| The present study investigates how men and women in dual-career families in Hong Kong adapt or manage their career development when holding concurrent life roles. Grounded theory is used both as a research strategy and a method of data analysis in order to discover values, concepts and realities of the multiple life roles held by the dual-career men and women who are participants of this study.;Twenty men and women professionals in dual-career families in Hong Kong were interviewed in the present study. The study went on until it reached theoretical saturation, that is, when additional data provided no new categories or properties. All participants except two had at least one child in the dual-career families. The data collected from the face-to-face and phone interviews as well as email messages were analyzed according to the open coding, axial coding and selective coding procedures as stated in the grounded theory method of analysis. As a result of the coding procedures, four career involvement typologies and four family involvement typologies are categorized from the study. The "role priority-based" theory also emerges as the substantive theory grounded on the lived experiences of the twenty dual-career participants in the present study.;This research study is important in both the theoretical and practical sense. On the theoretical level, it probes into the real life situations and experiences of men and women in dual-career families who are so understudied. The building of a substantive theory on the interactive nature of multiple life roles, gender-role values and career development is especially meaningful. On the practical level, the study inspires men and women in dual-career families to attain a greater awareness of their plight and dilemmas as they are more informed about useful strategies to manage multiple role dilemmas. The study also provides precious data for those young men and women who are planning to live the dual-career lifestyle as references. In addition, the research study also sheds light onto the field of career and relationship counseling that counselors could obtain first-hand accurate understanding of this unique population through the thick descriptions it has produced. Implications for further studies are also recommended and discussed in this thesis to conclude the whole research study. |
