The Relationship between Parenting Styles, Parental Career Support, and Career Exploration in Junior High School Students

Sirui Wang, Zhuohan Zhao, Shixiang Liu — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0800

This study explores the relationship between parental rearing styles, career support, and career exploration among junior high school students. Parental career support is closely related to parental rearing styles and children, and both have significant correlations with career exploration of junior high school students. Based on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, this paper analyzes the microsystem, that is, the impact of the family on students. Previous studies have shown that, in addition to gender, grade, and self-development level, which are important factors affecting career exploration of junior high school students, environmental factors also play a strong role. Compared with environmental factors such as school and peers, family has a greater impact on individual career development. For example, parental support, parent-child career consistency, or parental expectations can all affect the career development of junior high school students. It can be concluded that the resources in the micro-circle of family are supportive factors for individuals to achieve their goals and can help individuals transition from study to work. This study was conducted in a public middle school in Beijing, with a total of 158 students participating in the questionnaire. The online questionnaire was used, and 150 valid questionnaires were obtained after collection and screening. This study used three questionnaires, including the *Parental Rearing Style Scale*, for data analysis. The final results are as follows: (1) There is a significant correlation between authoritative parental rearing style and career exploration of junior high school students; (2) There is a significant correlation between parental career support and career exploration of junior high school students; (3) Parental career support can have a positive impact on the level of career exploration of junior high school students; (4) For authoritative parental rearing style and career exploration of junior high school students, the effect is the best under the mediating effect of parental career support.

Journal of Psychological Research

The Relationship between Parenting Styles, Parental Career Support, and Career Exploration in Junior High School Students