The Influence of the Socio-Cultural Way of the Family on the Professional Self-Determination of Children and Adolescents

The influence of parents and other senior family members is one of the determining factors affecting the professional self-determination of children and young people. At the same time, the specific mechanisms of this influence remain insufficiently studied. The article is based on the hypothesis that a certain civilizational structure (traditional, industrial, post-industrial) can be aligned with the strategy of participation of older family members in the process of professionalization of its younger members. In modern Russia, families belonging to different socio-cultural structures coexist. Various socio-cultural models of parental influence on children’s social and professional self-determination are characterized. The initial results of an empirical study of representatives of the parent community are presented; the author defines the content lines that show unity or, on the contrary, contradiction in the respondents’ views on the process of professional self-determination of children and the role of parents in this process. It is revealed that the process of gradual adoption of the “post-industrial model” of professional self-determination in Russian society occurs against the background of growing contradictions in relation to the set of characteristics characteristic of the traditional way of life. Respondents are much more likely to consider the profession in the context of its significance for a person, as the basis of individual well-being and a means of self-realization, than in the context of social service, as was typical for the traditional way of life. The adoption of the post-industrial model of professional self-determination is most clearly manifested at the level of instrumental features (continuity of education throughout life; high professional and interprofessional mobility; polyprofessionalism as the basis of professional success in the modern world, etc.). In addition, a change in the main form of parental dominance in the process of professional self-determination of children and adolescents is revealed: direct inheritance of professions (labor dynasty) is replaced by the transfer of self-determination experience from parents to children.