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Career-specific Parental Behaviors, Career Exploration and Career Adaptabil-ity: A Three-Wave Investigation among Chinese Undergraduates

Yanjun Guan, Fuxi Wang, Haiyang Liu, Yueting Ji, Xiao Jia, ZhengFang, Yumeng Li, Huijuan Hua, Chendi Li

PII: S0001-8791(14)00137-7DOI: doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2014.10.007Reference: YJVBE 2843

To appear in: Journal of Vocational Behavior

Received date: 6 September 2014

Please cite this article as: Guan, Y., Wang, F., Liu, H., Ji, Y., Jia, X., Fang, Z., Li,Y., Hua, H. & Li, C., Career-specific Parental Behaviors, Career Exploration and CareerAdaptability: A Three-Wave Investigation among Chinese Undergraduates, Journal ofVocational Behavior (2014), doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2014.10.007

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.10.007

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.10.007

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Parental Behaviors and Career Adaptability 1

Running head: Parental Behaviors and Career Adaptability

Career-specific Parental Behaviors, Career Exploration and Career Adaptability:

A Three-Wave Investigation among Chinese Undergraduates

Yanjun Guan1,4

*, Fuxi Wang2*, Haiyang Liu

3, Yueting Ji

4, Xiao Jia

4, Zheng Fang

4, Yumeng

Li4, Huijuan Hua

4 and Chendi Li

4

1 University of Surrey, UK

2 Rutgers University, USA

3 Peking University, Beijing, China

4 Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

*Corresponding author: Fuxi Wang ([email protected]), School of Management

and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, USA.

Acknowledgement: This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the

Central Universities, and the Research Funds of Renmin University of China (Project

13XNJ018).

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Fuxi Wang <[email protected]>

Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations

94 Rockafeller Road.

Piscatway, NJ 08854-8054

Phone number: 1-224-848-0692

fax number: 732-445-2830

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Abstract

The current research examined the effects of career-specific parental behaviors

(reported by parents at time 1) on Chinese university students’ career exploration (reported by

students at time 2) and career adaptability (reported by students at time 3). A survey study

was conducted among Chinese university graduates (N = 244) and their parents (N = 244).

The results supported a mediation model such that a high level of parental support and a low

level of parental interference had beneficial effects on Chinese undergraduates’ career

exploration, which in turn positively predicted their career adaptability. Lack of parental

career engagement had a direct negative effect on career adaptability. Significant interaction

effects were also found among these three types of parental behaviors such that at a lower

level of lack of parental career engagement, the positive effects of parental support, as well as

the negative effects of interference on career exploration were stronger. The corresponding

moderated mediation models were also supported. These findings carry implications for

research on career construction theory and career counseling practices.

Key words: career-specific parental behaviors, career exploration, career adaptability

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Career-specific Parental Behaviors, Career Exploration and Career Adaptability:

A Three-Wave Investigation among Chinese Undergraduates

From a developmental perspective, most undergraduate students are in the stage of

emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000), which allows for various exploratory activities to identify

one's future career possibilities, and to develop relevant abilities to cope with diverse

challenges in career development. Faced with many difficulties and uncertainties,

undergraduates still need guidance from external sources, among which the interventions and

suggestions provided by their parents cannot be easily substituted (Bryant, Zvonkovic, &

Reynolds, 2006). Career-specific parental behaviors refer to the concrete actions parents use

to guide the career development of their children (Dietrich & Kracke, 2009). Career-specific

parental behaviors are related to the general aspects of parental practices, such as general

parenting styles (Tracey, Lent, Brown, Soresi, & Nota, 2006) and attachment styles with

children (Blustein, Walbridge, Friedlander, & Palladino, 1991); at the same time, this concept

also captures parents’ specific understandings and interventions for the career development of

their children (Zhao, Lim, & Teo, 2012).

