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Career decision-making self-efficacy beliefs among adolescents in Cyprus and the influence of parental support
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Spyropoulou-Nicolaidou, Antonia (2020) Career decision-making self-efficacy beliefs among adolescents in Cyprus and the influence of parental support. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3714731~S15
Abstract
This thesis presents work done for my part-time doctorate investigating career decision self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents in Cyprus and the ways which parents employ to support them through reinforcement of their career decision self-efficacy beliefs. The research was conducted among 454 adolescents in their final grade and a sample of their parents in the Republic of Cyprus. Cypriot sociocultural context was examined and associated with the methodology chosen and the discussion of the findings. Bandura’s (1994) perceived self-efficacy and Social Cognitive Career Theory by Lent, Brown, & Hackett (2002) were the primary framework of this study. Adolescents’ competencies regarding their career-related self-efficacy beliefs were investigated by using the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale-Short (CDSE-SF) developed by Betz, Klein, & Taylor (1996). The study also examined the ways which parents employ to support their children by reinforcing their career decision self-efficacy beliefs through self-enhancement, reciprocal communication, parental active involvement and emotional support with the use of a questionnaire developed by the researcher. Social and parental support was investigated withing the framework of a small-oriented country with strong family bonds (Georgas, et al., 1997; Georgiou & Meins, 2010).
The results of this study do not depend on recording self-referent reports of either students or their parents but on recording of parents’ and students’ views on the same investigation. This study also achieved a matching sample consisting of students and their parents through which a comparison of perceptions was correlated.
Both adolescents and their parents in Cyprus, who participated in this study, report that students have high career decision self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1986(b); Nicolaidou & Philippou, 2003; Pappas & Kounenou, 2011), claiming that they feel very confident in their abilities to accomplish tasks or activities related to career decision-making. The adolescents 4 who participated in this study seemed to derive their confidence more from their parent’s support since three out of four parental ways employed to enhance career decision self-efficacy beliefs predict career decision self-efficacy. The participants in this study agree on the level of self-efficacy beliefs, showing confidence in the variable of information gathering and less confidence in problem-solving.
This study has revealed that parental understanding of the support they are providing and young peoples’ understanding of the support is not aligned. Adolescents claim that their parents support them more through self-enhancement and parental active involvement whereas parents claim that the parental ways they use more are emotional support and reciprocal communication.
The independent variables of gender, type of school and parents’ educational level seem to have a significant role in the provision of parental support but have no role in shaping career decision self-efficacy beliefs. Finally, both groups of participants agreed that reciprocal communication seems to predict self-efficacy beliefs highly. Adolescents’ answers showed also that gender, parental active involvement and emotional support are significant predictors of parental support.
Findings regarding the self-efficacy beliefs were consistent with the theoretical tenets of Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory and Social Cognitive Career Theory by Lent, Brown, and Hackett (1994).
The thesis ends with implications about counselling and suggestions for school counsellors and future research.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HF Commerce |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Vocational guidance -- Cyprus, Vocational guidance -- Parent participation -- Cyprus, Self-efficacy -- Cyprus, Social cognitive theory | ||||
Official Date: | September 2020 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Centre for Education Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Mercer, Justine | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | 311 leaves : colour illustrations | ||||
Language: | eng |
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