Correlates of Asian American college students\u27 career aspirations: Generational status, self-reports, and parental-reports on acculturation and perceived prejudice

Asian Americans\u27 career choices are strongly influenced by parental pressure (Leong & Gim, 1995), racial prejudice (Lee, 1994), and cultural values (Sodowsky, 1991; Sodowsky, Kwan, & Pannu, 1995). Low acculturation and high perceived prejudice has been related to occupational stereotyping (Leong & Hayes, 1990), segregation (Leong, 1996), and discrimination (Leong & Chou, 1994). The present study explores the correlates of the career aspirations of U.S.-born second generation Asian American college students by measuring their acculturation, perceived prejudice, and these participants\u27 reports on their foreign-born immigrant parents\u27 acculturation, perceived prejudice, and career aspirations. A total of 139 Asian American students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Creighton University returned completed surveys. The Minority-Majority Relations Survey (MMRS; Sodowsky, Lai, & Plake, 1991) was used to measure acculturation and perceived prejudice, while career aspirations were defined as science or nonscience by the Career Aspirations Survey (CAS) developed by the author. It was hypothesized that the career aspirations of the U.S.-born second generation students, along with their foreign-born first generation counterparts (early vs. late arrived), would be predicted by their level of acculturation and perceived prejudice. However, for the U.S.-born second generation students, their reports of parental acculturation and perceived prejudice predicted their career aspirations, while the students\u27 own levels of acculturation and perceived prejudice did not predict their career aspirations. The foreign-born first generation students (early and late arrived) indicated a higher likelihood of pursuing science careers than U.S.-born second generation students, and they also reported significantly lower acculturation and higher perceived prejudice than their second generation counterparts. On the other hand, there were no differences among the foreign-born first generation students (early and late arrived) and the U.S.-born second generation students for non-science career aspirations. The implications of the college students\u27 generational status, perceived prejudice, acculturation, science and non-science career aspirations, and parental influence on the career counseling process with Asian Americans are discussed