Journal of Vocational Behavior 78 (2011) 1120

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Journal of Vocational Behavior

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / j v b

Effects of parental expectations and cultural-values orientation on career decision-making difculties of Chinese University students
S. Alvin Leung a,, Zhi-Jin Hou b, Itamar Gati c, Xixi Li a
a b c

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China Beijing Normal University, China The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
This study examined the effects of cultural-values conict and parental expectations on the career decision-making difculties of university students in three cities in China (Beijing, Wuhan, and Hong Kong, N = 1342). The Multidimensional Scales of Individual Traditionality and Modernity (Yang, Yu, & Ye, 1989) were used as a measure of cultural-values conict and cultural orientation. The Living-Up-to Parental Expectation Inventory (Wang & Heppner, 2002) was used to measure parental expectations. The Career Decision-Making Difculties Questionnaire (Gati & Saka, 2001) was used as a dependent measure. It was found that levels of cultural-value conict were associated with higher levels of career decision-making difculties for students in the Chinese Mainland cities but not for students in Hong Kong. Perceived parental expectations and perceived self-performance in the expected areas were found to be predictive of career decision-making difculties. Cultural-value orientation, especially endorsement of Chinese traditional values, was found to moderate the relationship between parental expectation and career decision-making difculties. Theoretical, research and practical implications of ndings were discussed. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 12 June 2010 Available online 14 August 2010 Keywords: Parental expectations Cultural-values conict Career decision-making difculties Cross-cultural

Vocational psychology scholars have observed that there is a need for vocational psychology to integrate cross-cultural and international perspectives into its theory, research, and practice (Athanasou & Esbroeck, 2008; McMahon & Yuen, 2009). Theories of career development were developed in Western countries, and they are limited in their capacity to address indigenous constructs and issues that are salient in other geographic regions (Leung & Chen, 2009; Leung et al., 2009). Moreover, career development research tended to rely on samples that are restricted in cultural and geographic diversity, thereby limiting the generalization of ndings across cultures. In order to enrich the cross-cultural foundation of vocational psychology, it is imperative that contextual and culture-specic variables be included in research and conceptual formulations (Savickas, 2007). This study aims to ll this gap through examining the effects of cultural-values conict and parental expectation on the career decisionmaking difculties of Chinese university students. Relational considerations and parental expectations An important theoretical position of this study is that career choice and development should be examined in the context of the close relationships that characterize Chinese communities. Many vocational researchers have underscored the importance of conceptualizing studies that examine the interface between work and relationships (e.g., Blustein, 2001; Keller & Whiston, 2008; Richardson, 1993; Whiston & Keller, 2004). In a seminal article on work and relationships, Blustein (2001) asserted that one of the most important and relevant contextual factors is that working is inherently social for most people (p.180). The call to examine
Corresponding author. Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, China. E-mail address: smleung@cuhk.edu.hk (S.A. Leung). 0001-8791/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2010.08.004

