commitment, and 4.15, p\ .01 for income).Finally, regarding covariates, compared to young men,

young women reported lower levels of career autonomy,

commitment, and income. Compared to Whites, Blacks

reported lower levels of career satisfaction, autonomy,

commitment, and income.

Discussion

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Ado-

lescent Health (Add Health), the present study is among thefirst of its kind to examine the association between positive

parenting during adolescence and young adults career

success. Based on social learning theory and life course

perspective, we hypothesized that positive parenting during

adolescence was positively associated with young adults

career success (H1). Using multiple regression analyses,

findings support the association between positive parenting

during adolescence and each domain reflecting career

success in young adulthood.

Table 2 Association between Parenting during adolescence and career success in young adulthood

Variables Career satisfactionN =8,770

Career autonomyN =8,767

Career commitmentN =8,767

Income N =8,471

b SE b SE b SE b SE

Positive parenting .10** .02 .08* .03 .13** .03 .18** .04

Covariates

Age .01 .01 .01 .01 .02* .01 .08** .02

Female -.02 .03 -.13** .03 -.13** .03 -.62** .04

Hispanic -.06 .05 -.11* .05 -.06 .05 .16 .08

Black -.25** .05 -.13* .04 -.20** .04 -.29** .07

Asian -.11 .08 .05 .06 .01 .09 .09 .14

Other race and ethnicity -.40** .12 -.15 .12 -.25 .14 .23 .18

Less than high school .02 .05 -.03 .05 -.10 .05 -.26** .07

Some college -.02 .04 .05 .05 .11** .04 .17** .05

College -.04 .03 .09** .03 .18** .03 .42** .05

Step families -.06 .04 .03 .04 -.06 .04 -.09 .06

Single-dad families -.12 .09 .17* .09 .04 .08 -.07 .12

Single-mom families .07 .05 .04 .05 -.01 .05 -.04 .07

Other family structure -.03 .09 .03 .10 -.08 .08 -.09 .11

Constant -.12 -.11 2.68 1.89

F (14, 115) =6.10** F (14, 115) =5.40** F (14, 115) =22.82** F (14, 115) =41.80**

R2 =2 % R2 =2 % R2 =4 % R2 =12 %

Unstandardized coefficients reported. * p\ .05. ** p\ .01

J Child Fam Stud

1 3


7/10

Such findings were consistent with both Banduras

social learning theory as well as the life course perspective.

By examining positive parenting during adolescence and

its effect on young adults career success, the findings haveimportant implications. First, as Erikson (1959) suggests,

establishing a career is a major aspect of identity forma-

tion, especially as individuals move into adulthood. As

such, young adults career success increases their success

in other domains of development (e.g., Hargrove et al.

2002). Second, the findings of this study also supported

previous literature suggesting that early parenting influ-

ences individual career outcomes, namely career satisfac-

tion, career autonomy, career commitment, and income in

young adulthood (e.g., Flouri2006, Haihua et al.2011). As

Banduras social learning theory (1977) would imply,

parents behavior towards their adolescent becomes an

embedded feature of the adolescents value system passed

down to them from their parents. For example, if parents

consider earning a high income as a demarcation of career

success, their adolescent may be brought up in a way that

reflects this value, and as such, parents would likely raise

their adolescent to evaluate their career success on the basis

of earning a high income. Adolescents, once they reach

young adulthood, would then in turn, come to appraise

their career success in a similar way.

Additionally, as previous studies tend to measure job

satisfaction as being the sole contributor of individuals

career success (e.g., Grandey et al. 2005), findings from

this study suggests that, perhaps, different aspects of careersuccess should be addressed individually, given that they

may in fact contribute in very different ways to an indi-

viduals idea of what they regard as successful. For

example, even though positive parenting during adoles-

cence had a direct and positive influence on all aspects of

young adults career success, it seemed to have the stron-

gest effect on income. The overall income model accoun-

ted for approximately 12 % of the variance explained

(though both direct and indirect effects were relatively

small, Wilkinson1999).

