Consistent with the children’s perceptions, the parents had high educational
expectations for their children and had conveyed such expectations
to their children. Tina’s parents expected their daughter to at least
obtain a bachelor’s degree, and Xiaoming’s parents expected their son
to at least obtain a master’s degree. All the parents hoped that their children
could go to a good university. For example, Xiaoming’s father often
told his son: “I graduated from ** University [a first-class university].
The university you go to should not be worse than the one I attended.”
Similar to the children’s perceptions, the parents also conveyed to their
children the importance of education in pursuing a high-status career. All
parents expressed their career expectations for their children to obtain
high-status careers, although they used different terms such as “mental
work,” “careers with good social recognition,” or “careers providing a
relatively good salary.” Although the parents reported that they did not
convey such specific ideas to their children, unintentionally, they did
convey their expectations for their children to pursue high-status careers
by emphasizing the importance of education in the pursuit of a career.
80 The Career Development Quarterly MARCH 2015 • Volume 63
For example, according to Tina’s father, he provided her with positive
career examples to encourage her to study hard: