Parents’ Career Values, Adaptability, Career-specific Parenting Behaviors, and Undergraduates’ Career Adaptability

Abstract

This study examined how Chinese parents’ career values and adaptability predict their career-specific parenting behaviors and their children’s career adaptability. We conducted a survey study with Chinese university students and their parents (N = 264), and found support for the mediating roles of career-specific parenting behaviors in linking parents’ vocational characteristics and children’s career adaptability. Specifically, parental support is positively related to parents’ intrinsic fulfillment values, work–life balance values, and career adaptability. Moreover, parental support mediates the relationship between these variables and undergraduates’ career adaptability. Parental engagement mediates the negative effect of external compensation values and positive effect of work–life balance values on undergraduates’ career adaptability. Parental interference is negatively related to parents’ work–life balance values, and positively related to their external compensation values and career adaptability, but does not significantly predict undergraduates’ career adaptability. These findings advance current understanding of the career construction theory.