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the interface between work and family, however, has not resulted in a signicant increase in the amount of empirical work in that direction, especially studies on young adolescents. For instance, Whiston and Keller (2004) reviewed the literature on the inuence of family on career development and observed that (a) there were few studies that examined the linkage between specic parental behaviors (e.g., aspirations and expectations) and adolescent career development, (b) the mechanisms that parents inuenced adolescent career development were seldom explored, and (c) most studies used Caucasian samples. A relational perspective encompassing the inuence of family on career development is critical in Chinese communities. Indeed, in many Asian and Chinese communities, career choice and work-related issues could seldom be separated from relationship issues. Family-related considerations and expectations could create conicts and dilemmas yet at the same time inject vital meanings and support to the individual (Young, Valach, Ball, Turkel, & Wong, 2003). For example, Fouad et al. (2008) found that family inuenced career decision-making and shaped the values that Asian American participants placed on work and career. Examples of qualitative themes on family inuences found in this study were family expectations, family support, family obligations, family as a safe in-group, family expectations of the role of work, and friction between family and U.S. cultures. Cultural-values conict and cultural orientation A second conceptual theme examined in this study is Chinese cultural-values conict and cultural orientation. Economic globalization and rapid advancement in information technology have accelerated the speed of social and cultural transformation in Chinese communities in Asia. Whereas the traditional cultural pillars of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism still maintain a strong foothold in these communities, individuals are also exposed to Western cultural values in their everyday lives. Confucian relational ethics encourages individuals, especially young persons to fulll their parents' expectations and obey their wishes, to show respect to parental gures, and to maintain interpersonal harmony through their choices and actions. In contrast, Western cultural values often encourage individuals to be independent in their thinking, judgment and choices, and to pursue personal goals and career fulllment. Indeed, Yang (1996) commented that in the past 100-plus years China has undergone the biggest political, economic, social, and cultural changes of the ve millennia of Chinese history (p.480) and that the process of societal modernization has lead to far-reaching and profound psychological and behavioral changes. Young people who stand at the conuence between Eastern and Western cultures are bound to experience certain degree of conicts when they make important life decisions. Accordingly, Kwan (2009) used the term collectivistic conict to denote the psychological tension between forsaking/asserting individualistic aspects of their self and confronting/conforming to the perceived expectations or constraints of the collective group (p. 980). Collectivistic conict is triggered within Chinese individuals when they try to adopt Western/ modern value orientations within the collectivistic expectations inherent in their cultural context (Hwang, 2009). An approach to understand and examine cultural-values conict and accommodation is through Yang's (1996, 2003) conceptualization of individual traditionality (T) and modernity (M). Yang viewed traditionality and modernity as co-existing psychological and behavioral characteristics that are manifested as diverse and potentially competing Chinese (e.g., lial piety and submission to authority) and Western culture-based values (e.g., open-mindedness and gender equality). Societal modernization would likely elevate the salience of Western cultural values, yet would not replace traditional Chinese social and cultural values. Thus, traditionality and modernity would exert concurrent inuence on the psychological and behavioral functioning of Chinese individuals in varying degrees and magnitudes. Through a process aiming to extract indigenous expression of traditionality and modernity, Yang, Yu, and Ye (1989) identied ve dimensions of T and ve dimensions of M. The ve T dimensions were submission to authority, lial piety and ancestral worship, conservation and endurance, fatalism and defensiveness, and male dominance. The ve M dimensions were egalitarianism and open-mindedness, social isolation and self-reliance, optimism and assertiveness, affective hedonism, and sex equity. The resulting scales were labeled the Multidimensional Scale of Chinese Individual Traditionality (MS-CIT) and the Multidimensional Scale of Chinese Individual Modernity (MS-CIM). The MS-CIT and MS-CIM would be administered under the assumption that individual T and M are two separate, independent, multidimensional psychological syndromes (Yang, 2003, p.266). Individual traditionality (T) and modernity (M) offered a set of indigenous, useful constructs to understand the effects of cultural-value conict on career development. In this study, we conceptualize those individuals with high scores on both the T and M scales derived from the MS-CIT and MS-CIM (dened as scoring at 67th percentile or above on both scales; Cell A in Table 1) as participants who experience high cultural-values conict. We conceptualize those individuals who showed a signicantly higher preference on one scale over the other (T or M scores; Cells C and G in Table 2) as participants who experience low cultural-values
Table 1 Conceptualization of cultural conicts based on Modernity (M) and Traditionality (T) Scores derived from the MS-CIM and MS-CIT. High T score (67th to 100th percentile) High M Score (67th to 100th percentile) Medium M score (34th to 67th percentile) Low M Score (33th percentile or lower) (A) High conict (D) Medium conict (G) Low conict Medium T score (34th to 66th percentile) (B) Medium conict (E) Medium conict (H) Medium conict Low T score (33th percentile or lower) (C) Low conict (F) Medium conict (I) Medium conict

Note. MS-CIM = Multidimensional Scale of Chinese Individual Modernity. MS-CIT = Multidimensional Scale of Chinese Individual Traditionality.

S.A. Leung et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 78 (2011) 1120 Table 2 The relationship between cultural-values conict and CDDQ scores. Region CDDQ clusters Cultural-values conict groups 1. High conict 2. Medium conict Mean 6.48 5.00 4.30 15.75 430 6.77 4.90 4.34 16.05 384 SD 1.43 1.73 1.42 3.57 1.29 1.71 1.42 3.52 3. Low conict

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Mean China (N = 698) Readiness Lack of Information Inconsistent Information Total N Readiness Lack of Information Inconsistent Information Total N 6.96 5.29 4.81 17.02 71 6.93 5.52 4.63 17.08 39

SD 1.33 1.85 1.61 3.62 1.19 1.66 1.42 3.52

Mean 6.34 4.83 4.26 15.44 197 7.01 5.05 4.55 16.69 221

SD 1.45 1.63 1.41 3.31 1.33 1.67 1.41 3.49

F value 4.87 1.94 4.22 5.39 2.35 2.49 1.98 3.31

p value .01** 0.1 .02** .01** 0.1 0.08 0.14 0.04

Post Hoc 1N2,3 1N3 1N2,3 1N2,3

HongKong (N = 644)

Note. 1 = high conict group, 2 = medium conict group, 3 = low conict group. *The mean difference is signicant at the .05 level. **The mean difference is signicant at the .01 level.

