Ekiti State
Career Choices Development among Adolescents in Ekiti State
Instructions:-
Choose one of the empirical research articles available to you on the DFST 1013 library course page at http://guides.library.unt.edu/hdfs1013
- Once the course page appears, click on the green tab “Required Readings” located under the course title. Out of the various articles available, you only need to select ONE article to review. These articles have all been published in a professional journal, are related to a primary topic of interest in the field of human development, and they all involve research with human subjects.
- Read the article.
- Summarize the main points of each section of the article (purpose/hypotheses, methods/ procedures, analysis/results).
- Provide a reflection and critique of the article (i.e. what was good about this research, what could be done to make this research better, suggestions for future research).
- For this assignment, you should use 12-point font, Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, and it should be double-spaced.
- Submit your paper IN A WORD DOCUMENT under the “Article Critique” folder in the assignment tab on Blackboard. If you copy and paste your text instead of submitting your paper in a word document, your paper will not be graded. You must also submit your paper to Turnitin through Blackboard (see “Final Note” on page 2).
Solution.
Career Choices Development among Adolescents in Ekiti State
Article Critique Review
Eunice O. Osakinle. (2010). In-School Adolescents and Career Choice: The Case of Ekiti State, Journal of College Teaching and Learning; 7(9), 43.
Significance and hypothesis of the study
The study by Eunice O. Osakinle was to examine the development of career choices by adolescents and what factors affected their career choices. Two null hypotheses were postulated in the study. Eunice (2010) believed that the first hypothesis was that there was no significant difference between parental influence and in-school adolescent selection of careers among the Nigerian state of Ekiti. Eunice (2010) considered that the second hypothesis on which the study was based on was that there was no distinguishable difference between gender and in-school adolescent career choice. Moreover, two hypotheses were later tested at 0.05 level of interest by using the t-test statistical analysis. Eunice (2010) assumed that these two variables were tested in the study with the aim of identifying some of the factors that affect career development choice among adolescents in the Nigerian State of Ekiti.
Sample
The sample size of the study comprised of two hundred randomly selected parents and students. The sample was obtained from four local government based areas in the Ekiti State, Nigeria. The sample comprised of both male and female in-school adolescents and parents.
Methods and procedures
The target area was Ekiti State which comprised of 16 local government areas whose population entailed both parents and their children in school. Four of the sixteen local areas were randomly selected for the study. The type of data used in this study was primary data, and the method of data collection used was questionnaires. The type of questionnaire was a closed one with a two-point scale of either yes or no. Eunice (2010) suggested that yes was rated with 2 points while a No was allocated 1 point. The questionnaires had three sections; A, B and C. Section A was on the bio-data of the sample, Section B was to be filled by adolescents while Section C was meant for parents.
The questionnaires consisted 40 items that implored information on career choices for both the in-school adolescents and their parents (Eunice, 2010). The authentic statistical coefficient in the questionnaire was 0.76 while the dependable coefficient was rated at 0.85. Additionally, the study was based on a significance level of 0.05.
Testing of the hypotheses
Based on the two assumptions in the study, the following results were obtained. In the first hypothesis that stated, there is no significance difference between parental influence and in-school adolescents’ choice of careers was acceptable (Eunice, 2010). The male parents engaged were 121 with a mean of 52.14 and a standard deviation of 6.94. On the other hand, 79 female parents were engaged in the study with a mean of 52.89 and a standard deviation of 5.14(Eunice, 2010). The degree of freedom of both the male and female parents was 198, with a t-Cal as 0.021 that was less than the t-table value of 1.96. Considerably, this implied that there was no significant relationship between the variables.
Eunice (2010) suggested that in the second hypothesis which stated that there was no distinguishable difference between gender and in-school adolescents’ choice of career. Within this hypothesis, 110 male parents were engaged with a mean of 53.14 and a standard deviation of 6.83. Therefore, the rate of individuals either female or male parents who participated in the research study were approximately 90 having an average mean of 52.33. Moreover, the population had a standard deviation of 7.50. It should be noted that the standard of freedom was approximated to be around 198. Making the t-cal result to be around0.113 which were less than the t-table figure that was approximated to be 1.96(Eunice, 2010). Nevertheless, this was denoted that there was no significant difference between adolescents’ career choice and gender; thus the hypothesis was acceptable. Therefore, this meant that whether an in-school adolescent was a male or a female, the career choice was not affected by their gender (Eunice, 2010).
Results and discussion
The two hypotheses were accepted in the study showing; there is no significant difference between parental influence and in-school adolescents’ choice of careers, and that there is no distinguishable difference between gender and in-school adolescents’ choice of careers (Eunice, 2010). These two main factors influence career choices among adolescents. There are three main theories that explain this scenario.
