Influence of parental factors on career choice among senior secondary school students in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria

The study investigated the influence of parental factors on career choice among senior secondary two (SS2) students in Federal Capital Territory (FCT): The aim of the study was to ascertain whether parental factors such as parental educational level, parent’s socio-economic status, parental values, parental work performance and parent-child relationships influenced career choices of students. Five research questions were raised to guide the study. Five null hypotheses were formulated and tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a descriptive survey design with a population of 20,163 senior secondary two students (SS2). Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted in the study. A random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 360 respondents selected from 12 public secondary schools across the six Area Councils in FCT. A self-structured instrument developed by the researcher titled “Student’s Career Choice Questionnaire’’ (SCCQ) was used for data collection. A pilot test was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the instrument. A reliability co-efficient of 0.70 was confirmed using the split half method. Spearman Brown prediction formula was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency counts, percentages for demographic data, mean score and standard deviation to answer the research question. The study found that parental factors have significance influence on career choices of senior secondary students in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. It was, therefore, recommended that teachers, parents and career guidance counsellors should take into cognizance the influence of these parental factors, as they guide students through the process of career selection.