SELF ESTEEM, PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ANXIETY AS PREDICTORS OF CAREER DECISION-MAKING AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN EDO STATE

This paper investigated self-esteem, parental involvement and anxiety as predictors of career decision-making among senior secondary school students in Edo State. The research questions guided the study while three null hypotheses were formulated. This study adopted a correlation survey research design. The population of the study comprised all 20,098 senior secondary two (SS2) students from all 297 public secondary schools in Edo State. The sample size for the study consisted of 2,040 SS2 students drawn through multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument used for data collection was through questionnaire. The questionnaire is divided into four sets. The first set is the Hare Self-esteem Scale (HSS) developed by Hare in 1985. The second set is titled “Parental Involvement Rating Scale” (PIRS) developed by Epstein and Salinas in 1993. The third set is titled “Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS) developed by Cecil and Bert in 1978. The forth set is titled “Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire” (CDDQ) developed by Gati, Krausz and Osipowe in 1996. This study adopted all four sets of questionnaire which has high validity and reliability report. Linear regression was used to answer the research questions and test the null hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. The findings revealed that self-esteem significantly predicts career decision-making among senior secondary school students in Edo State, indicating that students with higher self-esteem are more confident in making career choices. Additionally, parental involvement was found to have a strong predictive influence on students' career decision-making, highlighting the importance of supportive family engagement. Finally, anxiety was also identified as a significant predictor. It was recommended amongst others that secondary schools in Edo State should actively involve parents in the career guidance process through regular parent-teacher conferences, career day events, and structured family engagement sessions.