| The purpose of the study is to understand the contextual factors influencing the educational and career experiences of urban Chinese immigrant youth. Specifically, how personal (perception of barriers and self-reported English language fluency) and familial factors (career-related parental support and parental value on achievement) predict educational/career aspiration, plans and vocational outcome expectation of urban Chinese immigrant youth. Participants included 286 Chinese immigrant high school students in New York City. They were asked to complete the following measures: Self-reported English Language fluency (Yeh & Inose, 2003), Perceptions of Educational Barriers (PEB; McWhirter, 2000), the Career-Related Parent Support Scale (CRPSS; Turner, 2003), Parent Values Measure (PVM; DeCarlo & Luthar, 2000), Vocational/Educational Aspirations (VEAS; Rasheed, 2001) and Vocational/Educational Expectations Scale (VEES; Rasheed, 2001), Vocational Outcome Expectation (VOE; McWhirter, 2000), and a demographic information sheet.; Results indicated that Chinese immigrant youth with higher career and educational aspirations perceive themselves as more fluent in English, receive more career-related support from parents and have parents who place more value or, achievement. Similarly, those who reported higher English language fluency, receive more career-related parental support and have parents who place strong emphasis on achievement are more likely to plan to go to college. Students who plan to work immediately after high school tend to report that they have lower English language fluency and perceive more educational barriers. Lastly, students who reported lower English language fluency, perceive more educational barriers and have less career-related support from parents are more likely to have a negative vocational outcome expectation. Implications for future research, theory, counseling and program development are also discussed. |
