The Relationship of Psychological Separation and Parental Attachment to the Career Maturity of College Freshmen from Intact Families

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate how psychological separation and parental attachment are related to career maturity separately and simultaneously and to investigate the influence of gender on the relationships among these variables. Subjects were 82 single white college freshmen from intact families. Data analysis using a canonical correlation analysis revealed that although psychological separation is relevant, parental attachment plays a more important role in career maturity. The relationship among the variables did not differ for men and women. The implications of this study for theory and counseling practice are discussed and recommendations for future research are presented.

A Longitudinal Study of the Developmental Trajectories of Parental Attachment and Career Maturity of South Korean Adolescents

“…The past 15 years have seen increased research on parental attachment as a relational variable linked to the development of career maturity in adolescents (Kenny, 1990; H. Y. Lee & Hughey, 2001).…”

Family systems as predictors of career attitude maturity for Korean high school students

“…Some researchers have reported that gender had little impact on the total score of career maturity (Barnes 2001;Lee and Hughey 2001). Others, however, have indicated that gender is a contributing predictor to career maturity (Kerka 1998;Kornspan and Etzel 2001;Trusty et al 1997), noting that parental involvement is a greater predictor of female adolescents' career development than of the career development of male adolescents (Gianakos 2001;Trusty et al 1997).…”

“…For the same reason, parents should promote cooperative and harmonious relationships among family members (Jodl et al 2001;Lee and Hughey 2001). One way of enhancing career development could be facilitating career-relevant communications between parents and adolescents (Young et al 2001).…”

“…Relatively, recent research (Gati et al 1996;Han 1997, 1998;Leso and Neimeyer 1991;Parr and Neimeyer 1994) examining the nature of career development has offered empirical support of relationships between a variety of family-related variables and career attitude maturity (Flouri and Buchanan 2002;Lee and Hughey 2001;Trusty et al 1997). One approach that has investigated the empirical relationships among family factors and career development, or more specifically the career attitude maturity, has centered on family demographic variables (Lee and Hughey 2001) such as parents' educational backgrounds, occupation, income, and family living standards (Flouri and Buchanan 2002;Trusty et al 1997) as predictors of career development. An emerging line of research, but one with limited empirical support, emphasizes broader psychological or vocational theories.…”

Developing a Career Counseling Intervention Program for Foster Youth

“…Many scholars have identified family of origin as an important contextual factor in understanding career exploration during adolescence, finding that strong family relationships are related to greater career exploratory behavior (Blustein, ; Bryant, Zvonkovic, & Reynolds, ; Hartung, Porfeli, & Vondracek, ). For example, parental attachment (Blustein, Walbridge, Friedlander, & Palladino, ; Lee & Hughey, ) and the number of parent–child activities a family engages in (Bryant et al, ) have been shown to positively relate to career exploration during childhood. Knowing how important parental and familial influences can be on the career exploration behavior of adolescents seems to imply that foster youth (who might lack parental or familial attachment) may engage less often in career exploration.…”