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Poster #127 - Examining Cambodian Middle School Students’ Professional Aspirations in the Context of Future Uncertainty

Fri, March 22, 7:45 to 9:15am, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Background: The current study contributes to a greater understanding of childhood in Cambodia, a country that is struggling with wide-spread impoverishment and economic inequality, yet has one of the fastest growing economies in the world over the last decade. These changes create more and different professional possibilities for young Cambodians, while simultaneously creating uncertainty and potentially pulling at the fabric of traditional social structures (Peou & Zinn, 2015). The goal of this study is to investigate the ways in which future certainty and family support are associated with Cambodian children’s professional aspirations, their perceived likelihood that they will attain these aspirations, and the gap between aspirations and the likelihood of attaining them.
Methods: Participants (N= 135, 66% Female, Meanage=13.8, SDage=1.33, Rangeage=10-17) were seventh and eighth grade Cambodian students who agreed to complete a paper-and-pencil survey. Data were collected in early summer 2018 from four middle schools in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from over 570 total seventh to twelfth grade students. While current analyses are limited to seventh and eighth graders, the final study will include the entire sample to consider developmental changes across adolescence.
Analysis: Multiple linear regression was used to examine whether future certainty, family support, gender, and family income were associated with professional aspirations (Model 1) and likelihood of attaining aspirations (Model 2). The effects of gender and family income interacting with both future certainty and family support to predict professional aspirations (Model 3) and likelihood of attaining aspirations (Model 4) were then tested. The final model tested whether future certainty, family support, gender, and family income were associated with a gap between aspirations and likelihood of attainment, and whether there were any interaction effects (Model 5).
Results: Model 1 indicated that family income (b=0.17, SE=0.08, p<.05), future certainty (b=0.10, SE=0.05, p<.05), and family support (b=0.17, SE=0.05, p<.001) were associated with professional aspirations. Model 2 revealed that family income (b=0.25, SE=0.10, p<.05), future certainty (b=0.25, SE=0.06, p<.001), and family support (b=0.15, SE=0.06, p<.05) predicted the perceived likelihood of attaining aspirations. Models 3 and 4 indicated no interaction effects. Model 5 found that future certainty was negatively associated with the gap between professional aspirations and the perceived likelihood of attaining those aspirations (b= -0.52, SE=0.18, p<.001). Furthermore, there was an interaction effect between family income and future certainty predicting the gap between aspirations and likelihood of attaining aspirations (b=0.24, SE=0.11, p<.05). Probing the effect revealed that, as perceptions of future certainty increased, this gap decreased among children with low family income.
Conclusions: These results suggest that more future certainty and family support predict higher professional aspirations and a higher perceived likelihood of attaining those aspirations among Cambodian middle school students. Additionally, greater certainty about the future is associated with less of a gap between what children aspire to and their perceived likelihood that those aspirations will be realized. This effect was strongest among those with low family income, who are otherwise the most likely to perceive a large gap between their professional goals and the likelihood of achieving them.

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