We further examined whether positive parenting during

adolescence was indirectly associated with young adults

career success through young adults educational attain-

ment (H2). Regarding the mediating effects of educational

attainment on the association of positive parenting and

career success, results from this study suggested that edu-

cational attainment served as a significant mediating

mechanism for all four career outcomes with similar

magnitudes. Such findings suggested that educational

attainment is equally important in influencing the various

aspects of career success (i.e., career satisfaction, career

Table 3 Association between parenting in adolescence and career success in young adulthood, mediated by educational attainment

Variables Career satisfactionN =8,770

Career autonomyN =8,767

Career commitmentN =8,767

Income N =8,471

b SE b SE b SE b SE

Positive Parenting .09** .02 .06** .03 .08** .03 .11** .04

Educational attainment .02** .01 .03** .01 .12** .01 .18** .01

Covariates

Age .01 .01 .01 .01 .02 .01 .07** .01

Female -.03 .03 -.15** .03 -.20** .03 -.72** .04

Hispanic -.06 .05 -.11* .05 -.05 .05 .17* .08

Black -.24** .05 -.12** .04 -.17** .04 -.27** .06

Asian -.13 .08 .03 .06 -.07 .10 .00 .14

Other race and ethnicity -.40** .12 -.14 .11 -.23 .12 .24 .17

Less than high school .04 .05 -.01 .05 -.01 .05 -.13 .07

Some college -.03 .04 .02 .05 .02 .04 .03 .05

College -.08* .04 .04 .04 -.01 .03 .12* .05

Step families -.06 .04 .04 .04 -.04 .04 -.06 .05

Single-dad families .12 .09 .17 .09 .02 .09 -.10 .11

Single-mom families .07 .05 .03 .05 -.04 .05 -.08 .06

Other family structure -.02 .09 .04 .09 -.02 .08 -.01 .12

Constant -.41 -.53 1.15 -.48

F (15,114) =6.62** F (15,114) =7.32** F (15,114) =35.93** F (14, 115) =66.83**

R2 =2 % R2 =2 % R2 =10 % R2 =18 %

Unstandardized coefficients reported. * p\ .05. ** p\ .01

J Child Fam Stud

1 3


8/10

autonomy, career commitment, and income). Results were

consistent with several other studies (Ng et al. 2005; We-

isner et al. 2003). For example, the significant mediating

effects of educational attainment on positive parenting

during adolescence and income, suggests that perhaps

young adults who perceive earning a high income to be a

demarcation of career success would perform exceptionally

well in school in an effort to place themselves in the bestposition possible in an effort to attain an high income

career.

The finding added support to the current literature sug-

gesting that positive parenting during adolescence affected

young adult childrens career success, at least partially,

through young adults educational attainment. The signif-

icant direct association between positive parenting during

adolescence and young adults career success held, even

after adding educational attainment, suggesting that,

despite the effect of education on career success, early

positive parenting remained a powerful factor directly

affecting young adults career success. Future studies mayconsider other potential mechanisms that explain the

association between positive parenting during adolescence

and young adults career success, such as adolescent

adjustment, interpersonal relationships, and career moti-

vation (e.g., Day and Allen2004).

There were several demographic variables that were

found to have a significant relationship with young adults

career success, a few of which are particularly noteworthy.

For one, Blacks consistently scored lower than Whites

across all career success dimensions (Mau and Kopischke

2001). The literature suggested that this is likely a result of

perceived discrimination reported by Blacks in the work-place (Mau and Kopischke 2001). Findings were also

similar for young women, with females scoring lower on

three out of four career success variables.

The present study certainly fills a much-needed gap in

the current literature, as it suggests that positive parenting

during adolescence continues to influence young adult

childrens career success. However, the current study is not

without limitations. First, our study used participants self-

reports. Self-reports are often problematic in that they pose

threats to the measures reliability and validity (Schwartz

1999). Additionally, the fact that the same respondent used

to assessing both the independent and dependent variable

introduces problems associated with shared method vari-

ance (Marsiglio et al. 2000). Future studies need to incor-

porate reports from others (e.g., parents, observers) with a

multi-informant approach to gain a better understanding of

the association between parenting and young adult career

outcomes.

Second, as indicated earlier, other possible mechanisms

could account for the association between positive par-

enting during adolescence and young adults career

success. For example, future studies could investigate the

extent to which career motivation and career self-efficacy

influences career success (e.g., Hargrove et al. 2002).

Third, this study only included a few positive parenting

measure; future studies should include more items that

capture a broader range of positive parenting behaviors. At

the same time, future studies should also include negative

parenting with positive parenting to examine their effectssimultaneously and interactively. Finally, even though the

findings were statistically significant, the effect sizes are

relatively small (though small effects do not mean trivial

effects) (Wilkinson1999).

Despite the limitations, this study improved upon pre-

vious studies in several ways. First, it among the first to

examine the association between positive parenting during

adolescence and young adult childrens career success.

Second, unlike previous studies assessing career outcomes

using a single aspect of career success (e.g., Grandey et al.

2005), this study evaluated the multiple dimensions of

career success, including career satisfaction, career auton-omy, career commitment, and income. Third, unlike pre-

vious studies examining successful career outcomes within

a specific career context (e.g., career success among sec-

ondary school teachers, Mahmood et al. 2011), this study

used the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

(Add Health), a large, nationally representative, and lon-

gitudinal sample, to reflect the overall working population.

