Children’s Occupational Preferences: The Influence of Sex and Perceptions of Occupational Characteristics
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Date
1990-06
Authors
Stockard, Jean
McGee, Jeanne
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Academic Press
Abstract
This paper uses multivariate techniques to examine the relationship of children’s sex and their perceptions of occupations’ difficulty, earnings, importance, and supervisory responsibilities to their preference for 21 different occupations. Data were gathered through personal interviews from a sample of 4% fourth graders from a working class, western Oregon community. Perceptions of supervisory responsibilities rarely influence children’s preferences, and perceptions of the other dimensions tend to influence preferences only with occupations with relatively extreme scores on that dimension. The effect of students’ sex is almost always independent of and more important than occupational perceptions. It is suggested that children learn about the sex-typing of jobs at the same time they learn about other occupational characteristics and that increased knowledge of occupations may do little to lessen sex differences in occupational preferences. Future research should include a variety of measures of occupational perceptions, avoid grouping occupations into categories, and employ longitudinal and applied experimental designs.
Description
17 pages
Keywords
Fourth Graders, Working Class, Sociology
Citation
Stockard, J., & McGee, J. (1990). Children’s Occupational Preferences: The Influence of Sex and Perceptions of Occupational Characteristics. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 36, 287- 303. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(90)90033-X