Correlates of Career Decisions Among Children of Overseas Filipino Workers

Abstract

Decision making is a vital part of an individual's life. It is a complicated process which involves information search and processing to understand available options (Moore, Jensen, & Hauck, 1990, in Rice & Dolgin, 2000). It is during adolescence that an individual needs to make one of the most important decisions, that of choosing a career (O’Hare, 1987, in Rice & Dolgin 2000). During their senior year in high school, students are faced with the dilemma on what they want to do right after graduation: pursue college education, learn a trade by enrolling in technical-vocational program, or work immediately. Whatever career decision the high schoolseniors eventually make, it is important to determine the career decision making process they undergo. It is also important to know which factors they consider or disregard in their career decisions. At stake in making the right career decision is their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Thus, it is imperative that they choose the occupation that best fits each of them.
Majority of the local researches on career decisions and the factors influencing them focus on adolescents. Similarly, the literature and studies on Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) usually delve on the economic and social repercussions of overseas employment (Asis, 2004; Nicodemus, 1997). There is no available study regarding the career decisions of the adolescent children of OFWs in particular. Although a recent research on the impact of migration on Filipino families revealed the career aspirations of young children (Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrant and Itinerant People of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, 2003, in Asis, 2004), this study, which employed adolescents, focused on their decision making process, career decisions, and the extent of relationship between the career decisions and selected internal (personal) and external (social/environmental) factors.