Parental expectations and occupational preferences of adolescents

Participants will answer our survey questions via an online platform. First, parents will provide information on their current occupation, the current occupation of their adolescent child’s other parent (if applicable) as well as their preferences regarding their child’s occupation choice. Subsequently, their adolescent child will be randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups. Two of the groups (treatment groups) will receive information about their parent’s answers, while the third group constitutes a control group. Lastly, parents will receive income information in a follow-up survey that will take place about a week after the main survey.

We first ask parents about the current parental occupations or the last parental occupations in case they are not currently employed. We then ask parents whether they consent to sharing their answers with their adolescent child. Second, we ask parents how likely they would be to recommend parental occupations to their children. Again, parents are asked whether they consent to sharing this answer with their child.

Adolescents in the first treatment group receive information on the average income in parental occupations. If parental consent is obtained, adolescents in the second treatment group receive information on their parent’s answers on how highly they would recommend the parental occupation to them. Adolescents in the control group receive no information on their parents’ answers.

2022-06-28

2022-08-01

Our primary outcome is adolescents’ perceived likelihood to work in parents’ occupation.

The outcome question on the perceived likelihood to work in parents’ occupation is the following:
“What do you think, how likely is it that you would at some point work in the same occupation as your [mother/father]?”
Answers to this question can be given on a sliding scale labelled “Very unlikely” on the one end and “Very likely” on the other end.

We are further interested in (i) parents’ recommendation of parental occupations for their children, also by average income of the occupation and education level, (ii) adolescents’ prior beliefs about parental recommendation of parental occupations for them, again by average income of the occupation and education level, and (iii) adolescents’ aspired education level and job characteristics.

We will also explore heterogeneities by adolescents’ prior beliefs regarding parental occupations, as well as adolescents’ and parents’ education.

The question on the parents’ recommendation of parental occupation for their child is worded as follows:
“Would you recommend to your child to work in your occupation?” and “Would you recommend to your child to work in the occupation of [non-responding parent]?”
Answers to these questions can be given on a sliding scale labelled “Completely recommend” on one end and “Not at all recommend” on the other end.

After given their answer, respondents are prompted to detail “Why would you recommend your occupation to your child or advise against your occupation?” and “Why would you recommend or advise against the occupation of [non-responding parent] to your child?”

Answers to these questions can be given as free text.

The question on adolescents’ beliefs about the likelihood of parental recommendation for parent occupations is worded as follows:
“What do you think, how likely is it that your [responding parent] would recommend for you to work in the following occupations:
- Occupation of your mother
- Occupation of your father”

Answers to these questions can be given on a sliding scale labelled “Very unlikely” on one end and “Very likely” on the other end.

The question on the mode education level in adolescents’ aspired occupation is worded as follows:

“What education do people who work in [aspired occupation] usually have? Here we are referring to the education that most people who work in this occupation have.”

Answers to this question are single choice of “no vocational qualification”, “a vocational education degree”, “an advanced vocational education degree”, “a university of applied science degree”, and “a university degree”.

The question on adolescents’ expected job characteristics in their aspired occupation is worded as follows:

“How important would the following characteristics be for you when choosing your future occupation?”
“The occupation offers me…
- High income
- Flexible work schedule
- Rarely working overtime
- Pleasant work environment
- High job security, i.e a low risk of termination
- Interesting tasks”
Answers can be given on a 4-point scale labelled “not at all important”, “rather not important”, “rather important” and “very important”.

We conduct the experiment in a sample of parents and their adolescent child aged 14 to 17. The recruitment and polling is managed by a survey company, who collects the data via an online platform. That is, our participants answer the survey questions autonomously on their own digital devices. Randomization is carried out by the survey company at the individual level, using a computer. Randomization in treatment and control groups is independent across adolescents and parents.

Our experiment is structured as follows:

Sequence of questions in the parent survey:
1. Elicitation of information on current occupation (both parents, if applicable)
2. Elicitation of information on mode education level in current occupation (both parents, if applicable)
3. Elicitation of recommendation of parental occupations for child
4. Elicitation of motivations for recommendation of parental occupations for child
5. Elicitation of recommended occupation for child
6. Elicitation of mode education level in recommended occupation
7. Elicitation of expected job characteristics in recommended occupation
8. Belief elicitation average income percentile parental occupation (both parents, if applicable)

Sequence of questions in the adolescent survey:
1. Belief elicitation about current parental occupation (both parents, if applicable)
2. Belief elicitation about the average income in parental occupation (both parents, if applicable)
3. Belief elicitation about population percentile of average income for parental occupation (both parents, if applicable)
4. Belief elicitation about likelihood of parental recommendation for parent occupations
5. Elicitation of occupation aspiration
6. Elicitation of mode education level in aspired occupation
7. Elicitation of expected job characteristics in aspired occupation
8. Elicitation of likelihood to work in parents’ occupation (TREATMENT GROUPS: Information on average income in parental occupation or parental recommendation)

Sequence of events in the parent follow-up survey:
1. Re-elicitation of recommended occupation for child
2. Belief re-elicitation average income percentile parental occupation
3. Re-elicitation of recommendation of parental occupation for child (TREATMENT GROUP: Information on average income in parental occupation)

Randomization is carried out by the survey company using a computer.

at the individual level

No

2,000 respondents

2,000 parents and 2,000 adolescents

Adolescents in three treatment arms with equal probability

none