conict. We conceptualize the rest as participants who experience a moderate level of cultural-values conict (Cells B, D, E, F, H, and I in Table 2). This cultural-values conict conceptualization would allow us to compare the career decision-making difculties of participants who experience different degrees of cultural-values conict. In addition to using the T and M score to classify participants into three levels of cultural-values conict as described above, the raw scores of the T and M scales are also used as indicators of cultural orientation (that is, the strength of T and M preferences) in this study. Career decision-making difculties of Chinese university students A third broad conceptual theme underlying this study was career decision-making difculties among Chinese university students. The rapid social, economic, and educational reforms undertaken in China in the past two decades have transformed the Chinese labor and employment market, resulting in structural changes in career opportunities available to university graduates (Zhang, Hu, & Pope, 2002). There are two contextual themes worth noting. First, for a long period of time since the beginning of modern China, the government had guaranteed jobs for all university graduates (and to all citizens), and graduates were placed by the government in employment positions that were not necessarily congruent with their interests. Beginning in around 1995, universities and higher education institutions in China have transitioned into a system in which they no longer have to be responsible for placing students. University students have to take responsibility for their own choices, to learn to make career decisions, and to resolve the problems and barriers they encounter along the way. Unfortunately, the new generation of Chinese university students has few experiences in making career and educational decisions, and they receive little support from their past generation (e.g., teachers, parents), who themselves lived through tumultuous periods of the country in which career choice was not an option. The second theme is the comprehensive change from a state-guaranteed unied labor allocation job placement system to a market-driven system, in which employment and placement are determined by the demand and supply for labors. As such, many individuals would no longer enjoy permanent employment with state benets such as pension and housing. Indeed, even though the Chinese economy has been growing very fast in the past decade, there is still a sizable unemployment problem. Many individuals have been laid off by former state-owned businesses that were un-protable, and displaced workers and farmers in rural areas have been ocking to cities looking for work opportunities. University graduates today have to (a) compete with a growing number of university-educated peers, as well as those who might have lesser education but with more career experiences, (b) live with the possibility of under-employment as there might not be sufcient jobs requiring their level of education, and (c) accept the reality that there will be career changes and transitions triggered by employment termination and/or changes in their career needs (Hou, Leung, & Duan, 2009). Chinese university students in Hong Kong offered an interesting point of contrast with those in the Chinese Mainland. University students in Hong Kong have enjoyed the freedom to choose occupations for a long time, and they have been living in a social and cultural context where Western and Eastern values converge. However, similar to their counterparts in the Chinese Mainland, university students in Hong Kong have also been experiencing career uncertainties due to economic downturns and restructuring since the sovereignty of the former colony reverted back to China in 1997. The emergence of neighboring cities as alternative nancial and commercial centers (e.g., Shanghai, Singapore) in addition to global and nancial instabilities have made it difcult for many university students to nd jobs compatible with their interest and training (Leung, 2002). In summary, parental-relational considerations, cultural-values conict and cultural orientation, and career decision-making difculties are three conceptual and empirical directions that are important to understanding the career choice and behavior of Chinese universities students. In the following section, we present the specic research hypotheses and our rationale.

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Research hypotheses Three research hypotheses were examined in this study. First, Chinese individuals have been increasingly exposed to Western cultural values, and along with the co-existence of traditional Chinese cultural values in their belief system, they are likely to experience varying degree of cultural-values conict when they approach important life decisions (Leung & Chen, 2009; Yang, 1996, 2003), including career-related decisions. Accordingly, we hypothesize that those Chinese university students who experience higher degrees of cultural-values conict would likely exhibit a higher level of career decision-making difculties, than students who experience a lower degree of cultural-values conict. Cultural-values conict is dened as the co-existence of both traditional and modern values (Yang, 1996, 2003), and the operational classication is presented in Table 1. Second, the literature on the career development of Asian and Chinese individuals suggested that their career decisions are often inuenced by family and parental expectations (e.g., Fouad et al., 2008; Young et al., 2003). We hypothesize that perception of high parental expectations, and perception that one have not performed adequately in the expected area, are likely be associated with higher levels of career decision-making difculties. Third, the effects of perceived parental expectations and perceived self-performance in the expected areas on career decisionmaking difculties are moderated by cultural orientation. Cultural orientation is dened as one's preference along the global dimensions of traditionality and modernity (Yang, 1996, 2003). Specically, we hypothesize that traditionality would have a stronger effect than modernity on decision-making difculties. Since traditional cultural values are associated with attitudes such as lial piety and adherence to family and social norms, the effects of parental expectations on career decision-making difculties are strengthened for individuals who endorse these values.

Method Participants Participants of this study (N = 1342) were university students in Hong Kong (275 male and 369 female), Beijing (119 male and 152 female), and Wuhan (252 male and 175 female). Participants were recruited from several major comprehensive universities in the three cities. Hong Kong adopted a three-year university education system, 58.2% of participants were rst-year students, 19.3% were second year second-year students, and 17.4% were third-year students. The Chinese Mainland adopted a four-year university system, and 47.6% of participants were rst-year students, 29.9% were second-year students, 14.3% were third-year students, and 7.9% were fourth-year students. The mean age of participants was 19.62 (SD = 2.98).

Procedure Participants were informed on the objectives of this study, and those who agreed to participate completed a number of instruments, including the Multidimensional Scale of Chinese Individual Traditionality (MS-CIT) and the Multidimensional Scale of Chinese Individual Modernity (MS-CIM) (Yang, 1996; Yang et al., 1989), the Career Decision-making Difculties Questionnaire (Gati & Saka, 2001; Gati, Krausz, & Osipow, 1996), the Living-Up-to Parental Expectation Inventory (LPEI) (Wang & Heppner, 2002), and a short demographic information form where students reported their age, gender, year of study, academic major and tentative educational and career plans. As a token of appreciation for participation, students received a small souvenir. They were also given the option to complete a general career interest inventory and receive a standard test report on their career and educational interests. Participants were encouraged to contact the researchers for questions on their interest test scores if needed.

