Parents' role in Young people's Educational Decision-making in the Context of Autonomous Choice and Individualisation

Young people's first choice of non-compulsory education is highly structured according to their social background, yet often construed as an individual, free choice in educational counselling pamphlets for youths. Counsellors in Norwegian schools support this notion, while seeing parents' ambitions and aspirations for their child as a threat, particularly for minority youths' choice of education. Based on a survey of 2029 youths in their last year of compulsory school in Oslo, Norway, we describe the role of parents in their choice of education. The analyses shows that 4 of 10 students found the choice to be difficult, and that more than half had received advice and information from their parents. Among these, 20 percent of majority youths and 45 percent of minority youths said that their parents had made a strong impact on their choice of education. While there was no difference between the two groups as far as positive support and interest from parents was concerned, the minority youths reported a considerably higher level of attempts at influencing, negative or strong opinions from their parents. However, a qualitative analysis of written explanations of what made their choice of education so difficult, revealed that minority youths was underrepresented among those describing disagreement and conflicts with their parents over this. The results are interpreted as a consequence of parents' different communication and child rearing styles, where majority parents are more likely to excert influence in hidden and undercommunicated ways, while minority parents' aspirations for their child are more in the open.