A Pilot Study On College Students' Occupational Aspiration

Occupational aspiration is one's ambitions to career; it is the joint product of assessments of compatibility and accessibility to certain vocations. Based on an open-ended questionnaire, this study analyzed factors considered by college students when they think about the future careers. And after literature review, we put forward a theoretical hypothesis, and create the college Students' Occupational Aspiration Questionnaire which reflects the college students' thoughts. The reliability and validity of questionnaire were tested, and the results were comfortable. Then we investigated the characteristics of college students' career aspiration with the self-developed questionnaire.The main results of this study come as follows:(1) The college students' occupational aspiration was constructed by six dimensions: occupational earnings, interpersonal relationship, challenging future, dedication to society, working environment, and self-development.(2) The self-made questionnaire had high reliability and fair validity.(3) Generally speaking, the average value of college students' occupational aspiration is higher than the middle point of the 5-point rule, with from the highest dimensions to the less one: self-development, working environment, dedication to society, interpersonal relationship, occupational earnings, challenging future.(4) The average score of four grades college students on the occupational aspiration questionnaire is higher than the middle point of the 5-point rule. There are significant differences among four grades on the challenging future, dedication to society and self-development dimensions. About the challenging future, three-grade had highest score and four-grade less. About dedication to society, the four-grade had higher than first- and second-grade. About the self-development, the three-grade's scores were significantly lower than first-, second- and four-grade's.(5) The gender effect of self-development, working environment and total aspiration was statistically significant, with the boy's sores lower.(6) The familial income significantly influenced the college students' rating on occupational earnings, interpersonal relationship, self-development and total score. On occupational earnings, the lowest income family score lowest, with the middle highest. On interpersonal relationship, the highest income families get lower score than the lowest income family. On self-development, the lowest income family score highest. Totally the middle income family scores highest.(7)Parents' educational level significantly influenced the college students' rating on their occupational aspiration. And their effects like family incomes.