Parenting Styles as Predictors of Academic Engagement and Career Choice of in-School Adolescents in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State

This study investigated parenting styles as predictors of academic engagement and career choice of in-school adolescents in Nsukka local government area of Enugu state. To achieve the aim of the study, 4 purposes and corresponding 4 research questions were formulated. Also,4 hypotheses guided the study tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a predictive research design and was carried out in Nsukka local government area of Enugu State, Nigeria. The population of the study comprised of 6,295 senior secondary students in Nsukka local government area of Enugu state. The sample size was 400 SS II students determined using Taro Yamene formula. Multistage sampling procedure was adopted for the study, namely; simple random sampling, proportionate stratified random sampling and purposive sampling. three instruments were used for data collection. They are Parenting Styles Questionnaire (PSQ), Student Academic Engagement Questionnaire (SAEQ) and Career Choice Questionnaire (CCQ). The instruments were face-validated by three experts from the Department of Counseling and Human Development Studies, Educational Foundation and Educational Research, Measurements and Evaluation unit, all from the Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Trial testing was administered to 30 SSSII in-adolescents in Udenu local government area of Enugu state to ascertain the reliability of PSQ, SAEQ and CCQ, which yielded reliability coefficient of 0.79, 0.76, and 0.81 respectively. A face-to-face method was used for administering and retrieval of the instruments. Data collected were analyzed using simple linear regression, Hayes process macro, t-test and ANOVA regression analysis. The findings of the study showed that there is a moderate prediction of parenting styles on academic engagement of in-school adolescents (tvalue = 12.748), and that parenting styles significantly predict academic engagement of in school adolescents. Meanwhile, there is a low prediction of parenting styles on career choice of in-school adolescents (R = .040) and parenting styles does not significantly predict career choice of in-school adolescents. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others, that schools administrators should provide comprehensive career guidance programmes to support students, and that they should implement and enhance career education curricula that expose students to various career paths and the skills required for each.