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com
Vol. 2, No. 1 January, 2016 ISSN 1596-1660

INFLUENCE OF HOME BACKGROUND ON STUDENTS’ CAREER CHOICES IN

SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AKAMKPA LOCAL
GOVERNMENT AREA OF CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA

Dr. Stella B. Esuabana

Department of Guidance Counseling,
University of Calabar, Calabar
stellaesua@yahoo.com
+2347035448948
.

Dr. Pauline Ekpang

Department of Guidance and Counseling,
Faculty of Education,
University of Calabar
paulinekpan@gmail.com
+2347039477609

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence
of home background on students’ career choices in
senior secondary schools in Akamkpa Local Government
Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. To achieve this
purpose, three hypotheses were formulated to guide the
study. Literatures relevant to the variables under this
study were reviewed. Ex-post facto research design was
adopted for the study. A sample of two hundred (200)
students were randomly selected for the study. The
selection was done through the simple random sampling
technique. The questionnaire was the main instrument
used for data collection. The questionnaire was
administered in the sampled schools. The instrument was
validated by experts in test and measurement. To test the
hypotheses and to ascertain whether to reject or retain
them, chi-square (x2) statistical technique was adopted.
The .05 level of significance was used for the statistical
testing of each of the hypothesis. The result of the
analysis revealed that, socio-economic status of parents,
age and gender of students significantly influenced career
choice. Based on the findings of the study, it was
recommended that regular seminars and career week
should be organized within the school system.
Contemporary academic journals, books and
monographs on guidance and counseling should be
made available to students to facilitate career choices.

KEYWORDS: Home Background, Career Choices, Senior Secondary

Schools, Akamkpa

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INTRODUCTION
In modern society, work is an inevitable aspect of social life. It plays a major
role in our lives and determines important position which we occupy. Work has
become so important that it determines the types of friends we have, the amount of
wealth we acquire, how we spend our money and time, where we live, our neighbors
and who we interact with (Alajuruonye et al, 1987). However, it is not an easy task
for an individual to make a choice of occupation. There are many factors that
influence career choice. Educators and psychologists are concerned with the study
of drives, energy or degree of activity that an individual displays. These are what
(Lovell, 1973:22) called motivation. He defined motivation as a “physiological or
internal process, initiated by some need”. Lovell (1973) went further to explain that
we also have incentives, which are administered by external causes, and often
determine the nature and direction of human activity. In their guest, they have found
out that there are some talented students who decide on their particular combination
of subjects through ignorance, but who could have made better choice combination
of subjects leading to better job opportunities if they had receive proper guidance.
Students on their part have been concerned with how to find the right job for
themselves. According to Hurlock (1973:17), they have fanciful ideas about the
future and glamorous jobs which they need for their status symbol. It will be good for
students aspiring for jobs to consider among other factors, their identity and social
status, and the demands of their future employment. Some students are of the
opinion that the course of study does not matter. What really matters to them is to
have an academic certification in the form of a degree and thereafter hunt for job.
This is the mindset that leads to occupational incompatibility in the Nigerian labor
scene. The purpose of this study is to guide the students to know the motivational
factors that influence career choice and the demands of the labor market.
The issue of motivation for the choice of occupation among students has
been of practical importance over the years, it was therefore necessary and crucial
to investigate the variables that motivate student’s choice of occupation with a view
to find solution to the problem of occupational incompatibility. Secondary school
students in Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State are critical
stakeholders in the development of the state. They are engaged in formulating self-
concept, identity and development of occupational skills. To assist students to
overcome problem of career choice, it becomes necessary for vocational guidance to
be provided for secondary school students. This is with the view of equipping
students with the ability of making occupational plans and decisions on the basis of
recognition of their personal occupational characteristics. To do this, it is pertinent
that the motivational factors that account for their choice of occupation are
determined.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The role of gender in students’ vocational choice cannot be ignored. In most
parts of Nigeria, the cultural role expectations of men and women are known to be
clearly defined. In the Nigerian society, boys and girls often undergo different
socialization experiences and they tend to learn different gender role and behavior
pattern and hence develop different interest. This roles and interest later become the
dominant factors in career choice. Each individual undertakes the process which is
influenced by many factors, including the context in which they live, their personal