Instruments Multidimensional Scale of Chinese Individual Traditionality (MS-CIT) and Multidimensional Scale of Chinese Individual Modernity (MS-CIM) The scales (Yang et al., 1989) were developed to measure traditionality (T) and modernity (M) among Chinese individuals. For practical reasons the short version of the scales were used in the present study (Zhang, Zheng, & Wang, 2003). The ve subscales for the MS-CIT are: (a) submission to authority, (b) lial piety and ancestral worship, (c) conservatism and endurance, (d) fatalism and defensiveness, and (d) male dominance. The ve subscales of the MS-CIM are: (a) egalitarianism and open-mindedness, (b) social isolation and self-reliance, (c) optimism and assertiveness, (d) affective hedonism, and (e) sex equality. Each subscale has 10 items and a 6-point rating scale is used (1 = strongly disagree, 6 = strongly agree). The internal consistency reported by Yang et al. (1989) for the T and M subscales ranged from .67 to .88 among college students and adults. In a study by Zhang et al. (2003), the internal consistency reliability estimates of the T and M subscales (short-form) ranged from .62 to .87 among college students in China. Zhang et al. (2003) also reported that participants living in Chinese cities had higher scores on the M subscales than those living in the countryside. Participants with more education had higher scores on the M scale and lower scores on the T scale than those with less education. Male participants had higher T score and lower M score than female participants. In the present study, the internal consistency reliability coefcients for the T and M scales were .91 and .87, respectively.

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Career Decision-making Difculties Questionnaire (CDDQ) The abridged, 34-item version of the CDDQ was used (Gati & Saka, 2001). Each of the items of the CDDQ was related to a decision-making situation and participants were asked to rate on a 9-point Likert-type rating scale (1 does not describe me, 9 describes me well) the degree to which each statement described them. In the last item of the questionnaire, participants were asked to rate the overall severity of their difculties in the career decision-making process on a similar 9-point scale. Studies about the structure of CDDQ (e.g., Gati et al., 1996; Osipow & Gati, 1998) yielded three major clusters Lack of Readiness, Lack of Information, and Inconsistent Information. Gati et al. (1996) reported internal consistency reliability coefcients of .71, .91, and .93 for the three major clusters. Leung and Hou (2002) translated CDDQ items to Chinese and reported internal consistency reliability coefcients of .65, .93, and .89, respectively for the three clusters among high school and associate degree students. In the present study, the alpha coefcients were .53, .92, and .83, for the three clusters, respectively. Leung and Hou (2002) used a backtranslation method to translate CDDQ items into Chinese. Items were translated to Chinese by a language expert and then retranslated back to English by another language expert. A third person procient in both languages reviewed the equivalence of items. Those involved in items translation then met to discuss items with questionable equivalence and reach a consensus on nal item translation. Living-Up-to Parental Expectation Inventory (LPEI) The LPEI was developed by Wang and Heppner (2002) to assess a range of perceived parental expectations and lial piety within a Chinese cultural context. The LPEI items were developed from interviews with Taiwanese students as well as review of local literature. The eventual LPEI consisted for 32 items, which loaded into three factors: personal maturity, academic achievement, and dating concerns. For each item, respondents were asked to respond twice. In the rst time, they rated How strong do you currently perceive this expectation from your parents? This scale was called the Perceived Parental Expectation scale (PPE; 1 = not at all expected, 6 = very strongly expected). At the second time, participants rated How well are you performing in this area? This scale was called the Perceived Self-Performance scale (PSP, 1 = could never do well, 6 = could always do well). A Living-Up-To Parental Expectation scores (LPE) were computed by subtracting the PPE from the corresponding PSP rating, with higher scores indicating stronger perception on meeting parental perceptions. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefcients were .91, .85, and .85 for the three PEP scales (personal maturity, academic achievement, and dating concerns), and .87, .81, and .76 for the three PSP scales, respectively, among Taiwanese college students (Wang & Heppner, 2002). Wang and Heppner (2002) reported that students with high LPEI scores were associated with high level of psychological stress. In the present study, the reliability coefcients for the three PEP scales were .86, .89, and .86, respectively. The reliability coefcients for the three PSP scales were .74, .83, and .82, respectively. Since the concern of this study was on both perceived levels of parental expectations and perceived selfperformance, both the PPE and PSP scores were used instead of just the LPE score (difference between PPE and PSP). Results Regional and gender differences in career decision-making difculties The means and standard deviations of the three CDDQ cluster scores (Readiness, Lack of Information, and Inconsistent Information) by Chinese cities are presented in Table 2. We performed a multiple analysis of variance procedure (MANOVA) to examine if there were gender and regional (Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong) differences on the CDDQ scores. The main effect for gender was not signicant, but the main effect for region was signicant (Wilks lambda = 0.98, F (3, 1336) = 9.70, p b .001, Partial Eta Squared = .021). Follow-up analysis showed that there were signicant differences between the two groups on the Readiness cluster (see Table 2), in which Hong Kong students scored higher than Chinese Mainland students. Due to the observed differences on the CDDQ scores, and that Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland have different social, cultural, and political histories, participants from the two regions were examined separately in subsequent analyses when the CDDQ scores were used as dependent variables. Cultural conicts and career decision-making difculties In order to examine if cultural-values conict were related to career decision-making difculties (rst hypothesis; see Table 1), we carried out a MANOVA with cultural-values conict levels as the independent variable (high, medium, and low) and the three CDDQ cluster scores as dependent variables for students in the Chinese Mainland cities and those in Hong Kong. The results showed a signicant main effects of cultural-values conict on the three CDDQ cluster scores among students from the Chinese Mainland (Wilk's lambda = .98, F (6, 1386) = 2.44, p b .05, Partial Eta Squared = .010), but not for Hong Kong students (Wilk's lambda = .98, F (6, 1278) = 1.69, p N .05). We carried out follow-up analyses using analysis of variance (ANOVA) to further examine the signicant cultural-values conict main effects on Chinese Mainland students with each of the CDDQ cluster scores as the dependent variable (see Table 2). The results showed that participants with high cultural-values conict had signicantly higher scores on the Readiness (F (2, 1386) = 4.87, p b .01, Partial Eta Squared = .014) and Inconsistent Information (F (2, 1386) = 4.22, p b .05, Partial Eta Squared = .012) cluster scores of the CDDQ than participants in the Medium and Low cultural-values conict groups. In summary, the results supported the rst hypothesis that high cultural-values conict was related to career decision-making difculties. However, the support was found only for Chinese Mainland university students but not for Hong Kong students.