Dietrich and Kracke (2009) found that parental support (parents encourage youths to

explore their career possibilities and provide advice whenever necessary), parental

interference (parents intend to control their children's career preparation and career

aspirations by imposing their own preferences), as well as the lack of parental career

engagement (parents’ inability or reluctance to get involved in their children's career

development) serve as the basic elements of career-specific parental behaviors. Recent

research has showed that these parental behaviors significantly predicted career exploration

and career decision-making difficulties of adolescents, as well as the career self-efficacy of

university students (Dietrich & Kracke, 2009; Zhao, Lim, & Teo, 2012). In spite of the

progress, there still exist questions related to the roles of these parental practices in the career

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development of university students. First, previous research mainly relied on offspring’s

perceptions to measure career-specific parental behaviors (Dietrich & Kracke, 2009; Zhao,

Lim, & Teo 2012). Although the validity of this operationalization has been supported, there

still exists the need to measure this construct from the perspective of parents, to further

corroborate previous findings (Dietrich & Kracke, 2009; Garcia, Restubog, Toledano,

Tolentino, & Rafferty, 2012). Second, previous research mainly focused on the behavioral

(career exploration) and social-cognitive (career decision-making difficulties and career self-

efficacy) outcomes, but not much work has been done to examine how parental practices

affect undergraduates’ adaptive-abilities related to their career development.

The current research aims to address these gaps through the following ways. First, to

better estimate the effects of these parental practices on undergraduates’ career-related

outcomes, we adopted parents’ self-reports to measure career-specific parental behaviors, and

examined their relations with students’ self-reports of career-related outcomes. In addition,

we measured the key variables at three time points, to reduce the potential common method

variance (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). Second, we also examined the

relations between career-specific parental practices and Chinese undergraduates’ career

adaptability (Savickas, 1997, 2005, 2013). As career adaptability refers to the self-regulatory

resources that help individuals to cope with the challenges and difficulties in their career

transitions (Savickas, 1997), research into the antecedents of career adaptability will carry

great implications in helping individuals to achieve positive career outcomes. To the best of

our knowledge, there exists only one study that reveals a positive relationship between

undergraduates’ perception of parental support and their career adaptability (Tian & Fan,

2014). By using the three-factor framework of parental behaviors and a more direct method

to measure these behaviors, the current research examined parental influence on

undergraduates’ career adaptability in a more comprehensive and rigorous way.

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In addition, the current research also examined the dynamic relations among these

variables by testing the mediating role of career exploration, as well as the interactive effects

of different types of parental behaviors on outcome variables. Based on previous research

(Bartley & Robitschek, 2000; Blustein, 1997; Jordaan, 1963; Stumpf, Colarelli, & Hartman,

1983), we propose that undergraduates’ career exploration behavior will serve as the proximal

predictor of their career adaptability, and mediate the effects of parental practices on career

adaptability. From a self-determination perspective (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000),

we further propose that as these three types of parental behaviors are closely related to the

need fulfillment of competence, autonomy and relatedness in undergraduates’ career

exploration, therefore career exploration will be positively predicted by parent support, but

negatively predicted by parental interference and lack of parental career engagement. In

addition, this research also examined the interactions among these three types of parental

behaviors, to explore how the combination of different types of parental behaviors affects

undergraduates’ career exploration and adaptability.

Career Exploration and Career Adaptability

According to career construction theory (Savickas, 1997, 2005, 2013), career

adaptability depicts the multiple psychological resources involved in the problem-solving

process in one’s career development, including career concern (the ability of considering

future possibilities and preparing for these possibilities), career control (the ability of making

deliberate decisions and taking conscientious actions), career curiosity (the strength of

exploring various situations and roles) and career confidence (the positive beliefs on one’s

problem-solving skills across different situations). To develop these adaptive-abilities,

individuals need to continuously gain insights of their own characteristics and the complexity

of working environments through various personal experiences (Savickas, 2013). As career

exploration refers to the activities that enable individuals to collect and analyze information

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that is relevant to their career development (Blustein, 1997; Jordaan, 1963; Stumpf, Colarelli,

& Hartman, 1983), we argue that career exploration may serve as a proximal antecedent for

individuals’ career adaptability.

