Sources of Career Inspiration of Adolescents in Secondary Schools and their Career Choice in Delta State

Aims: To determine the sources of career inspiration of adolescents in secondary schools and their career choice in Delta State, Nigeria Study Design: Descriptive Survey Research Design. Place and Duration of Study: Secondary schools in Asaba, Education Zone of Delta State, between March 2019 and July 2021. Methodology: The population of this study comprises 5,273 (male = 3754, female = 1519) senior secondary school II adolescents drawn from the 65 secondary schools situated in four local government areas in Asaba education zone of Delta State. The sample for this study comprises 810 SS II adolescents (male = 434, female = 371). The multistage sampling procedure was adopted in sampling the respondents. Firstly, simple random sampling technique was used to draw two local government areas, from the existing four LGAs in Asaba education zone of Delta State. There exist 30 secondary schools in the sampled LGAs. Secondly, disproportionate stratified sampling technique was used to select 27 senior secondary school II adolescents from each secondary school. The instruments for data collection were a structured questionnaire, structured on a 5–point response option of strongly agreed – strongly disagree with weighed values of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The instruments were validated and reliability established. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient was 0.621, 0.841, 0.721 for the three sub-scales and an overall reliability of 0.715. The administration of the questionnaire structured for data collection was done through direct delivery approach. A total of 810 questionnaires were administered and 780 retrieved and used for data analysis. Data relating to research questions 1 - 3 was analyzed using mean and standard deviation. Data relating to the hypotheses was tested using the T-test for independent sample at 0.05 significance level. Results: The mean of means score is a pointer that adolescents agree to family influence as a source of career inspiration. More so, the standard deviation score shows heterogeneity of the respondents rating. The significant value is greater than the alpha value, hence there is no significant difference. This goes to show that male and female adolescents in secondary schools in Delta State do not differ significantly in their mean rating of family influence as a source of career inspiration. The mean of means scores revealed that adolescents agree to environmental influence as a source of career inspiration. More so, the standard deviation score indicates a heterogeneity of the respondents rating. The significant value is greater than the alpha value, this goes to show that male and female adolescents in secondary schools in Delta State do not differ significantly in their mean rating of environmental influence as a source of career inspiration. Mean of means score reveals that adolescents strongly disagree to occupational stereotyping influence as a source of career inspiration. The significant value is greater than the alpha value, hence there is a no significant difference. This goes to show that male and female adolescents in secondary schools in Delta State do not differ significantly in their mean rating of occupational stereotyping influence as a source of career inspiration. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study it was concluded that adolescents in secondary schools agreed to family influence and environmental factor as sources of career inspiration. However, they strongly disagreed to occupational stereotyping as a source of career inspiration in Delta State. It was further concluded that adolescents in secondary schools in Delta State do not differ significantly in their mean rating of family influence and occupational stereotyping influence as sources of career inspiration. More so, there differ significantly in their mean rating of environmental factor as a source of career inspiration based on gender.

“This Is What a Mechanic Sounds Like”: Children’s Vocal Control Reveals Implicit Occupational Stereotypes

In this study, we explored the use of variation in sex-related cues of the voice to investigate implicit occupational stereotyping in children. Eighty-two children between the ages of 5 and 10 years took part in an imitation task in which they were provided with descriptions of nine occupations (three traditionally male, three traditionally female, and three gender-neutral professions) and asked to give voices to them (e.g., “How would a mechanic say . . . ?”). Overall, children adapted their voices to conform to gender-stereotyped expectations by masculinizing (lowering voice pitch and resonance) and feminizing (raising voice pitch and resonance) their voices for the traditionally male and female occupations, respectively. The magnitude of these shifts increased with age, particularly in boys, and was not mediated by children’s explicit stereotyping of the same occupations. We conclude by proposing a simple tool based on voice pitch for assessing levels of implicit occupational-gender stereotyping in children.

Using Focus Groups in Preliminary Instrument Development: Expected and Unexpected Lessons Learned

Focus groups can be utilized effectively across various stages of instrument development. This article details selected aspects of a process in which they were employed at the initial stages of item generation and refinement in a study of occupational stereotyping. The process yielded rich contextual information about the worldview and corresponding terminology of participants. In addition, the use of a tool developed and previously employed as an approach to clinical case notes (i.e., SOAP notes), produced surprising benefits in documenting the focus group data. The purpose of this paper is to describe this process and highlight the insights that emerged. The process and outcomes have methodological implications for qualitative researchers conducting focus groups as well as for those developing new surveys, scales, and measurements.