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Table 3 Pearson Product-Moment Correlation among CDDQ, Cultural Orientation, and Parental Expectations Scores (above diagonal Hong Kong, below diagonal Mainland China students). CDDQ Cultural Orientation LI .40** .47** .12** .06 .02 .17** .08* .19** .04 .08* II .39** .62** .10* .03 .11** .21** .18** .15** .09* .01 T .06 .06 .07 .28** .05 .05 .14** .06 .16** .13** M .04 .10* .09* .34** .11* .07 .01 .01 .01 .09* PM AA DC

LR CDDQ LR LI II T M PPE PSP PPE PSP PPE PSP .38** .35** .22** .00 .05 .14** .15** .09* .08* .02

PPE .00 .03 .09* .10* .03 .07 .53** .14** .44** .11**

PSP .15** .10* .14** .06 .05 .05 .03 .43** .02 .29**

PPE .07 .02 .17** .12** .04 .54** .08* .24** .50** .11**

PSP .04 .20** .11** .08* .00 .11** .43** .21** .19** .40**

PPE .02 .01 .10* .17** .04 .50** .01 .60** .22** .49**

PSP .03 .05 .03 .07 .01 .13** .38** .14** .54** .29**

Cultural Orientation PM AA DC

Note. ** Correlation coefcient is signicant at the .01 level (2-tailed), * Correlation is signicant at the .05 level (2-tailed). CDDQ = Career Decision-making Difculties Questionnaire; LR = Lack of Readiness; LI = Lack of Information; II = Inconsistent Information; T = Traditionality; M = Modernity; PM = Personal Maturity; AA = Academic Achievement; DC = Dating Concern; PPE = Perceived Parental Expectation; PSP = Perceived Self-performance.

Effects of parental expectations and cultural orientation on career decision-making difculties The correlation coefcients among the two cultural orientation scores (T and M), the LPEI scores (PPE scores and PEP scores of the three subscales), and the CDDQ total and cluster scores are presented in Table 3. We conducted hierarchical regression analyses to examine the relative contributions of parental expectations and cultural orientation on the career decision-making difculties of students in Chinese Mainland cities and the Hong Kong. In the regression analysis for Chinese Mainland students (see Table 4), the variables were entered in block in order to assess the additive effects of parental expectations and cultural-values orientation in predicting career decision-making difculties: the rst block was the PPE total scores (sum of all three subscales), the second block was the PSP total score (sum of all three subscales), and the third block consisted of the T and M scores (as measures of cultural orientation). The total CDDQ score was used as the dependent variable. In the rst model (PPE only), the PPE total score signicantly predict the CDDQ total score (F (1, 696) = 12.84, p b .001; Beta coefcient = .14, p b .001). In the second model (PPE and PSP), the PSP and PPE were both signicant predictors (F (2, 695) = 23.24, p b .001). The Beta coefcients for PPE and PSP were .20 (p b .001) and .22 (p b .001), respectively. In the third model (with PPE, PSP, and T and M scores), T score was a signicant predictors (F (4, 693) = 18.24, p b .001; Beta coefcient= .19, p b .001) in addition to the PSP total score (Beta coefcient= .23, p b .001) and PPE (Beta coefcient= .17, p b .001), yet the M score was not a signicant predictor. Overall, the results (see Table 4) showed that when the total PSP score was added to the PPE total score as predictor variables, the variance accounted for (i.e., R2) increased from 1.8% to 6.3%, suggesting that perceived self-performance in the expected areas was more important than perceived parental expectation in predicting career decision-making difculties (supported second hypothesis). In addition, when the cultural orientation scores were added, the variance accounted for increased from 6.3% to 9.5%. The ndings suggested that the prediction of career decision-making by parental expectation was strengthened by the addition of perceived self-performance on the expected areas, as well as by participants' cultural orientation. Specically, the predictive power was enhanced by traditional cultural orientation but not by modern cultural orientation. These ndings supported the second and third hypotheses.
Table 4 Predictor of CDDQ total scores with PPE, PSP, Traditionality (T), and Modernity (M) scores as predictors. Models Chinese Cities (Beijing, Wuhan) (N = 698) 1 2 PPE PPE + PSP R2 .02 .06 R2 change .02 .05 F change 12.84 33.04 Predictors PPE PPE PSP PPE PSP T M n.s PPE PSP n.s PSP T M Beta .14** .20** .22** .17** .23** .19** .02** .09* .13** .14** .12** .15**

PPE + PSP + T + M

.10

.03

12.48

Hong Kong (N = 644)

1 2

PPE PPE + PSP

.00 .02

.00 .02

2.06 11.18

PPE + PSP + T + M

.05

.02

8.12

Note. ** The regression coefcient is signicant at .01 level. *The regression coefcient is signicant at .05 level. PPE = Perceived parental expectation; PSP = Perceived parental expectation; T = Traditionality; M = Modernity.

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A similar hierarchical regression analysis was performed for Hong Kong students. In the rst model (PPE score only), the PPE total score did not signicantly predict the CDDQ total score. In the second model (PPE total score and PSP), the PSP and PPE were both signicant predictors (F (2, 641) = 6.64, p b .001). The Beta coefcients for PPE and PSP were .09 (p b .05) and .13 (p b .001), respectively. In the third model (with PPE, PSP, and T and M scores), both T and M were signicant predictors (F (4, 639) = 7.45, p b .001; Beta coefcients were .12 and .15 respectively, p b .01) in addition to the PSP total score (Beta coefcient = .14, p b .001), yet PPE total score was not signicant. The results showed that when the total PSP score was added to the PPE total score as predictor variables, the explanation power was increased from 0.3% to 2.0% (R2), suggesting that perceived self-performance in the expected areas was more important than perceived parental expectation in predicting career decision-making difculties (supported hypothesis two). In addition, when the cultural orientation variables were added, the explanation power was increased from 2.0% to 4.5% (R2) (supported third hypothesis). Overall, the results (see Table 4) was similar to those found with Chinese Mainland university students presented in the previous paragraph, except that PPE was not a signicant predictor, and M emerged as a signicant predictor (in contrast to the non-signicant ndings with Chinese Mainland sample). The predictive signicance of the predictors as reected by the values of R2 was also stronger for the student sample in the Chinese Mainland cities. In order to further examine the effects of parental expectations and cultural-value orientations on career decision-making difculties, another set of regression analysis was conducted using the subscales of the LPEI and the T and M subscale scores as predictor variables. In the rst hierarchical regression analysis, the rst block of variables entered included the PPE for Personal Maturity, PPE for Academic Achievement, and PPE for Dating Concern (F (3, 694) = 6.67, p b .001). The only signicant predictor was PPE for Academic Achievement (Beta coefcient = .17, p b .001). In the second model (F (6, 691) = 12.93, p b .001), the PSP scores were added (Personal Maturity, Academic Achievement, and Dating Concern), and the signicant predictors were PPE for Academic Achievement (Beta coefcient = .21, p b .001) , PSP of Academic Achievement (Beta coefcient = .20, p b .001), and PSP for Personal Maturity (Beta Coefcient = .14, p b .01). In the third model (F (16, 681) = 7.35, p b .001), the ve T and ve M subscales were added. In addition to the variables that were signicant in the second model, there were two other signicant predictors, which were Conservatism and Endurance (Beta coefcient = .18, p b .01) and Fetalism and Defensiveness (Beta coefcient = .10, p b .05) (both a T subscale). The variance accounted for (value of R2) increased from 4% to 11.8% with the inclusion of the three PSP scores (in addition to PPE scores), and to 17% when the T and M subscale scores were added. These ndings provided further support that cultural orientation strengthened the prediction of career decision-making difculties by perceived parental expectations and perceived self-performance in the expected areas. The ndings were mostly similar for the Hong Kong sample. In the rst model of the hierarchical regression analysis, none of the three PPE scores were found to be signicant predictors. In the second model (F (6, 637) = 5.43, p b .001), the signicant predictors were PSP for Personal Maturity (Beta coefcient = .09, p b .05), PSP for Academic Achievement (Beta coefcient = .19, p b .001), and PSP for Dating Concern (Beta coefcient = .10, p b .05). In the third model (F (16, 627) = 4.49, p b .001), the ve T subscales and the ve M subscales were added, and the additional signicant predictors were Fatalism and Defensiveness (a T subscale) (Beta coefcient = .12, p b .05) and Sex Equity (an M subscale) (Beta coefcient = .21, p b .01). The variance accounted for increased from 1% to 5.6% in the second model, and to 11.6% in the third model. Discussion Yang (1996, 2003) and other scholars (e.g., Hwang, 2009; Leung & Chen, 2009) observed that Chinese individuals today have to accommodate Chinese traditional cultural values and Western modern values simultaneously within their systems. The coexistence of these cultural values allows the individual to respond to demands and opportunities surfacing in different facets of their life structure, including but not limited to work, education, relationship, and leisure activities (Chen, 2009). The co-existence of these cultural values that are at times competing would also create anxieties, confusions, indecision, and intrapersonal and interpersonal conicts (Kwan, 2000). The ndings of this study supported a cultural conict paradigm, as university students in the Chinese Mainland who simultaneously preferred both traditional and modern cultural values exhibited a higher level of career decision-making difculties than those who showed a clear preference for either traditional or modern cultural values. It was interesting to note that the above ndings on Chinese Mainland university students were not identied for university students in Hong Kong. In contrast to students in the Chinese Mainland, students in Hong Kong have long enjoyed freedom to choose their educational and career paths due to her former identity as a British colony. Hong Kong has long been a city with a reputation to incorporate traditional Chinese and Western culture due to her ties to the Western world and proximity to the Chinese Mainland. Consequently, Hong Kong citizens might already have managed strategies to navigate between traditional and modern/Western cultural values, and are more immune to negative outcomes (e.g., a high level of career decision-making difculties) that might be triggered by the co-existence of these competing values. We found that both perceived parental expectations and perceived self-performance in the expected areas exerted an inuence on career decision-making difculties, with the latter variable accounting for more variance on decision-making difculties than the former variable. Those who felt that they have performed adequately in the expected areas (thus, more likely to meet parental expectations) might have a bigger capacity to deal with career choice issues than those who felt that they have not performed adequately. The areas of parental expectations also had an effect on career decision-making difculties. Of the three components of parental expectations measured by the LPEI (Wang & Heppner, 2002), the academic achievement component, including both perceived expectation and perceived self-performance, were found to have a stronger effect on career decision-making difculties

