Personal, family, academic, and social factors in the vocational choice of students in educational transition: a systematic review

Introduction: Vocational choice is a multidimensional process shaped by personal resources, family support, academic mediations, and social conditions during educational transitions. Objective: To systematize recent evidence on personal, family, academic, and social factors associated with vocational choice in pre-university, university, and vocational education students. Methods: A systematic review was carried out in accordance with PRISMA 2020. We included empirical studies published between January 2021 and May 2026, identified through searches conducted from 1 to 19 May 2026 in international academic sources. Methodological quality was assessed using MMAT and, given the heterogeneity of designs, populations and instruments, a narrative, tabular and visual synthesis was carried out. Supporting data and supplementary materials are available in the Open Science Framework (OSF; 10.17605/OSF.IO/V47BX). Of 872 records, 38 studies were included. Results: Quantitative studies predominated (36/38; 94.7 %). Decision-making self-efficacy, vocational identity, adaptability, clarity of goals, and career exploration emerged as relevant resources, modulated by family, faculty, and institutional support. Parental support was ambivalent: it favored autonomy when it was informative and non-intrusive, but it was associated with greater indecision and discomfort when it adopted forms of pressure or control. Teacher support, vocational guidance, training experiences, gender, socioeconomic level, peers and contextual opportunities also conditioned the margin of choice. Conclusions: Vocational choice can be understood as a decisional ecology in which individual resources and opportunity structures interact in the construction of vocational agency. Guidance should be early, sustained, and contextualized, strengthening autonomy, exploration, and informed decisions.