Gender, Parental Socio-Economic Background and Career Aspiration among Secondary School Students in Cross River State, Nigeria

This study was designed to investigate the association between gender, parental socio-economic background and career aspiration among secondary school students in Cross River State. Two objectives, two research questions, and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study and the correlational research design was adopted. To collect data, stratified random sampling technique was used to select 28 schools from the three education zones in Cross River State and simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 595 subjects. The researchers constructed a questionnaire titled Demographic Variables and Career Aspirations Questionnaire (DVCAQ). After collating the data, contingency chi-square was used to analyse the data. The test of the first hypothesis revealed that no significant gender difference exists between male and female students in their career aspirations with a critical value of 11.07 at 5 degrees of freedom. On the other hand, the result of analysis of data on the second hypothesis revealed that there is a strong positive relationship between parental socio-economic background and career aspiration of students with a critical χ² value of 18.31, at 10 degrees of freedom. Arising from the findings, it was concluded that career aspiration has no gender bias, while parental socio-economic status significantly associates with career aspirations. Therefore, all barriers to career choices should be removed. Based on this, it was recommended, among others, that school counsellors should provide gender-inclusive career guidance that enables male and female students to choose careers based on their interests, abilities and academic strengths rather than gender stereotypes. Also, government and school authorities should provide scholarships, career information, mentorship and other support to students from low socio-economic backgrounds to broaden their career opportunities.

Keywords: Gender, parental socio-economic background, career, aspiration