Parental Support and School Achievement as Resources for School Engagement and Career Adaptability in Vocational Secondary School Students

Abstract

The first year of vocational secondary school represents a period in which students remain part of the educational system while also being expected to shape their professional identity. This requires a high level of engagement and adaptation, as well as favorable conditions for fulfilling developmental tasks. The aim of this study was to examine the role of family socioeconomic status, objective and subjective primary school achievement, and parental support in explaining career adaptability and school engagement among vocational school students. The study was conducted on a sample of 1,126 first-year vocational secondary school students from Croatia. In addition to measures of career adaptability and school engagement, students completed questions about socioeconomic status, objective and subjective primary school achievement, and perceived career-specific parental behaviors. Socioeconomic status played a significant but minimal role in explaining the variance incareer adaptability and did not significantly explain variance in school engagement. Although the inclusion of objective and subjective primary school achievement increased the explained variance of both criteria, the most substantial contribution came from perceived parental support. Parental support, together with subjective school achievement, explained 25.1% of the variance in career adaptability and 14.5% of the variance in school engagement. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that parents, as important figures in students’ lives, should create a supportive environment in which students can accomplish their educational tasks and develop their future careers.