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aptitudes and educational attainment (Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara and Pastorelli,

2001).
Adolescent is an ideal time to study the career development of young people.
It is during this period that many changes occur that strongly influence the
development of career preferences and aspirations. Puberty and emerging sexuality
leads to the intensification of gender role identity. Greater autonomy and
independence contributes to the process of identity development. Career options
and choices become more realistic as the adolescent gains a greater awareness of
her skills and interest (Van Boxtel, 2002). Monks and Pool (2004) pointed out that
career preferences are formed early in adolescence and, for both girls and boys are
heavily influenced by gender role socialization; one of the earliest and thus, most
powerful forms of socialization. The strength of this socialization often creates
options (Pattom, 2000). Gender, achievement level, ages and school environment
are all factors that may influence an adolescent career choice. School environment
motivate the choice of career aspirations of both sexes.
These are the kind of school environment they experience and the kinds of
role modeling and attention they receive from their teachers. Gaier and Monaco,
(1999) found that although there were no difference in career choice of boys base on
school environment, girls from single-sex schools choose high prestige career than
girls from co-educational environment. Thorbeck (2003) found that adolescent girls
and boys use different methods and strategies to achieve career identities.
According to Danzigler (2003), the career expectations of adolescent boys are
strongly influenced by ability and academic achievement, whereas those of
adolescent girls are influenced mainly by class background and parental
expectations. In contrast to boys, girls are faced with a conflict between their future
career choice and a commitment to marriage and family. Steel and Abeles (2004)
stated that girls make decisions about how they will combine family and work before
choosing a career. Adolescent girls have historically tended to aspire to low prestige
careers than the boys. Girls are more influenced by social pressure in vocational
development than boys. Danzigler (2003) avers that academic achievement tends to
elevate the confidence of girls and motivate them towards higher career aspiration.
High achieving adolescent girls occupy a unique psychological position with respect
to career aspiration (Gassin 2003 et al) unlike their average achieving female peers,
these girls must contend with their own internal identification as high achievers, the
pressure those identification exerts, and expectations that their high achievement
will continue. A high achieving or gifted girl is a challenge in the realm of career
aspiration, perhaps more so than, other adolescents, as in forced to reconcile the
conflict between her gender stereotyped role as a woman and her role as a potential
contributor to society as a high achiever (Krama, 2001, Walker et al 1992)
Occupational status is a vital determinant of socio-economic identity.
Occupational status has several advantages over indicators of socio-economic
identity like educational attainment and personal family income. Occupational status
is also likely to be a better indicator of income over the long term than is income
information collected at any single point in time, because in the short term, income
can be quite volatile, (Williams and Collins, 2005). Socio-economic status of parents
has bearing on career choice of their children. Spandy (2002) identified socio-
economic status and classified it into three distinct categories - higher social class,
middle class and lower class. Spandy further argues that educational qualifications
and economic resources determines and influences to a large extent one’s socio-
economic status in the society.

