Rebellious Teenagers? Parental Advice and the Occupational Preferences of Their Children

Frauke Baumeister, Philipp Lergetporer (), Katharina Wedel and Katharina Werner ()
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Frauke Baumeister: ifo Institute at the University of Munich
Philipp Lergetporer: Technical University of Munich
Katharina Wedel: ifo Institute at the University of Munich
Katharina Werner: ifo Institute, University of Munich

No 19074, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: How do adolescents respond to occupational advice from their parents? We study this question in a survey experiment with matched parent-adolescent data (N=1,227) from Germany. We ask parents how strongly they would recommend their own occupation and that of the other parent, randomly reveal these recommendations to their child, and then measure the child’s occupational preferences. Revealing parental advice does not generally increase adolescents’ interest in their parents’ occupations. Instead, adolescents often adjust their preferences in the opposite direction to parental recommendations. These non-conforming responses are particularly pro-nounced among older adolescents and when parents and adolescents envision different occupational fields for the adolescent’s future.

Keywords: occupational choice; advice; occupational preferences; adolescents; matched parent-child data; survey experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 J24 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-11
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