Ginsberg’s development theory
On a different note, there are stages in which choices are made among children and adolescents. They are fantasy, tentative and realistic (Eunice, 2010). When children are asked what they would want to become when they grow up in most cases, they may answer a doctor or an accountant, but very few would say a teacher. Ideally, individual assumed that until an average age of 11 where kids are believed to be in the fantasy stage of their career choice (Eunice, 2010). Therefore, from the age range of between 11 and 17, adolescents are assumed to be in the tentative stage of career development. Moreover, in the period between the age of 17 and 18 years, the realistic stage of career choice in the early twenties.
Super’s self-concept theory
This theory is by Donald Super which states that the key factor that plays a central role in one’s career choice is an individual’s self-concept. During adolescence that individuals construct self-concepts about careers (Eunice, 2010). In this stage of adolescence, the adolescents come up with ideas on work that mixes up with the existing global work environment. This stage is known as the crystallization phase. Super talks of another phase known as the specification phase (Eunice, 2010). At this juncture, they keep narrowing their choices down based on factors such as the prevailing economic situations and the society perspective on different careers. Therefore, these stimulate behaviors that determine their path in career choices. In other words, stabilization phase should be considered as when a particular and appropriate career is made (Eunice, 2010). Finally, individuals would seek to an advance their careers and how to reach higher status positions in attaining their objectives.
Personality type theory
According to John Holland, there are efforts made for individuals to match their career choice with their personality. Eunice (2010) claims that once people match a career with their personality, the probability of them enjoying their jobs are higher than when their personalities do not fit in. Furthermore, there are six basic personalities explained in this theory. For that reasons, they are realistic, investigative, social conventional, enterprising and artistic personalities (Eunice, 2010). However, due to lack of career development awareness, many adolescents fail to understand that there are additional factors more than their personality. They are the educational requirements of careers and the vocational interest predominantly related to their choices.
The study results
In the research, two factors are researched on to see their impact on the career choices among adolescents in the Ekiti State (Eunice, 2010). In the first research hypothesis, the factor tested was a parental influence on career choices among in-school adolescents. Furthermore, this implies that parents influenced their children career choices in the State. Eunice (2010) claims that the parents’ professional jobs, for instance, have an impact on what their children wanted to pursue. Salaries and other benefits retrieved from these careers highly motivated the children. Furthermore, family values also greatly influence the career choices. In African traditions, a father-son relationship is stronger thus; a father’s career is likely to be the one pursued by his son (Eunice, 2010). Additionally, mothers who work regularly outside the home show effort and pride in their work leading to a strong influence on their adolescent’s career choices. Transmission of work values is more likely to occur in the father-son rather than the mother-daughter relationship. As a result, Parents have the potential influence in their adolescent’s occupational choices. Through understanding the ways parents and their children present they information about occupations and values (Eunice, 2010). Furthermore, the experiences both parents and children portray to other individuals take part in the determination of occupations and careers for adolescents to pursue.
On the second hypothesis, the study revealed that the gender of adolescents have an impact on the careers they chose. Gender biasedness is evident in the work environment in the world. Some careers are dormant in a male profession setting while others are favorable to the females (Eunice, 2010). For that reason, females usually become socialized in things relating to family matters such as making children other than choosing a career. Eunice (2010) portrayed that starting a family put the females in a dilemma of whether to pursue their dream careers or to start families and resume to their careers much later (Eunice, 2010). Additionally, mothers who have a strong career passion and their achievements influence adolescents in the state.
Conclusion and recommendation
In conclusion, both parents either male or female need to be good examples for their children regarding performance and effective productivity on the job market. For that reason, the adolescents learn and acquire a lot of information from experienced personnel through directly and indirectly associated with them (Eunice, 2010). For that reason, the parents also need to be positive in their jobs as they are the role models for their adolescent children on careers. Furthermore, having enough information on the types of jobs available is essential to make adolescents make the right choices. Eunice (2010) strongly claims that beliefs and traditional practices tend to influence the career choices, especially among girls.
Therefore, it is recommended and advised for both parents and teenagers to understand the information needed and required by the various school for adolescents’ needs. On the same note, these schools will provide teenagers with knowledge and critical information that will help them in achieving and attaining their goals and objective in the future. In other words, the support will enable adolescents in such a way that they would be able to decide which of the careers they would want to pursue. Parents are urged to be hard working because their children read both our expressed and unexpressed thoughts. As soon as adolescents choose careers, parents should encourage them as much as possible so that they can prosper. Therefore, parents have a major influence on the career choices for their children.
References
Eunice O. Osakinle. (2010). In-School Adolescents and Career Choice: The Case of Ekiti State, Journal of College Teaching and Learning; 7(9), 43.