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Moser and Hall (1998) is of the view that socio-economic status cannot be
made up simply in terms of a single criterion such as income level, working
condition, responsibility, educational standard or any other single objective
characteristics. A high socio-economic status according to them can only be
achieved through sound education, associational prestige and other allied variables.
Rice (2002) opined that the chance to choose a career often depend on one’s socio-
economic status. Smith (2006) noted that many adolescents make vocational
choices that are familiar to them. Despite its utility, there are some difficulties
associated with using occupational status. While cross-sectional data have been
used to show the correlation between occupational status and health and age, the
effect of occupational status over the entire life course has been relatively
understudied. Rice (2002) pointed out that parents have often overlooked the
significant impact they have in their children’s future. When parents with high
educational attainment, are involved in their adolescents’ school program and are
perceived as having high aspirations for their children, the adolescents are more
likely to have high educational aspirations, which in turn influenced plans and
choices.
Vocational goals of bright individuals are usually well defined within the realm
of their ability, interest and capacity to succeed. Although these individuals maintain
realistic goals, they usually aspire for more prestigious occupational choices. They
know their ability level and try to fit in the occupational goals they hold into a realistic
educational plan, Rice (2002), Bregman and Killer (2010) is of the view that during
college, adolescents go through a period of growth and maturity, contributing to a
change in the vocational goals they once held in high school. Career exploration
activities (job showing internships, realistic job interview) enable them to clarify their
interest, values and skills in relation to a particular occupation. College education
offers adolescents a varying and extensive list of occupational choices comparable
to those who make transition directly into the work force. Educated individuals have
different goals due to increase exposure to professional opportunities.
Those occupational goals includes career such as teaching, becoming a
physician, lawyer, engineer, stockbroker, accountant and other white-collar work
often held by upper-middle class. Career exploration has been found to be positively
related with measure of intrinsically motivated behavior, career self-efficiency and
goal- directedness. Study on the nexus between occupational status and age shows
that the choice of a particular occupation may actually depend on or be constrained
by existing health/age conditions. Another problem is reliance on measurement of
occupational status at a single point in time, when it can be a moving target as
individual change jobs over the course of a career. Job changes that occur relatively
early in the career may lead the individual into higher status jobs, while those in later
years may be related to a decreasing capacity to perform high strain jobs with
declining age.

METHODOLOGY
This study adopted the survey research design. The area of study is Akamkpa
Local Government Area of Cross River State. From a total of eighteen secondary
schools in Akamkpa, a sample of five schools were drawn. The sample for the study
comprised of two hundred (200) students randomly sampled from the five (5)
secondary schools in the area. The stratified random sampling was purposely done
to bring out as many boys and girls from the school. The instrument used in this
study was adopted from the career interest inventory (C.11) by Lawrence K. Jones

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(1997). The items were mainly structural statements from sub areas such as socio-
economic status and career choice. A modified Likert type questionnaire consisting
of twenty (20) items were constructed based on sub areas. The validity of the
instrument was done by an expert whose correction and suggestion contributed to its
quality. The reliability estimate of the instrument was established through the split-
half reliability method. The questionnaire was administered personally to the
randomly selected students in the selected schools.

RESULT

Hypothesis one
There is no significant influence of parental socio-economic status and
students career choice.

Independent variable: Parental socio-economic status

Dependent variable: Students career choice.

The contingency chi-square (x2) was employed as the most statistical

technique to test this hypothesis. The result of analysis is presented in Table 1.

Table 1
2
Contingency Chi-square (x ) analysis of the influence between parental socio-
economic status and students career choice (N=200)
Career choice
Socio-
Economic I II III IV V VI
status

TOTAL

2
Cal X
Low 22 25 19 9 15 5 95
(16.625) (19) (25.175) (5.7) (20.9) (7.6)
Average 8 13 17 1 16 2 37 26.19
(9.975) (11.4) (15.105) (3.42) (12.54) (4.56)
High 5 12 17 2 13 9 48
(8.4) (9.6) (12.12) (2.88) (10.56) (3.84)
Total 35 40 53 12 44 16 200
* significant at .05, critical x2=21.03 df=10
The result of analysis as presented in table one reveals that the calculated x2
value of 26.19 is greater than the critical x2 value of 21.03 at .05 level of significance
with 10 degree of freedom. The result of the statistical analysis is significant since
the calculated value is higher than the critical value. With this result the null
hypothesis was rejected. This therefore implies that there is a significant influence of
parental socio-economic status on students career choice.

