Paternalistic Involvement in Career Choice Aspiration and its Impact on Self-Esteem

Abstract

The major purpose of the study was to determine the paternalistic involvement of parents in students’ self-esteem and career aspirations. The quantitative research method was used to examine the paternalistic involvement of parents in self-esteem and career choice. The Social Context Questionnaire (Skinner, Regan, & Wellborn, 1986) was adopted as a measure of paternalistic involvement, whereas the Rosenburg (1965) self-esteem scale was adopted as a measure of self-esteem. Using a convenient sampling technique, responses were obtained from 379 students (male and female) studying at the University of Sargodha. It was found that paternalistic involvement and self-esteem were strongly negatively correlated. Moreover, paternalistic involvement and career choice had a strong negative correlation. The study demonstrated that girls face more paternalistic involvement from their parents, which leads to lower self-esteem among them as compared to boys. Moreover, paternalistic involvement creates dependency and weakens decision-making power among female children. Keeping in view the aforesaid findings, parents should adopt alternative ways to accomplish their own desires and understandings without restricting the liberty of adult children, even though it may involve inconvenience, expense, and apparently irrational acts. In addition, parents should respect their ideas so that children can abstain from deviant behaviour.