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than the personal maturity and dating concern components. Students that perceived high parental expectations on academic achievement, and felt that their performance on the expected areas were inadequate were most vulnerable to career decisionmaking difculties. The ndings of this study are consistent with the position by Blustein (2001) and others (e.g., Richardson, 1993; Whiston & Keller, 2004) that one's social context exerts an important inuence on career behavior and choices. In Chinese communities, the social context consists of complex relationship systems and an array of social, economic, and political forces that facilitate and at the same time limit the career development of individuals (Zhang et al., 2002). The effects of these contextual factors on the individual are often moderated by his/her cultural orientation. For instance, individuals who adopted a traditional Chinese cultural-value orientation (e.g., submission to authority, lial piety, conservatism and endurance, fatalism and defensiveness, and male dominance, as measured in the T scale) would be more inclined toward responding or yielding to expectations and demands from his/her social systems (e.g., parental expectations). They might experience internal disequilibrium and tension that are expressed in the form career decision-making difculties. In contrast, those who adopted a Western cultural orientation (e.g., egalitarianism and open-mindedness, self-reliance, optimism and assertiveness, affective hedonism, and sex equity as measured by the M scale) would be less inclined toward yielding to the same dosage of social expectations. Theoretical and future research implications A number of theoretical and empirical implications could be developed from the ndings of this study. First and foremost, this study provided some initial support on the importance of studying cultural-values conict among Chinese university students. The conceptualization and operationalization of culture-value conict in Chinese communities should be further pursued both theoretically and empirically. A number of recent theoretical contributions have formulated and outlined possible ways to examine and understand the nature and dynamics effects of cultural and career decision conicts. For example, Kwan (2000, 2009) elaborated on the construct of collectivistic conicts among Chinese and suggested measures that could be used to examine cultural and career conicts empirically. Chen (2009) elaborated on the construct of collective-self among Chinese and suggested that researchers should examine how self-coordination strategies could lead to social harmony and self-satisfaction (including career choice satisfaction). Second, this study showed empirically the impact of parental expectations on career choice and development, using an indigenous instrument (LPEI; Wang & Heppner, 2002) that conceptualize expectations as having multiple dimensions (i.e., academic achievement, personal maturity, and dating and courtship). Even though the magnitude of effects was not strong, the observed effects were still signicant given that career choice and development are not likely to be impacted by a single set of variables (e.g., parental expectations). The effects of parental expectations, and more globally the impact of family and family relationships on career development and choice in a Chinese cultural context should be further delineated in theory conceptualization and empirical research (Keller & Whiston, 2008). Research studies on the inuence of family and parents on career development should take into consideration the nature of close relationships in Chinese cultural context, especially the concept of lial piety, which encompasses elements of reciprocity and authoritativeness (Yeh & Bedford, 2003). Studies that use culture-specic conceptualization and measures would likely yield specic ndings on the channel and mechanism of parental inuence that would enrich the cross-cultural career development literature. Third, this study used mostly indigenous measures that were developed in Chinese regions. The MS-CIT and MS-CIM (Yang, 1996, 2003), as well as the LPEI (Wang & Heppner, 2002) were developed specically in Chinese communities in accordance with Chinese cultural characteristics. Future career development research studies on Chinese regions should continue to identify, adapt, and develop measures that are consistent with the Chinese cultural background (e.g., develop a culture-specic measure on parental career expectations). In addition to instrument development, future research studies should also consider using different research methods and design, including but not limited to qualitative strategies that would expand our understanding of how cultural conicts and parental expectations inuenced career choice and behavior. Career counseling implications It is important for counselors to help students communicate with their parents so they could discuss, understand, and shape parental expectations. The most important goal of career counseling intervention should be to assist students to respond to various forms of social expectations yet at the same time pursue career and education directions that would meet their individual needs. The decision to either conform to social expectation, to pursue personal fulllment, or to nd a compromised solution, is a choice to be made by the student. Navigating around parental and social expectations requires awareness, interpersonal sensitivity, and culture-appropriate communication skills. Chen (2009) offered four important counseling tasks to help students deal with cultural-values conict associated with decision-related conicts. The rst strategy is to increase self-awareness and self-understanding. Students should be encouraged to explore and understand their needs, emotions, thoughts, and personal distress in relation to career choice and concerns. This awareness would result in a more coherent self and translate into competence in expressing themselves to signicant others. The second strategy is the coordination of self with signicant others. In making career decisions, students have to recognize his/her role obligations and the expectations of those in the family system, and to coordinate himself/herself with others accordingly. The third strategy is to train students to use multiple conict resolution methods that could deal with conicts without disrupting interpersonal harmony, such as negotiation, compromise, and cooperation, as well as to communicate good-will and respect (an

