Parental Educational Expectations,Sense Of Family Obligation And Future Orientation For Education

A major feature of human thinking and acting is orientation toward futureevents and outcomes. Future orientation is defined as how individuals think andconstruct their personal future (Nurmi, 1991; Seginer, 1992). Based on Nurmi’scognitive-motivational framework, future orientation is a multidimensional andmultistage phenomenon that can be described in terms of motivation, planning,and evaluation (1991). Thinking and planning for the future are particularlyimportant for adolescents, because adolescence is a transition period fromchildhood to adulthood.Being educated is one of the major developmental tasks for adolescents.Thinking and planning for the future education are particularly important for thesenior high school adolescents in China. Many literatures pointed that parentaleducational expectations play an important role in setting educational goals,thinking and planning for the future education for adolescents (Jodl, Michael,Malanchuk, Eccles, & Sameroff, 2001; Marjoribanks, 2003; Benner & Mistry,2007).Family obligation refers to a collection of attitudes and behaviors related tothe provision of assistance, respect and support to family members. It is a type offamilial connection that emphasizes the membership of children in the largersocial group of the family (Fuligni, Tseng, & Lam, 1999). Researches suggestedthat adolescents’pursuit of academic and educational achievement is related totheir sense of family obligation, adolescents are more likely to think they shouldhelp, support and respect for the family, they are more likely to see academicachievement and going on to college important (Fuligni, 2001; Fuligni & Zhang,2004).In addition, the efforts in study and getting good grades are not only theprimary task of the Chinese children and adolescents, but also the parental expectations for their children. The Chinese adolescents who emphasize filialpiety and family obligations have a strong academic motivation, might be largelybecause they want to achieve the educational expectations of their parents.Therefore, this study aims to explore how the parental educational expectationsand adolescents’sense of family obligations influenced adolescents’futureorientation for education.Parental Educational Expectation Questionnaire, Chinese version of FamilyObligation Questionnaire and Future Orientation Questionnaire were administeredto 1180 Chinese adolescents from senior high school to explore the relationshipsamong parental educational expectations, sense of family obligation (currentassistance; respect for family; future support) and future orientation for education.All of the measures showed good reliability. The data analysis was accomplishedwith the software SPSS 13.0, and the main statistics methods included correlationanalysis, multivariate analyses of covariance, multinomial logistic regression, andhierarchical regression analysis.The results are as follows:Majority of adolescents reported educational goals and fears. Adolescentsshows high levels of exploration, commitment, feelings, personal values andpositive expectations concerning future education.More than 90% of parents expect their children to achieve undergraduate orabove undergraduate degree. Adolescents who are expected to achieve aboveundergraduate degree reported more exploration concerning future education thanthose expected to achieve below undergraduate and undergraduate degree.Adolescents who are expected to achieve above undergraduate degree reported ahigher level of commitment, feelings, personal values and positive expectationsconcerning future education than those expected to achieve undergraduate degree,and adolescents who are expected to achieve undergraduate degree reported ahigher level of commitment, feelings, personal values and positive expectationsconcerning future education than those expected to achieve below undergraduatedegree. Totally, adolescents shows a stronger sense of family obligation. Planning forfuture education is positively predicted by current assistance and respect forfamily. Feelings and personal values concerning future education are positivelypredicted by current assistance, respect for family, and future support. Positiveexpectations is positively predicted by respect for family. For adolescents whoreported a lower level of current assistance, adolescents who are expected toachieve undergraduate and above undergraduate degree reported a higher level ofcommitment, positive expectations concerning future education than thoseexpected to achieve below undergraduate degree.Understanding the roles of parental educational expectations and sense offamily obligation may help teachers and educators better assist Chineseadolescents to be successful in developing the future orientation for education.