Associations between Parenting Styles, Interests and Professional Indecision in High School Students

Abstract This study aimed to verify the relationships between parental styles, professional interests and indecision of adolescents. A total of 472 high school students from public schools in the country of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, participated in this study, 66% female and with a mean age of 16.55 years. The Self-Directed Search (SDS), the Responsibility and Requirement Scale (ERE) and the Professional Decision Difficulties Survey Inventory (IDDP) were applied. The results indicated that the lower the difficulty of decision due to professional prestige and financial success, the greater the entrepreneurial interests; and the greater this type of difficulty, the greater the perception of mothers as demanding and fathers as responsive and demanding. It was found that adolescents with greater realistic and entrepreneurial interests tend to perceive the father figure with greater responsiveness. We suggest further research that broadens the understanding of the findings and new discussions on the subject in the field of Professional and Career Guidance.