Career exploration includes self-exploration and environmental exploration (Stumpf

et al., 1983). Through self-exploration, individuals can thoroughly examine their own

interests, values, and experiences and thus form a clear image about who they are and how

these internal attributes shape their future careers (Blustein, 1989; Flum & Blustein, 2000;

Stumpf et al., 1983). Environmental exploration enables individuals to make more informed

career decisions by collecting information on jobs, organizations and occupations (Blustein,

1992, 1997; Neimeyer, 1988; Super & Hall, 1978; Werbel, 2000). It has been established that

both self-exploration and environment-exploration activities play important roles in helping

individuals to identify suitable job opportunities, achieve better employment and cope with

the difficulties and challenges in their career transitions (Zikic & Klehe, 2006; Werbel, 2000).

In this study, we propose that the continuing course of career exploration behaviors

may contribute to the development of career adaptability. First of all, career exploration

promotes the search for valuable information related to self-appraisal or adjustment to

different jobs and occupations (Blustein, 1992, 1997; Super & Hall, 1978), which yields

useful insights that advance a person to a gratifying career choice, therefore career

exploration is likely to promote students’ strength in exploring various situations and

potential roles (career curiosity). As previous research has showed that career exploration

correlates positively with future-oriented mental process, such as goal-directedness (Blustein,

1989), personal growth initiative (Robitschek & Cook, 1999) and the formation of ego

identity (Blustein, Devenis, & Kidney, 1989), we thus propose that by collecting and

processing relevant information, career exploration also motivates individuals to seriously

consider their future career possibilities and prepare for these possibilities (career concern).

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In addition, previous research also suggest that the activities involved in career exploration

also promote students’ abilities of making deliberate decisions and taking conscientious

actions (Blustein & Phillips, 1988), therefore career exploration is very likely to strengthen

the abilities of career control. The engagement of these exploration activities can also

promote the self-efficacious beliefs in their problem-solving skills during their career

development (Blustein, 1989; Lent & Hackett, 1987), therefore we propose that career

exploration will also promote students’ career confidence. Based on the above discussion, we

propose that:

Hypothesis 1: Career exploration will be positively related to career adaptability.

The Roles of Parental Career-specific Behaviors

From the perspective of career construction theory (Savickas, 1997, 2005, 2013),

career is a process motivated by individuals’ willingness to gain insights for their future

career development and life meanings, therefore individuals’ intrinsic motivation plays an

important role in their career exploration and career adaptability development. Consistently,

self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) also emphasizes the role of intrinsic

motivation in driving individuals’ behavior across different life domains. It is also argued that

by fulfilling individuals’ need for autonomy, competence and relatedness, contextual factors

can promote individuals’ intrinsic motivation and proactive behaviors (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

In this study, we propose that the three types of parental behaviors are closely related to the

need fulfillment of competence, autonomy and relatedness in undergraduates’ career activities,

therefore they will serve as significant predictors for undergraduates’ career exploration.

The first factor, parental support, emphasizes parents’ supporting behaviors in

encouraging youths’ exploration activities (e.g., seeking information, getting apprenticeship

opportunities) and giving suggestions on their career development when needed. From the

perspective of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000), these

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supportive behaviors help youths explore valuable information and experiences to gain their

insights for future career development, therefore undergraduates’ sense of competence will be

improved by parental supportive behaviors. As a result, they will be motivated to initiate

career exploration activities. Consistently, previous research has showed the positive effects

of parental support on career exploration across different research samples (Dietrich &

Kracke, 2009; Neuenschwander & Kracke, 1997; Phillips et al., 2001; Phillips et al., 2002;

Schultheiss et al., 2001).

The second factor, parental career interference, refers to parents’ controlling behavior

in offspring’s career development, such as implementing their own ideas in offspring’s career

choices or interfering too much on their career preparation. When parents try to enforce their

own ideas on their offspring’s career development, these practices are likely to inhibit youths'

sense of autonomy and erode their intrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci,

2000). Accordingly, previous research has found that youths under over-controlling parental

practices are more passive in their career preparation, and displayed a high level of

behavioral inhibition and lack of exploration activities (Grotevant & Cooper, 1988; Young et

al., 2001). Therefore, in current research we also propose that parental career interference will

be negatively related to career exploration, and will also has a negative effect on career

adaptability.

