Associations between parent-child relationships and adolescents' career exploration: a longitudinal mediation study

Family is one of the most important factors influencing an individual' s career development and career exploration is a core aspect of an individual's career choice and development. This study aimed to examine the relationship and underlying mechanisms between parent-child relationships, career-related parental support and career exploration among high school students from a systematic and dynamic perspective. This study used a longitudinal design, and data were collected from 2632 students (48.7% boys) from two public high schools in China. The results showed that: (1) Parent-child relationships at previous time points could positively predict later career-related parental support; career-related parental support at T2 could positively predict career exploration at T3; (2) Career-related parental support at T2 played a partially mediating role between parent-child relationships at T1 and career exploration at T3. These findings provided support for helping adolescents better engage in career exploration by acknowledging the critical role of parent-child relationships and career-related parental support, provide evidence for improving adolescences' career exploration skills from family perspective.