Lastly, various individual and parental characteristics are

included, as suggested by the literature as possibly having

an effect on successful career outcomes.

Employment is becoming more and more of a scarce

commodity, even though it is such an important contributorto an individuals livelihood. Findings from this research

suggests that the lasting effects of positive parenting during

adolescence can help to solidify successful outcomes for

children above and beyond their secondary and even post-

secondary years. As such, positive parenting should be

encouraged during the formative years as this helps to

establish the foundation for successful child outcomes later

on in life. Epstein (1995) suggests some ways in which

parents can learn to establish such positive parenting

behaviors during adolescence. Suggestions include parents

making an effort to be directly involved with their ado-

lescent childrens schooling, taking part in programs and

workshops that encourage positive parenting, and main-

taining a relationship with other individuals who may

potentially influence their children in significant ways (i.e.,

teachers and peers). Furthermore, with the help of online

resources such as Harvard FINE (Harvards Family

Involvement network of Educators, an online resource

supported by Harvard universitys graduate school of

education), parents can have access to useful resources that

further support and encourage positive parenting.

J Child Fam Stud

1 3


9/10

Acknowledgments This research was supported by a Grant(1R03HD064836) fromthe Eunice KenneyShriverNational Institute ofChild Health and Human Development. This study uses data from AddHealth, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris anddesigned by J. Richard Udry, Peter, S. Bearman, and Kathleen MullanHarrisat theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded bya Grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health andHuman Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federalagencies and foundations. Special acknowledgement is due Ronald R.

Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design.Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available onthe Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No directsupport was received from Grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

References

Altman, J. H. (1997). Career development in the context of familyexperiences. In H. S. Farmer (Ed.), Diversity and womenscareer development: From adolescents to adulthood (pp.229242). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Amato, P. R., & Beattie, B. (2011). Does the unemployment rateaffect the divorce rate? An analysis of state data 19602005.Social Science Research, 40, 705715.

Arnett, J. J. (Ed.). (2002). Readings on adolescence and emergingadulthood. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Arum, R., & Hout, M. (1998). The early returns: The transition fromschool to work in the United States. In Y. Shavit & W. Mu ller(Eds.),From school to work: A comparative study of educationalqualifications and occupational destinations (pp. 471510).Oxford: Clarendon.

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall.

Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderatormediatorvariable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual,strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personalityand Social Psychology, 51, 11731182.

Benner, A., & Mistry, R. (2007). Congruence of mother and teachereducational expectations and low-income youths academiccompetence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 140153.

Biemer, P. P., & Aragon-Logan, E. D. (2010). National longitudinalstudy of adolescent health: Wave IV weights user guide. NorthCarolina: RTI International.

Blossfeld, H. P., Klijzing, E., Mills, M., & Kurz, K. (2005).Globalization, uncertainty and youth in society. London, NewYork: Routledge Advances in Sociology Series.

Boerjan, M., Bluyssen, S., Bleichrodt, R., van Weel-Baumgarten, E.,& van Goor, H. (2010). Work-related health complaints insurgical residents and the influence of social support and job-related autonomy. Medical Education, 44, 835844.

Bozeman, B., & Gaughan, M. (2011). Job Satisfaction amonguniversity faculty: Individual, work, and institutional determi-

nants. Journal of Higher Education, 82, 154186.Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment Situation New Release.Retrieved November, 2011. Washington, DC: U.S. Departmentof Labor (bls.gov/schedule/archives/empsit_nr.htm).

Chantala, K. (2006). Guidelines for analyzing Add Health data.National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Chapel Hill:University of North Carolina.

Cheung, F., & Tang, C. (2010). Effects of age, gender, and emotionallabor strategies on job outcomes: Moderated mediation analyses.

Applied Psychology: Health and Well-being, 2, 323339.Cohrs, J. C., Abele, A. E., & Dette, D. E. (2006). Integrating

situational and dispositional determinants of job satisfaction:

Findings from three samples of professionals. Journal ofPsychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 140, 363395.

Cui, M., Ueno, K., Fincham, F. D., Donnellan, M. B., & Wickrama,K. A. S. (2012). The association between romantic relationshipsand delinquency in adolescence and young adulthood.Personal

Relationships, 19, 354366.Cuzzocrea, V. (2011). Squeezing or blurring: Young adulthood in the

career strategies of professionals based in Italy and England.Journal of Youth Studies, 14, 657674.

