Factors Influencing the Occupational Aspirations of Economically Disadvantaged Youth: A Study on the Youth Served by Taiwan CCF

The occupational development and choice tends to be a result of socioeconomic inequality transmitted between generations. Youth whose parents are in low occupational status are more likely to go through the lack of financial resources and opportunities, and being left behind as to school capacities. These can be detrimental to their accumulation of human capitals. Experiences caused by poverty can influence their values and attitudes later in life, as well as their future career plannings. From the sociological perspective of occupational development, this study examined the occupational aspirations of economically-disadvantaged youth based on a model modified from the Status Attainment Model proposed by Schoon & Parsons (2002), so as to have an overview of factors associated with their occupational aspirations. The study used data from the Taiwan Database of Children and Youth in Poverty - The Panel Study in 2013, set up by Taiwan CCF. A total of 968 junior high school students were selected as samples for this study. Path analysis with a regression approach was used to test the proposed model. The results indicated that most economically-disadvantaged youth aspired to have a job with either a high-intermediate or a low-intermediate prestige, which appeared to have a polarized phenomenon. Parental expectations and academic performance have direct and positive impacts on the prestige levels of their occupational aspirations. Furthermore, the impacts of family material conditions and parental expectations on occupational aspirations are mediated via academic performance. Overall, the model can explain 13.7% of the variance in occupational aspirations. According to the findings, this study suggests that practitioners should involve parents in the job training programs. At the same time, the government also needs to invest resources to support the training programs to provide further assistance for the parents and the youth. Finally, it will be more desirable to intervene starting from the early childhood for those from economically-disadvantaged families. Through providing families with sufficient educational resources, allowing children to have equal opportunities for good education, their future academic performances can be enhanced. And following that, the positive development of occupational aspirations of youth is also expected.