Lack of parental career engagement refers to the low level of parents’ involvement in

youths’ career preparation. This lack of parental career engagement may be due to low

importance attributed to youths’ career issues, or because parents may not be capable of

helping youths to cope with the challenges in their career development (Mortimer et al.,

2002). From a self-determination perspective, undergraduates who lack the parental

engagement not only perceive a high level of difficulty in solving the problems in their career

exploration, but also experience a low level of social relatedness with parents when exploring

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their future career possibilities. Existing literature shows that neglectful parental practices

have negative effects on adolescents’ career exploration (Vignoli, Croity-Belz, Chapeland,

Fillipis, & Garcia, 2005). Therefore, in the present study, lack of parental career engagement

is hypothesized to be negatively related to undergraduates’ career exploration, which in turn

predicts career adaptability.

Hypothesis 2: Undergraduates’ career adaptability will be positively predicted by

parental support and negatively predicted by parental interference and lack of parental career

engagement, with these relations mediated by undergraduates’ career exploration.

In addition to the main effects discussed above, previous research also suggests that

the three types of parental behaviors also interplay with each in predicting career exploration

and career decision-making difficulties (Dietrich & Kracke, 2009). The current research also

explored these possibilities by examining how these parental behaviors interact with each

other in predicting career exploration and career adaptability. Based on the self-determination

theory, we propose that as a high level of parent support leads to a high sense of competence,

a low level of interference leads to a high level of autonomy, and a low level of lack of

parental career engagement promotes the feeling of relatedness; the combination of a high

level of parental support, a low level of interference, and a low level of lack of parental career

engagement may produce the optimal effect on undergraduates’ career exploration behavior,

as well as the their career adaptability.

Hypothesis 3: The positive effects of parental support on career exploration and career

adaptability will be stronger when parents display a higher level of engagement (H3a); the

negative effects of interference on career exploration and career adaptability will be stronger

when parents display a higher level of engagement (H3b); the positive effects of parental

support on career exploration and career adaptability will be stronger when parents display a

lower level of interference (H3b).

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Method

Participants and procedure

Data were collected from a university in North China and participants were recruited

by the career center of this university by sending advertisement through emails and phone

messages. Participants were informed that the data will be only used for research purpose and

their personal information will be kept confidential. At the first wave (June 2013), each

participant was required to contact his/her father or mother to complete the survey on career-

specific parental behaviors. The completed questionnaires were mailed back to the career

center by postage prepaid envelope service. Parents were asked to sign consent forms before

completing the questionnaires. The second wave of data collection was completed in

September 2013 in a big classroom and participants completed the questionnaires on career

exploration. The third wave of data collection was completed in October 2013 in the same

classroom and participants completed the questionnaires on career adaptability. To reduce the

attrition rate, participants who provided valid responses for all the three waves of

questionnaires were rewarded a gift worth 10 RMB (around $2 US). Each participant

received a debriefing report after completing the third-wave questionnaires.

Two hundred and forty-four full data sets were obtained. The mean age of

undergraduate participants (60% females) was 21.11 (SD = 1.29). 34.8% of participants

indicated their majors as “natural sciences”, 15.6% indicated “social sciences”, 13.5%

indicated “arts or humanities”, and 36.1% indicated “interdisciplinary or others”. Their

average annual family income was 36,658 (around $ 6100 US) RMB (SD = 33,669). For

family economic status, 2.9% of participants indicated their family economic status as “very

poor”, 24.9% indicated “poor”, 30.7% indicated “below the average”, 36.9% indicated

“average”, 4.1% indicated “above the average”, 0.4% indicated “rich” and no participants

indicated “very rich”. For the parents (52.5% mothers), their average age was 47.07 (SD =

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5.33). For parents’ education, 19.3% were primary school level or below, 36.9% were junior

middle school, 24.2% were senior middle school, 10.2% had an associate degree, 9.0% had a

bachelor’s degree, 0.4% had a master’s degree or higher.