Day, R., & Allen, T. D. (2004). The relationship between careermotivation and self-efficacy with protegecareer success.Journalof Vocational Behavior, 64, 7291.

de Rijk, A. E., Le Blanc, P. M., Schaufeli, W. B., & de Jonge, J.(1998). Active coping and need for control as moderators of thejob demand-control model: Effects on burnout. Journal ofOccupational and Organizational Psychology, 71, 118.

DiPrete, T. A., & Eirich, G. M. (2006). Cumulative advantage as amechanism for inequality: A review of theoretical and empiricaldevelopments. Annual Review of Sociology, 32, 271297.

Elder, G., & Giele, J. (Eds.). (2009). The craft of life course research.New York: Guilford.

Epstein, J. L. (1995). School/family/community partnerships: Caringfor the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan, 76, 701712.

Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life-cycle. PsychologicalIssues, 1, 18164.

Evans, K., et al. (2001). Reconstructing fate as choice? Young, 9(3),228.

Fan, X., & Chen, M. (2001). Parental involvement and studentsacademic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychol-ogy Review, 13, 122.

Fass, M. E., & Tubman, J. G. (2002). The influence of parental andpeer attachment on college students academic achievement.Psychology in the Schools, 39(5), 561573.

Flouri, E. (2006). Parental interest in childrens education, childrensself-esteem and locus of control, and later educational attain-ment: Twenty-six year follow-up of the 1970 British birthcohort. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 4155.

Franz, C. E., McClelland, D., & Weinberger, J. (1991). Childhoodantecedents of conventional social accomplishment in midlifeadults: A 36-year prospective study. Journal of Personality andSocial Psychology, 60, 586595.

Gibbons, M. M., Woodside, M., Hannon, C., Sweeney, J. R., &Davison, J. (2011). The lived experience of work and career:Women whose parents lack postsecondary education. Career

Development Quarterly, 59, 315329.Gopalan, G., Cavaleri, M. A., Bannon, W. M., & McKay, M. M.

(2009). Correlates of externalizing behavior symptoms amongyouth within two impoverished, urban communities. Child andYouth Services, 31, 92120.

Gordon, M., & Cui, M. (2012). The effect of school-specific parentingprocesses on academic achievement in adolescence and youngadulthood. Family Relations, 61, 711908.

Grandey, A. A., Cordeiro, B. L., & Crouter, A. C. (2005). A

longitudinal and multi-source test of the workfamily conflictand job satisfaction relationship. Journal of Occupational andOrganizational Psychology, 78, 305323.

Guillory, E. A. (2001). The Black professoriate: Explaining the salarygap for African-American female professors.Race, Ethnicity andEducation, 4, 225244.

Haihua, L., Guoping, S., & Dengfeng, W. (2011). The influence ofself-efficacy on flight dispatchers stressor-strain relationships.Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 39,839850.

Hargrove, B. K., Creagh, M. G., & Burgess, B. L. (2002). Familyinteraction patterns as predictors of vocational identity and

J Child Fam Stud

1 3
http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealthhttp://bls.gov/schedule/archives/empsit_nr.htmhttp://bls.gov/schedule/archives/empsit_nr.htmhttp://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth


10/10

career decision-making self-efficacy. Journal of VocationalBehavior, 61, 185201.

Harvard family research project: Family involvement network ofeducators (FINE). Retrieved Nov 1, 2011, http://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/fine-family-involvement-network-of-educators.

Heslin, P. A. (2005). Conceptualizing and evaluating career success.Journal of Organizational behavior, 26(2), 113136.

Howard, A. L., Galambos, N. L., & Krahn, H. J. (2010). Paths to

success in young adulthood from mental health and lifetransitions in emerging adulthood. International Journal of

Behavioral Development, 34, 538546.Hwang, J. I., & Chang, H. H. (2009). Work climate perception and

turnover intention among Korean hospital staff. InternationalNursing Review, 56, 7380.

Kenny, D. A., Kashy, D., & Bolger, N. (1998). Data analysis in socialpsychology. In D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.),

Handbook of social psychology (4th ed., pp. 233265). NewYork: McGraw-Hill.

Khattab, N., & Fenton, S. (2009). What makes young adults happy?Employment and non-work as determinants of life satisfaction.Sociology, 43, 1126.

Kim, S., & Brody, G. H. (2005). Longitudinal pathways topsychological adjustment among black youth living in single-parent households. Journal of Family Psychology, 19, 305313.

Lee, J., & Phillips, S. J. (2006). Work and family: Can you have it all?Psychologist-Manager Journal, 9, 4157.

Louis, V. V., & Zhao, S. (2002). Effects of family structure, familySES, and adulthood experiences on life satisfaction. Journal ofFamily Issues, 23, 9861005.