Hypothesis two
There is no significant relationship between age and students career choice.

Independent variable: Age

Dependent variable: Career choice

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Contingency Chi square (X2) was used to test this hypothesis. The result is
presented in table 2.

Table 2
Contingency Chi square (x2) of the relationship
between age and career choice (N=200)

Career choice

TOTAL
Age I II III IV V VI

Below 15 34 40 43 8 40 12 177
(30.975) (35.4) (46.905) (10.62) (38.94) (14.16)
15 and 4.025 4.6 6.095 1.38 5.06 1.84
above (1) (0) (10) (4) (4) (4)
Total 35 40 53 12 44 16 200
* Significant at .05, critical x2=11.07 df=5

The result of analysis as presented in table 2 reveals that the calculate x2 value of
15.33 is greater than the critical x2 value of 11.07 at .05 level of significance with 5
degree of freedom. The result of the statistical analysis is significant since the
calculated value is higher than the critical value. With this result the null hypothesis
was rejected. This therefore implies that there is a significant relationship between
age and student career choice.

Hypothesis three
There is no significant influence of gender on students’ career choice.

Independent variable: Gender

Dependent variable: Career choice

Contingency Chi square (X2) was used to test this hypothesis. The result of analysis
is presented in table 3.

Table 3
Contingency Chi-square (x2) of the influence between
gender and career choice (N=200)

Career choice
Gender Cal
I II III IV V VI TOTAL X2
Male 25 29 35 10 8 7 110
(19.25) (22) (29.15) (8.8) (24.2) (8.8)
Female 10 11 18 6 36 9 90
(15.75) (18) (23.18) (7.2) (19.8) (7.2)
Total 35 40 53 16 44 16 200
* Significant at .05, critical x2=11.07 df=5
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The result of analysis as presented in table four reveals that the calculated x2
value of 14.17 is greater than the critical x2 value of 11.07 at .05 level of significance
with five degree of freedom. The result of the analysis is significant since the
calculated value is higher than the critical value. With this result the null hypothesis
was rejected. This means that there is a significant influence of gender on students’
career choice.

DISCUSSION
The result of the first hypothesis reveals that there is a significant influence of
parental socio-economic status in students’ career choice. The finding is in line with
Moser and Hall (1998) who posited that socio-economic status cannot be made up
simply in terms of a single criterion such as income level, working condition,
responsibility, educational standard or any other single objective characteristics. A
high socio-economic status according to them can only be achieved through sound
education, associational prestige and other allied variables. Rice (2002) also opined
that the chance to choose a career often depend on one’s socio-economic status.
Smith (2006) noted that many adolescents choose vocational choices that are
familiar to them. Occupational status is one component of socio-economic status
(SES). Occupational status reflects the outcome of education; provide information
about skills and credentials. The result of the second hypothesis reveals that there is
a correlation between age influence and students career choice. The finding of this
hypothesis is in line with Rice (2002) who discussed that parents have often over
looked the significant impact they have on their children’s future.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on results and findings of the study, it was concluded that, socio-
economic status of parents, age and gender of students’ significantly influenced their
career choice. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations
are made.
1) Parents should give their children the opportunity to choose careers that fit
their potentials and ability.
2) Regular seminars, career week, current journals and other career materials
should be made available to students to enable them know the different
careers that exist.
3) Secondary school curriculum should be reviewed to incorporate the peculiar
needs of adolescents.
4) Counseling services should be provided in all secondary schools in order to
expose different careers to student.
5) The government should provide facilities and other resources to enable
students identify their potentials,
6) Government should employ and post qualified career counselors to all the
secondary schools in the state.
7) The various religious organizations in the state should educate their members
on career choices.

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Holland, J. (1973). Making Vocational Choices. A Theory. Eaglewood Cliffs:
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Haya, V. (2005). Assessment of Motivational Factors in Career Choice of Secondary
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