Previous research indicates that parents have an important role in their lower secondary school kids’ career decision making process about choosing the most appropriate upper secondary school. They also emphasize the role of incoherence in perceptions between adolescents and their parents and the role of quality of attachment. In my master’s thesis I wanted to research the relationship between attachment style, degree of incoherence of perceptions between adolescents and parents regarding the participation of parents in their children's career decision-making processes and the career decision-making difficulties. My sample included 170 ninth-grade students from lower secondary schools and 113 parent-student pairs. I collected the data about the career decision-making difficulties, quality/security of attachment between the student and their parent and the degree of incoherence of perceptions between adolescents and parents regarding the participation of parents in their children's career decision-making processes. The results indicated that the higher security of attachment correlated negatively with higher internal and external conflict and lack of information. Additionally, higher degree of incoherence correlated positively with external conflicts and lower security attachment. Important differences between the securely and insecurely attached students were found in inner and external conflicts, lack of information and the degree of incoherence. The quality or security of attachment and incoherence of perceptions between adolescents and parents regarding the participation of parents in their children's career decision-making processes proved to be important factor in career decision-making difficulties. School counselors may find these implications helpful for planning and constructing the interventions for career orientation, which is an important aspect of their work.
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