Parents’ education determine their children’s career goals, study reveals
July 28, 2022
Swiss and Spanish researchers found that young people who have less educated parents normally grow up to have less ambitious career goals.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Basel and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid who followed the lives of over 17,000 Brits born in the same week in 1958.
They analysed data on the participants' childhood environment, their parents’ careers, and financial backgrounds and the child’s own abilities such as their childhood dreams, their jobs and well-being as an adult.
“This cannot be explained solely by the differences in family income or in participants’ abilities. It is more the case that inequality seems to begin early on, with their very aspirations,” said Dr Reto Odermatt of the University of Basel, in a university release.
Parental aspirations for their children had the greatest impact on children's own aspirations.
“We didn’t expect parents’ aspirations for their children to have such a strong influence,” said Dr Odermatt.
On the other hand, the study found that telling children to “dream big” could lead to disappointment later in life. The data showed that when people achieve more than they expected, there is a positive correlation with well-being, compared to when people achieve less than expected.
“That means we shouldn’t leave it entirely to parents to influence children’s career aspirations; schools can intervene here,” Odermatt said.
According to the study, children look at parents as role models when determining career goals, whereas ambitious goals may be motivating, but they can also lead to disappointment.
