Jerry
Trusty’s Research on Parental Involvement and Adolescents’ Educational and
Career Development:
The following research studies are on parental influences on adolescents’ educational and career development. Data for all the studies are from the National Education Longitudinal Study. The studies are copyrighted by the particular organizations that publish the journals. Major findings of these studies are presented below. For more specific information, consult the particular journal/article. These journals are widely available in university libraries, and some are available in full-text, online.
Trusty, J., Mellin, E. A., & Herbert, J. T. (2008). Closing achievement gaps: Roles and tasks of elementary school counselors. Elementary School Journal, 108, 407-421.
Trusty, J., Niles, S. G., & Carney, J. V. (2005). Education-career planning and middle school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 9,136-143.
Trusty, J., & Brown, D. (2005). Advocacy competencies for professional school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 8, 259-265.
Trusty, J., & Niles, S. G. (2004). Realized potential or lost talent: High-school variables and bachelor’s degree completion. Career Development Quarterly, 53, 2-15.
Trusty, J., Plata, M., & Salazar, C. (2003). Modeling Mexican Americans’ educational expectations: Longitudinal effects of variables across adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Research, 18, 131-153.
Trusty, J. (2002). Effects of high-school course-taking and other variables on choice of science and mathematics college majors. Journal of Counseling & Development, 80, 464-474.
Trusty, J. (2002). African Americans’ educational expectations: Longitudinal causal models for women and men. Journal of Counseling & Development, 80, 332-345.
Trusty, J., & Harris, M. B. C. (1999). Lost talent: Predictors of the stability of educational expectations across adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Research, 14, 359-382.
Trusty, J., & Pirtle, T. (1998). Parents' transmission of educational goals to their adolescent children. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 32, 53-65.
Trusty, J. (1998). Family influences on educational expectations of late adolescents. Journal of Educational Research, 91, 260-270.
Trusty, J., & Lampe, R. E. (1997). Relationship of high-school seniors' perceptions of parental involvement and control to seniors' locus of control. Journal of Counseling and Development, 75, 375-384.
Trusty, J., Watts, R. E., & Erdman, P. (1997). Predictors of parents' involvement in their teens' career development. Journal of Career Development, 23, 189-201.
Trusty, J. (1996). Relationship of parental involvement in teens' career development to teens' attitudes, perceptions, and behavior. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 30, 317-323.
Trusty, J., & Watts, R. E. (1996). Parents' perceptions of career information resources. Career Development Quarterly, 44, 242-249.
Trusty, J., Watts, R. E., & Crawford, R. (1996). Career information resources for parents of public school seniors: Findings from a national study. Journal of Career Development, 22, 227-238.
General findings from these studies are:
1.
Parents’ personal involvement in their
children’s educational and career development and in their personal lives is
one-dimensional.
2.
Socioeconomic status is weakly related to parental
involvement. Single parenting and life events (divorce, death, remarriage of
parents) are not related to levels of parental involvement.
3.
Parental involvement, especially parents’
personal supportive behavior, exerts a strong, positive influence on
adolescents’ long-term educational and career development. These influences
extend beyond high school.
4.
Parents’ career-related expectations for their
children exert a strong influence on their children’s career development.
5.
For lower socioeconomic status families, parents’
personal involvement has stronger influences on educational development; whereas
for middle and high socioeconomic status families, parents’ efforts to
socialize their children into the school have stronger influences.
6.
Parental involvement has a stronger impact on the
educational development of young men than young women.
7.
Parents’ personal involvement, coupled with
parental control (limit setting, monitoring), produces adolescents with the
highest perceptions of control over their own lives. However, parental control
without parental involvement produces the lowest perceptions of control in
adolescents.
8.
Parents, especially lower socioeconomic status and
minority-group parents, perceive counselors positively as career development
resources for their children.