PERSONALITY TRAITS AND PATERNAL PARENTING STYLE AS PREDICTIVE FACTORS OF CAREER CHOICE

The paper describes the relationship of Big five personality factors and paternal parenting style to career preference of selected Filipino college freshmen. Two hundred college students (n=200) who were part of the larger population of individuals aged from 15 to 23 at two private collegiate institutions in Metro Manila were selected and asked to answer Big Five Inventory (BFI), Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) and a demographic survey. The study employed a descriptive-predictive research design to measure the degree of correlation among the variables and to identify if what among these independent variables can predict career preference. After subjecting data into statistical analyses via SPSS 17.0 software, it was revealed that career preference is significantly associated with gender ( =.22, p<.01), neuroticism (r=-.17, p<.05) and authoritarian paternal parenting style (r=.23, p<.05). Neuroticism ( =-1.14, t=-2.38, p<.05) and authoritarian paternal parenting style ( =.11, t=3.19, p<.01) were found out to be predictive determinants of career choice. Implications of the findings to the population at hand were also discussed.