Measures

Career adaptability. Undergraduates’ career adaptability was measured by the

Chinese version of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (Hou et al., 2012), which consists of 24

items that are divided equally into four subscales measuring the adaptive resources of

concern, control, curiosity and confidence. Participants responded to each item on a scale

from 1 (not strong) to 5 (strongest). For the global indicator, the Cronbach alpha was .95. For

each dimension, Cronbach's alpha was .87 for career concern, .90 for career control, .85 for

career curiosity and .90 for career confidence.

Career-specific parental behaviors. Career career-specific parental behaviors were

measured by the scale developed by Dietrich and Kracke (2009). The items were modified to

fit the perspective of parents. For example, the original item “my parents talk to me about my

vocational interests and abilities” was changed to “I talk to my child about his/her vocational

interests and abilities”. (“1” = completely disagree, 5 = completely agree). Cronbach's alpha

was .84 for lack of parental career engagement, .89 for parental support, and .90 for parental

interference.

Career exploration. Career exploration was assessed by the scale developed by

Stumpf et al. (1983), which consist of 5 items on self exploration and 6 items on environment

exploration. As these two sub-scales were highly correlated with each other (r = .69, p

< .001), in the current study we calculated the average score of these 11 items to represent

undergraduates’ career exploration. Cronbach's alpha was .92.

Control variables. In this study, we measured and controlled student`s gender, age,

grade and major (dummy coded, “natural sciences” as reference group), parents’ gender, age,

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education, socio-economic status, and family income (Ln transformed to correct skewed

distribution).

Results

Descriptive and correlations

The descriptive statistics and inter-correlations among parental support, parental

interference, lack of parental career engagement, undergraduates’ career exploration and

career adapt-ability were presented in Table 1. Career adaptability correlated positively with

career exploration (r =.32, p < .001), parental support (r = .21, p < .01) and correlated

negatively with lack of parental career engagement (r = -.27, p < .001), but not correlated

with parental interference (r = -.12, ns). Career exploration correlated positively with parental

support (r = .41, p < .001), negatively with lack of parental career engagement (r = -.19, p

< .01) and parental interference (r = -.19, p < .01). At the dimension level, career exploration

correlated most closely with career curiosity (r = .35, p < .001).

----------------------------------

Insert Table 1 here.

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Testing for mediation effects

We examined the mediation role of career exploration with the procedure developed

by Preacher and Hayes (2008). Prior to the analyses, all continuous predictors were mean

centered (Aiken & West, 1991). The results showed that after controlling for the effects of

students’ age, grade, gender, major, family income, socio-economic status, parents’ age,

education and gender, family career support (β = .36, p < .001) and family career interference

(β = -.13, p < .01) were significantly related to undergraduates’ career exploration, while the

effect of lack of parental career engagement was not significant (β = .04, ns). The positive

relationship between career exploration and career adaptability was also significant after

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controlling for the effects of career-specific parental behaviors and control variables (β = .19,

p < .001). In addition, lack of parental career engagement had a direct negative relationship

with career adaptability (β = -.11, p < .05) after controlling for other parental behaviors and

career exploration. The bootstrapping results indicated that the indirect effect of parent career

support on career adaptability through career exploration was significant, with a 95% CI not

containing zero ([.03, .12]); the indirect effect of parent career interference was also

significant, with a 95% CI not containing zero ([-.05, -.01]). The results of bootstrapping also

showed that lack of parental career engagement had a direct effect on career adaptability,

with a 95% CI not containing zero ([-.20, -.03]). In sum, career exploration fully mediated the

effects of parental support and interference on career adaptability, but lack of parental career

engagement had a direct effect on career adaptability.

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Insert Table 2 here.

