Enduring links: Parents' expectations and their young adult children's gender-typed occupational choices

Abstract

The goals of the current study were to examine (1) the relation between parents' gender-typed occupational expectations for their children at age 15 and their children's own reports of occupational expectations at age 17; (2) the long-term relations between parents' gender-typed occupational expectations for their children at age 17 and their children's actual occupation at age 28; and (3) the relation between job satisfaction and having a gender-traditional or nontraditional job. The results indicated that parents' gender-typed occupational expectations were significantly related to children's own expectations and to their actual career choices, and job satisfaction was significantly related to having a gender-typed career. These findings suggest that parents' early gender-typed expectations for their children's occupational achievements were highly related to the actual occupational decisions made by the adult children.