Adolescents Career Aspirations, Gender and Socio-Economic Status

Abstract

Adolescence is a time when teenagers develop certain aspirations regarding their educational and future careers. Aspirations represent a person‟s orientation towards particular goals. This study is very important as during adolescence, aspirations are especially important because they allow teenagers to evaluate the degree to which various choices help or hinder their chances of attaining desired goals. The present study was descriptive in nature. This study was undertaken to assess the career aspirations of 100 adolescent boys and girls of IX class in relation to Socio-economic Status. The mean score of Career Aspirations of Girls was found little higher than the mean scores of boys which reveal that there is the difference in the career aspirations of boys and girls. The mean scores of Socio-economic Status of boys and girls are not significant which reveals that there is no difference in the Socio-economic Status of boys and girls. The study further reveals that there exists a positive and significant correlation between Career Aspirations and Socio-economic Status of adolescents of Government Schools of Chandigarh. Thus it can be concluded that the stronger financial motivation of students from low-SES backgrounds signals their hopes for occupational futures that provide financial security, while students from higher SES backgrounds appeared to see greater scope for pursuing their interests and passions.