---------------------------------

To further examine these relations at the dimensional level of career adaptability, we

conducted hierarchical regression analyses by using the four dimensions of career

adaptability as the outcome variable. The bootstrapping results indicated that parental career

support had significant indirect effects on career curiosity (Effect size = .08, 95% CI =

[.04, .15]), career confidence (Effect size = .08, 95% CI = [.04, .13]) and career concern

(Effect size = .06, 95% CI = [.01, .12]), but not on career control (Effect size = .04, 95% CI =

[-.004, .11]). The indirect effects of parental career interference on career curiosity (Effect

size = -.03, 95% CI = [-.06, -.01]), career confidence (Effect size = -.03, 95% CI = [-.06, -

.01]), and career concern (Effect size = -.02, 95% CI = [-.05, -.01]) were significant, but the

indirect effect on career control was non-significant (Effect size = -.02, 95% CI = [-.04, .001]).

Testing for moderation effects

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We first tested whether there existed three-way interaction among these parental

behaviors in predicting career exploration and the results showed that this interaction was

non-significant (β = .001, ns). We then examined the two-way interactions among these

parental behaviors and found a significant interaction between parental support and lack of

parental career engagement (β = -.09, p < .05), and an interaction between parental

interference and lack of parental career engagement (β = .08, p < .01). As showed in Figure 1,

when lack of parental career engagement is higher (one SD above the mean), parental support

was positively related to career exploration (β = .21, p < .01); when lack of parental career

engagement is lower (one SD below the mean), this relationship was stronger (β = .44, p

< .001). Figure 2 showed that when lack of parental career engagement is higher (one SD

above the mean), parental interference was not related to career exploration (β = -.001, ns);

when lack of parental career engagement is lower (one SD below the mean), this relationship

was significant (β = -.19, p < .001).

----------------------------------

Insert Figure 1 and Figure 2 here.

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We further examined whether lack of parental career engagement also moderated the

indirect effects of the other two parental behaviors on career adaptability by using the

procedure outlined by Hayes & Scharkow (2013). Hayes & Scharkow (2013) recommended

bootstrapping techniques to assess the significance of conditional indirect effects.

Researchers may examine the magnitude of the indirect effect (via the mediator) of the

independent variable on the dependent variable, at a range of values of the moderator

(typically, one standard deviation above and below the mean). Researchers can use

bootstrapping techniques to generate confidence intervals for the magnitude of the indirect

effects and assess significance via these confidence intervals. The results of bootstrapping

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showed that when lack of parental career engagement is higher (one SD above the mean), the

indirect effect from parental support to career adaptability through career exploration was

significant, with a 95% CI of [.01, .09]; when lack of parental career engagement is lower

(one SD below the mean), the indirect effect is significant and larger, with a with a 95% CI of

[.04, .15]. At the same time, the moderated mediation index (95% CI = [-.05, -.003]) showed

that lack of parental career engagement significantly moderated the indirect effect of parental

support on career adaptability. The results of bootstrapping showed that when lack of parental

career engagement is higher (one SD above the mean), the indirect effect from parental

interference to career adaptability through career exploration was non-significant, with a 95%

CI of [-.03, .02]; when lack of parental career engagement is lower (one SD below the mean),

the indirect effect is significant, with a with a 95% CI of [-.06, -.01]. At the same time, the

moderated mediation index (95% CI = [.004, .03]) showed that lack of parental career

engagement significantly moderated the indirect effect of parental interference on career

adaptability.

Discussion

The current research examined the effects of career-specific parental behaviors on

university students’ career exploration and career adaptability. Based on a three-wave survey,

the results supported a mediation model such that a high level of parental support and a low

level of parental interference had beneficial effects on Chinese undergraduates’ career

exploration, which in turn positively predicted their career adaptability. Lack of parental

career engagement had a direct negative effect on career adaptability. Significant interaction

effects were also found among these three types of parental behaviors such that at a lower

level of lack of parental career engagement, the positive effects of parental support, as well as

the negative effects of interference on career exploration were stronger. The corresponding

moderated mediation models were also supported. These findings carry implications for

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research on career construction theory and career counseling practices.

