Underlying Thinking of Career Aspiration Formation in Children and Adolescents

The aim of the present study was investigating the underlying thinking of career aspiration formation in children and Adolecents. The research method was descriptive. The studied sample consisted of 120 students in Isfahan who were selected by stratified random sampling, among 6 educational districts. Data gathering instrument was interview and the results were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) and inferential statistics (Chi-square) by SPSS-22 software. Findings of this study showed that in determining the career aspiration thinking, there were four underlying and effective factors such as size and power, gender stereotype, career status and self-esteem for children and teens (P<0/05). Also, there were specialization of the underlying thinking of career aspirations, so that they wished more specialized career than non-specialized one. Medicine as a specialized profession was the first career aspiration for children and teens and then engineering and policeman (P<0/05). Therefore, it can be concluded that there are underlying thinking criteria of career aspiration in children and they need to be strengthened in order to facilitate the development and selection of the future career.