The influence of occupational inheritance on student teachers’ career choice motives

The present study focussed on the importance of occupational inheritance (i.e., the tendency of offspring to follow in their parents’ career paths). A quantitative survey of first-year students examined whether the career choice motives and psycholgical resources of student teachers whose parents are or were teachers differ from those whose parents were not educators. The results indicate that the two groups of students indeed differ in terms of both study choice motives and psychological resources. Contrary to the research hypothesis, the results also indicate that idealistic study choice motives are higher among students whose parents were educators.