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important gesture in a Chinese society). Last, steps should be taken to help students to manage unmet personal needs and distress. The existential meaning in fullling personal and social obligations through career choice should be explored. The Taoist approach to deal with adversity through understanding the way of the Heaven and be quiet and comply with Nature rather than defying and controlling it (Chen, 2009, p.1004) could be used as a philosophic rationale to assist students to deal with negative emotions arising from career-related intrapersonal and interpersonal conicts. Limitations This study has several limitations. First, the classication of students into three categories of cultural-value conict is somewhat arbitrary. However, the arbitrariness was minimized as the selection of participants into the high and low cultural-value conict groups was done via using percentile scores of the T and M scales of the MS-CIT and MS-CIM (Yang, 1996, 2003). In order to test our cultural-value conict paradigm empirically, there is a need to identify different methodologies and approaches. The use of the MS-CIT and MS-CIM scores is one way to measure and classify cultural-values conict and other methods and approaches should be identied in future research studies. Second, similar to many previous research studies on the inuence of family on career development, this research study employed a decit lens and it examined how parental expectations and cultural-value conict might hinder career development. The choice of CDDQ as a measure is consistent with a decit approach as the dependent measures provide information on levels and categories of career decision-making difculties. We believe that future study should conceptualize parental inuence on career development using lens that would reect decits and facilitations. We believe that parental inuence are meant to be nurturing and caring (universal in all societies and cultures) and thus it would be important to explore how that nurturance and caring might translate into support and facilitation, as well as to hindrances and barriers (Fouad et al., 2008). Third, the LPEI (Wang & Heppner, 2002) is not a direct measure of parental career expectations, even though the academic achievement and the personal maturity subscales of the LPEI are broadly related to career and life planning. There is currently no direct measure of parental expectations, and future research should look into the possibility of developing such a measure. It is also important to gather expectation data from parents and compare them to the perceptions of students. Such an approach would provide a comprehensive and clear picture on the shapes and inuences of parental expectations. Conclusion This ndings of this study yielded important information on the effects of parental expectations and cultural-value conicts on the career decision-making difculties of university students in Beijing, Wuhan and Hong Kong. In a fast-paced multicultural and globalized society, we believe that cultural-value conicts and cultural orientation are likely to be central in understanding human interactions and personal choices, including career development and choices. Even though some of the career and cultural constructs examined in this study are indigenous and specic to Chinese communities in Asia, the empirical, theoretical, and practical implications of ndings are clearly connected to the international and cross-cultural career development literature, and would help to inform and strengthen our initiative to bring career counseling to the forefront internationally (Savickas, 2007; McMahon & Yuen, 2009). Acknowledgment This research was supported by a research grant from the Hong Kong Research Grants Committee (Grant# CUHK4623/05H) to the rst author as Principal Investigator, and the second and third author as Co-Investigators. References
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