STUDENTS’ PERSONALITY TRAITS AND PARENTING REARING STYLES AS PREDICTORS OF CAREER CHOICE OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BENIN.

A study conducted by Abele and Spurk in Muhammad (2017) revealed that, despite the efforts to attain gender equality, Africa still has discrimination in certain professions which tend to prevent students from choosing certain careers and because of this deeply rooted stereotypes about men and women, gender continues to have a significant impact on the career paths of our sons and daughters. Many still believe that boys are better at math, mechanics, and logical thinking and expect boys to be engineers, doctors, and architects while Girls are expected to be better at verbal skills, intuition and nurturing, so they are expected to be nurses, social workers, or teachers. While all career choices should be equally respected and valued, the fact is, traditional career choices for girls tend to cluster them in lower-paying jobs (Durosaro & Adebanke (2012).Joshua, Terungwa and Saanyol (2018) examined correlates of career choice among Senior Secondary School Student in Tarka LGA of Benue State, Nigeria. The aim of the study among others was to investigate if there was significant difference between male and female students on career choice. 210 students (93 males and 117 females) were used as sample. It was found that there was no significant difference between male and female students on career choice which implied that gender is not a determinant of career choice among secondary school students Tarka LGA of Benue State. Durosaro and Adebanke (2012) investigated gender as a factor in the career choice readiness at senior secondary school students in Ilorin, Kwara State. The main purpose was to find out whether there is a significant difference between male and female students as regards career choice readiness. A sample of 167 students was drawn from a population of 1970 students. One hypothesis was formulated; The Chi-square test was used to test the hypothesis. The study established that gender is a very significant factor in the career choice of senior secondary school students in Ilorin Metropolis which also implies that there is a tendency of gender stereo-typing in the career choice of the senior secondary school students. Another interesting finding is that female students tend to go in for career that are feminist in nature while their male counterparts also opt for careers that are masculine in nature which explain why most male students in the school sampled are offering courses in Agriculture and in the sciences while most of the females are studying general arts.Njeri (2013) investigated the factors that influence career choice among undergraduate Students sponsored by Compassion International. One of the objectives among others was to determine how gender influences career choice among Compassion International sponsored undergraduate students in public universities. From the results of this study, gender was seen to have an influence on career choice. The respondents expressed the fact that male dominated occupations are viewed as superior to female dominated ones and that society expects women to prioritize caring for their family as opposed to advancing their career. Hakim in Macharia (2011) showed that there was no visible gender difference in styles of management, and that female managers differed from male managers in their personal characteristics and family lives, but not in the way that they did the job. Watson, McMahan, Foxcoft and Els (2010) stated that a good number of boys have strong desire for investigative type vocation while girls aspire for social oriented type of occupations.Muhammad (2017) investigated the influence of nurturing styles on career choice of senior secondary school students in Kaduna state, Nigeria. One of the aim of the investigation among others was also to access how gender (male or female) influence career choice of the students. The result revealed that there was no significant influence that existed between career choice of male and female students. This implies that gender of students does not influence their nurturing styles.Age and Career ChoiceStudents’ age is the chronological number of years they have attained; they continue to discover things themselves as they grow, which could be why Woasey (2015) explained that undergraduate students are likely to choose or settle on careers that are reliable with the way they perceive themselves, that replicate their wellbeing, ideals, and strong point . Career choice takes place in numerous steps or stages since every person is unique. Hewitt (2010) opined that personality characteristics matures at a different pace, and lives in a specific environment; career decision making becomes an individual life journey. Peterman, Kermish-Allen, Knezek, Christensen and Tyler-Wood (2016) argues that types of work that interest an individual at age 18 might not be necessarily true when he/she turn 21. Researchers, Migunde, Othuon and Mbagaya (2015) have studied the influence of age on career choice of students. The aim of their study was to determine whether age moderates the relationship between career maturity and career indecision. The sample for the study consisted 369 students from year one to year four secondary schools student in Kisumu Municipality Kenya. The age range of respondents was from 13 to 24 years. Demographic questionnaire was used to gather basic information about the students and multiple regressions was used to analysis the data. The findings indicate that age was a significant moderator in the relationship between career maturity and career indecision.Fabunmi and Adedayo (2017) studied Adolescents’ Gender and Age as Correlates of Career Choice among Secondary School Students in Southwest Nigeria. The aim of the study was to examine gender and adolescents age difference as they relate with choice of career among secondary school student. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 120 students from the targeted population of SS II students across schools in Southwest, Nigeria. The age range of respondents was from 15 – 17 years. The finding of the study revealed that the ages of the adolescents within 15 – 17 years did not significantly affect the way they perceive the various worlds of work. The 15 years old SS II students did not see any job differently from one another. If the students have access to information flow, it has not started to manifest within the ages investigated. Fabunmi and Adedayo (2017) suggested that career stability begins to manifest between ages of 20-22 years when they may have entered the tertiary institution and studying for a career. For between ages 16-18 year old, they will be obtaining admission forms into the university. Summary of Reviewed Literature The literature discussed the theoretical framework which was hinged on John Holland personality theory of career choice and Anne Roe need theory of career choice, as well as the conceptual framework of the study which involves a model showing how the variable of interest in this study (personality traits and parenting style) predict career choice. Personality traits implies the inherent disposition of an individual which delineates his uniqueness that distinguishes him/her from others while parenting rearing styles refers to the physical, psychological and emotional climate where parents rear their children. It describes the different approaches of discipline, nurturing, reinforcement, and acceptance adopted by parents/ guidance during their children’s upbringing. The literature further reviewed in details how various personality traits and parenting styles within each of the variables influence students’ career choice. Finally, this chapter reviewed some related empirical studies which have been carried out as it concerns how personality traits and parenting style influence students’ career choice.Around the world and in Nigeria, some studies like Kemboi, Kindiki, and Misigo (2016); Liridona and Dashamir (2017); Alphonse (2016); Muhammad (2017); Wachira (2018), Joshua, Terungwa and Saanyol (2018); Fabunmi and Adedayo (2017) have been done independently on how personality traits, Parenting rearing styles, sex, and age influence students career choice. In other words, they only looked at how each of the variables influenced students ‘career choice.However, none of these studies to the best of the researcher’s knowledge examined the joint variables of students’ personality traits and parenting rearing styles as predictors of students’ career choice simultaneously. Besides, most of the studies mention above examined secondary school students’ career choice. This current study sought to investigate students’ personality traits and parenting rearing styles as predictors of career choice of undergraduate students of the University of Benin with the intervening variables of age and sex. This is the gap in literature this study seeks to fill.