Thus, previous studies about parental influence on career development
in Mainland China have (a) targeted adolescents and young adults, (b)
focused on the career expectations of parents for their children without
examining the influence of these expectations, or (c) investigated parental
influence on child career development from children’s perspectives only.
Therefore, we sought to qualitatively investigate the following research
question: How do Mainland Chinese parents influence their fifth-grade
children’s career knowledge and aspirations?