Does Parental Pressure Play a Role in Career Choices?

By Viena Fuentes

As senior year approaches, many students begin to decide what careers they want to pursue in the future. Some students have an idea of what they want to study growing up. While others need to do extensive research and explore all the possible paths they can take. However, while doing so, sometimes they use their parents as guidance and this can lead to parental pressure to choose the career that their parents want. Although it is nice to be able to have your parents help you out with career decisions, students should not feel pressured into following a career path just because their parents want them to. Parental pressure can lead to poor career choices, no sense of self,  and choosing careers that can lead to an unhappy life. 

As we grow up, our parents tend to guide us throughout our formative years, so it makes sense that they should be able to help us when the time comes to start choosing our majors. This will play a huge and important role in our future so we must choose wisely. According to a survey conducted by Joblist, “Forty-eight percent of people surveyed felt that their parents strongly influenced their career path, while almost 40 percent felt pressured to follow their parents' career advice”. This demonstrates how parents have a strong influence over the choices their children make when it comes to college. The children feel pressured to follow whatever their parents say and eventually they’re aspiring to become exactly like their parents. It gives them no sense of self since all their decision making is only based on what their parents would do. All of these factors combined can lead to mental health issues and overall a very unhappy life because of those poor decisions they made. According to an article published by Kashmir Observer, “. The most challenging condition for a child however is, when one or both of their parents is/are negatively involved, these parents force their children towards career choices of their own choosing, and if the child and the parent have opposite opinions, they may criticize the child’s choices and impede their progress in their chosen direction, this may result in anxiety and resentment in the child’s mind, as well as apprehension that they may not be able to pursue the career that they truly desire” (Kakroo). Mental health issues can come in many shapes and forms, but it is important to acknowledge that many of the issues that rise are because of poor choices that we make. Choosing a career because it will satisfy someone else and not yourself can be extremely detrimental to their mental health. When choosing a career you are looking for something that you are actually passionate about. The goal of pursuing a career is to eventually find a job where you can thrive because you enjoy it and because the knowledge you gained about the career you pursued can be used at the job. If that ends up not being the case and you choose a career only because your parents told you to, chances are you’ll regret those choices and you’ll be unhappy. 

Although there are some clear disadvantages as to why having parents too involved in career decisions can be bad for your decision making, there are also situations where a parent's input can be very helpful. There are many parents who are very supportive of whatever their children decide to pursue. They don’t pressure them into doing what they want, but instead they encourage them and make sure to do everything they can to help their child be successful. Having that guidance and positive influence can help when taking important career decisions, it leaves room for you to be yourself and follow what you believe in, and can lead to a much happier life.