Mahmood, A., Nudrat, S., Asdaque, M., Nawaz, A., & Haider, N.(2011). Job satisfaction of secondary school teachers: Acomparative analysis of gender, urban and rural schools. AsianSocial Science, 7, 203208.

Malanchuk, O., Messersmith, E. E., & Eccles, J. S. (2010). Theontogeny of career identities in adolescence. New Directions forChild and Adolescent Development, 130 , 97110.

Marsiglio, W., Amato, P., Day, R., & Lamb, M. (2000). Scholarshipon fatherhood in the 1990s and beyond. Journal of Marriage andthe Family, 62, 11731191.

Mau, W., & Kopischke, A. (2001). Job search methods, job searchoutcomes, and job satisfaction of college graduates: A compar-ison of race and sex. Journal of Employment Counseling, 38,141149.

Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1991). A three component conceptu-alization of organizational commitment. Human Resource Man-agement Review, 1, 6189.

Morgeson, F. P., Delaney-Klinger, K., & Hemingway, M. A. (2005).The importance of job autonomy, cognitive ability, and job-related skill for predicting role breadth and job performance.

Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 399406.Mortimer, J. T., Vuolo, M., Staff, J., Wakefield, S., & Wanling, X.

(2008). Tracing the timing of career acquisition in a

contemporary youth cohort. Work and Occupations, 35, 4484.

Mowday, R., Steers, R., & Porter, L. (1979). The measurement oforganizational commitment.Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14,224247.

Ng, T. W. H., Eby, L. T., Sorensen, K. L., & Feldman, D. C. (2005).Predictors of objective and subjective career success: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 58, 367408.

Paul, K. I., & Moser, K. (2009). Unemployment impairs mentalhealth: Meta-analyses. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74,264282.

Pouliakas, K., & Theodossiou, I. (2010). Differences in the jobsatisfaction of high-paid and low-paid workers across Europe.

International Labour Review, 149, 129.Ram, P., & Prabhakar, G. V. (2010). Determinants of pay satisfaction:

A study of the hotel industry in Jordan. European Journal ofSocial Science, 14, 442454.

Rasdi, R. M., Ismail, M., Uli, J., & Noah, S. M. (2009). Towardsdeveloping a theoretical framework for measuring public sectormanagers career success. Journal of European IndustrialTraining, 33, 232254.

Schoen, R., Astone, N., Rothert, K., Standish, N. J., & Kim, Y. J.(2002). Womens employment, marital happiness, and divorce.Social Forces, 81, 643662.

Schwartz, N. (1999). Self-reports: How the questions shape theanswers. American Psychologist, 54, 93105.

Seyfried, S., & Chung, I. (2002). Parent involvement as parentalmonitoring of student motivation and parent expectationspredicting later achievement among African American andEuropean American middle school age students. Journal ofEthnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 11, 109132.

Shanahan, M. J., Mortimer, J. T., & Kruger, H. (2002). Adolescenceand adult work in the twenty-first century. Journal of Researchon Adolescence, 12, 99.

Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2002). Mediation in experimental andnonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations.Psychological Methods, 7, 422445.

Staff, J., Harris, A., Sabates, R., & Briddell, L. (2010). Uncertainty inearly occupational aspirations: Role exploration or aimlessness?Social Forces, 89, 659683.

Tourangeau, R. & Shin, H.C. (1999). Grand sample weights. AddHealth User Guides.http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/data/guides. Accessed 12 Nov 2013.

Wang, C., Chen, M., Hyde, B., & Hsieh, L. (2010). Chineseemployees work values and turnover intentions in multinationalcompanies: The mediating effect of pay satisfaction. Social

Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 38,871894.

Weisner, M., Vondracek, F. W., Capaldi, D. M., & Porfeli, E. (2003).Childhood and adolescent predictors of early adult careerpathways. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63, 305328.

Wilkinson, L. (1999). Statistical methods in psychology journals:Guidelines and explanations.American Psychologist, 54(8), 594.

J Child Fam Stud

1 3
http://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/fine-family-involvement-network-of-educatorshttp://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/fine-family-involvement-network-of-educatorshttp://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/fine-family-involvement-network-of-educatorshttp://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/data/guideshttp://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/data/guideshttp://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/data/guideshttp://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/data/guideshttp://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/fine-family-involvement-network-of-educatorshttp://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/fine-family-involvement-network-of-educatorshttp://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/fine-family-involvement-network-of-educators

adolescenti-tineri adulti cariera.pdf

Documents

Transcript of adolescenti-tineri adulti cariera.pdf