Theoretical Implications

The results showed that all the three types of parental behaviors had significant direct

or indirect effects on undergraduates’ career adaptability. Although the positive effects of

career adaptability in individuals’ career development have been established in recent studies

(e.g., Guan, Deng, Sun, Wang, Cai, Ye, et al., 2013; Guan, Guo, Bond, Cai, Zhou, Xu, et al.,

2014; Johnston, Luciano, Maggiori, Ruch, & Rossier, 2013; Tolentino, Garcia, Restubog,

Bordia, & Tang, 2013), not much work has been done to examine the effects of parental

behaviors on career adaptability (Tian & Fan, 2014). The current research addressed this gap

by testing the roles of career-specific parental behaviors in shaping the career adaptability of

Chinese undergraduate students. As we hypothesized, undergraduates’ career adaptability was

positively predicted by parents’ supportive behaviors, but negatively predicted by parental

interference and lack of parental career engagement. As previous research was mainly

adopted perceptions of offspring to measure parental behaviors, the current findings provide

direct evidence on the effects of parental behaviors in undergraduates’ career development.

As this study was conducted in a Chinese context, which is characterized by the collectivistic

values (Hofstede, 2001), therefore future research should continue to examine whether these

findings could be replicated in other cultural settings. In addition, these results also suggest

that career adaptability is likely to mediate the effects of parental influences on other

important career outcomes, such as long-term career success. These important questions

remain to be discovered in future research.

This study also showed that undergraduates’ career exploration mediated the effects of

parental support and parental interference on career adaptability. From the perspective of self-

termination theory, as parental support strengthens undergraduates’ sense of competence and

parental interference reduces their autonomy, these parental behaviors may directly affect

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undergraduates’ motivation to get involved in career exploration (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan

& Deci, 2000). Career exploration in turn enables individuals to explore valuable

information and opportunities, and prepare themselves for various career challenges. As a

result, career exploration serves as the key explanatory link between these two parental

behaviors and career adaptability.

At the dimension level, career exploration was most closely related to career curiosity,

which highlights the importance of self-exploration and environment exploration in

strengthening undergraduates’ ability of collecting and analyzing career-related information.

Career exploration had a relatively weaker relationship with career control and these results

suggest that there exist other relevant proximal predictors for career control, which remain to

be discovered. On the other hand, the results also showed that lack of parental career

engagement had a direct effect on career adaptability, which was not mediated by career

exploration. Future research may continue to examine other important mediators in this

process. For example, from the perspective of theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), the

lack of parental career engagement may decreases undergraduates’ career adaptability

through a normative pressure, as the lack of parental career engagement may result in the

perception that parents don’t regard career development as an important issue. This perceived

family norm may inhibit undergraduates’ intention to develop their adaptive-abilities.

The interactions among these three types of parental behaviors further demonstrate

the dynamic process through which parental behaviors affect undergraduates’ career

exploration and adaptability. The results suggest that when parents are highly engaged in

undergraduates’ career development, they could engender both positive and negative effects,

depending on the level of supportive behavior and interfering behavior. For example, when

parents are engaged in undergraduates’ career development and can provide supportive

resources, undergraduates are more likely to initiate exploration behavior; however, if parents

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are engaged in undergraduates’ career development but cannot provide supportive resources,

undergraduates tend to reduce their career exploration behavior. On the other hand, when

parents are engaged in undergraduates’ career development but try to impose their thoughts

into this process, undergraduates are also less likely to initiate exploration behavior. From the

perspective of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000), these

results further emphasize the importance of sustaining undergraduates’ sense of competence

and autonomy in helping them to develop adaptive abilities in their career development.

Future research may continue to examine how these parental behaviors interplay with each

other in predicting offspring’s long-term career outcomes.

Practical Implications

These results carry important implications in developing undergraduates’ adaptive

career abilities. As the three types of parental behaviors serve as significant predictors for

undergraduates’ career adaptability, they can be used as important tools for parents to

diagnose their dysfunctional behaviors, in order to facilitate the career development of their

offspring. The significant interaction effects among parental behaviors further suggest that the

combination of a high level of parental support, a low level of interference, and a low level of

lack of parental career engagement will lead to positive results in undergraduates’ career

exploration and adaptability. On the other hand, the current findings also suggest that

individuals’ career exploration serves as important proximal predictor for their career

adaptability, therefore educators and counselors should help undergraduates involved in more

exploratory activities, as a way to promote their career adaptability.

