Parental and Student Factors Associated with Future College Major Preference in Two Provinces of China

Abstract

The present study investigates the effects of parental characteristics, including parental education level, occupation level, engagement, perceived expectation, as well as student gender, on 10th graders’ preference for future college academic fields. Logistic regression models were used with N = 642 10th graders from two provinces in China. Results indicate that higher parental education and occupation level did not predict a students’ academic preference in nontraditional fields for their gender group. In most academic fields, the effects of parental engagement were significantly associated with the males’ preferences, not females’. Study findings suggest that parental expectation was a strong predictor of students’ college academic fields preferences. In addition, results suggest that gender stratification still existed in the academic domains, but no interaction between gender and parental characteristics were found.