Poster #212 - When I Grow Up: Child Temperament and Aspirational Career Choices

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Recent research demonstrates that adults’ career outcomes depend on the degree of fit between an individual’s personality and experts’ ratings of optimal personality traits for their chosen career (Denissen, 2017). The goal of the current study was to extend this line of research to children by examining the associations between temperament and career aspirations. The research questions addressed were (1) whether temperament is related to the types of careers children aspire toward and (2) whether children aspire toward careers with expert-rated personality demands that are compatible with their own temperament.

Participants are part of an ongoing short-term longitudinal study of temperament, cognition, and social development in middle childhood (current n=44, mean age 8.42 years, 23 female), with an expected final sample of 82. Temperamental Surgency and Effortful Control are assessed by parent reports on the Child Behaviour Questionnaire (Rothbart et al., 2001). To assess career aspirations, children are asked “What do you want to be or do when you grow up?” Children’s responses are videotaped and coded offline using Mangold INTERACT software. Each participant’s top career choice is coded in two ways: (1) the career is classified using the National Occupational Classification (NOC), developed by the Canadian government to classify occupations into 10 categories based on required skills and abilities and (2) the career is assigned Optimal Big 5 personality trait ratings, as determined by two occupational experts, using a pre-existing, open access database created by Denissen et al (2017).

Preliminary results reveal that male and female participants do not differ in the frequency of aspirational career types as classified using the NOC codes, χ2(5) = 5.21, ns. Aspirational career types are related to Surgency, but not Effortful Control. Specifically, children who aspire toward careers in arts, culture, recreation and sport are rated lower in Surgency (M = 3.96, SD = 0.90) compared to children who aspire toward careers in trades, transport and equipment (M = 5.70, SD = 0.27), F(5,36)= 2.519, p= .047, η2 = .259. In order to examine the association between child temperament and optimal Big 5 personality traits for aspirational careers, a series of bivariate correlations were examined. Children rated low in Surgency and children rated high in Effortful Control aspire toward careers that experts rate as requiring high levels of Openness, r(41)=-.322, p=.040 and r(41)=.434, p=.005, respectively (see Fig. 1 and Fig. 2).

These preliminary results suggest that as early as middle childhood, temperament informs children’s future thinking about careers. Children low in Surgency (or more introverted children) may express a preference for careers in arts, culture, recreation, and sport because these are careers that are relatively self-directed and autonomous. Careers experts deem as requiring a high level of Openness (which reflects intellectual curiosity, creativity, and self-awareness) may be appealing to children rated low in Surgency or high in Effortful Control because these complement and accommodate their strengths and preferences, as opposed to directly matching their temperaments. The implications of these findings for parents and educators will be discussed.

Authors

• Brittany L Wick, University of Waterloo
  Presenting Author

• Emma Green, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author

• James W Beck, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Heather Henderson, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author