Limitations

Despite the theoretical and practical implications discussed above, the current

research has several possible limitations. First, although we collected the data from different

sources and time points, career exploration and career adaptability may be reciprocally

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related to each other rather than one causing the other. On the one hand,

Second, as the current research was conducted

among a sample of students from a university in China, whether the findings discussed above

could be generalized to other Chinese undergraduates remains to be examined in future

research.

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Parental Behaviors and Career Adaptability 27

Table 1

Descriptive statistics and correlations among variables

Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1. Parental support 5.18 1.07 .89

2. Parental interference 3.48 1.38 -.01 .90

3. Lack of parental career

engagement 2.85 1.19 -.44

*** .32

*** .84

4. Career exploration 4.8 0.89 .42***

-.19**

-.19**

.92

5. Career concern 3.34 .79 .15* -.11 -.22** .25*** .87

6. Career control 3.85 .78 .10 -.14* -.25*** .19**

.63***

.90

7. Career curiosity 3.45 .75 .26*** -.09 -.24*** .35***

.66*** .64***

.85

8. Career confidence 3.64 .74 .21** -.09 -.24*** .32***

.65*** .74*** .75***

.90

9. Career adaptability 3.57 0.66 .21**

-.12 -.27***

.32***

.85*** .87*** .87*** .90*** .95

*p < .05, **p <.01, ***p < .001.

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTParental Behaviors and Career Adaptability 28

Table 2 Hierarchical regression analysis of career exploration and career adaptability

Career exploration Career adaptability

Variable Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6

Constant 6.40*** 5.20** 5.22** 4.22** 3.67** 2.99*

Age -.11 -.05 -.08 -.06 -.03 -.03

Grade .31** .23* .27** .05 .02 -.02

Gender .20 .11 .10 .04 -.02 -.05

Major: Social

Sciences -.16 -.09 -.12 -.13 -.13 -.13

Major: Arts &

Humanities .14 .07 .03 .12 .12 .11

Major: Others -.17 -.16 -.18 -.04 -.07 -.01

Ln family income -.07 -.05 -.04 .00 .01 .01

Family SES -.02 .00 .02 -.03 -.01 -.02

Parent age .01 .01 .01 .01 .01 .01

Parent education .06 .04 .01 .00 -.01 -.02

Parent gender .09 .09 .09 -.11 -.10 -.11

Parent support (PS)

.36*** .33***

.06 .03

Parent

interference(PI) -.13** -.09*

-.04 -.04

Lack of parental

career engagement

(LE)

.04 .00

-.11* -.06

PS × PI

.01

.00

PS × LE

-.09*

-.05

PI × LE

.08**

-.06*

Career exploration

.21***

R Square .08* .27*** .31*** .04 .12* .20***

R Square change

.19*** .04*

.08*** .08**

N =244. Results were reported after controlling for student age, grade, gender, family income,

majors, Socio-economic status, family age, family education and family gender.

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Figure 1 Moderation effects of lack of parental career engagement (LE) on the relationship

between parent support and career exploration

4.7

4.9

5.1

5.3

5.5

5.7

Low career support High career support

Car

eer

explo

rati

on

Low LE

High LE

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Figure 2 Moderation effect of lack of parental career engagement (LE) on the relationship

between parental interference and career exploration

4.7

4.9

5.1

5.3

5.5

5.7

Low career interference High career interference

Ca

reer e

xp

lora

tio

n

Low LE

High LE

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Highlights

We examined effects of career-specific parental behaviors on career adaptability.

Parental support positively predicts career adaptability.

Interference and lack of engagement negatively predict career adaptability.

Career exploration mediates effects of parental behaviors on career adaptability.

career-specific parental behaviors, career exploration and career adaptability: a three-wave...

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