Abstract—In this study, the effects of paternal support and
maternal support on the Vocational Exploration and
commitment to career choices of 368 Taiwanese college
students were examined. Based on an integrative literature
review, this study designed four constructs pertaining to
paternal/maternal support: emotional support, information
provision, esteem and autonomy support, and tangible
assistance. The Commitment to Career Choices Scale (CCCS)
was divided to two dimensions: a Vocational exploration and
Commitment (VEC) dimension reflecting variations in one’s
level of commitment to career choices, and a Tendency to
Foreclose (TTF) dimension assessing individual differences in
how one commits to career choices. According to the results of
regression analysis, the esteem and autonomy support from
mothers negatively predicted vocational exploration and
commitment (VEC). Furthermore, the esteem and autonomy
support from fathers was the only negative and significant
predictor of the tendency to foreclose. The negative
relationship represents openness to the exploratory experiences
of the commitment process with paternal support. The other
three significant predictors, esteem and autonomy support
from mothers, information support from mothers, and
emotional support from fathers, were positively correlated with
the tendency to foreclose.
Index Terms—Vocational exploration and commitment,
paternal support, maternal support, tendency to foreclose.
Ching-Hua Mao is with the Chihlee Institute of Technology, Taiwan
(e-mail: chcmao@mail.chihlee.edu.tw).
Cite: Ching-Hua Mao, "The Effects of Paternal Support and Maternal Support on Vocational Exploration and Commitment of Taiwanese College Students," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 231-234, 2014.