Parental career-related behaviors and their associations with career adaptability among Chinese college student: a latent profile analysis

To explore the latent profiles of parental career-related behaviors and analyze their relationship with college students’ career adaptability, with implications for improving career development programs and practices. A sample of 3,017 college students completed the Parental Career-Related Behavior Scale and the Career Adaptability Scale. Latent profile analysis was used to explore the profiles of parental career-related behaviors and compare the differences of different latent types of college students’ career adaptability. (1) Parental career-related behaviors could be divided into three latent profiles: high parental career support group (HighPS, 56.3%), low parental career support group (LowPS, 26.8%), and high parental career interference and lack of parental career engagement group (HighPI-LackPE, 16.9%); (2) Parental career support has a significant impact on the development of college students’ career adaptability. The career adaptability of college students in HighPS and HighPI-LackPE is significantly higher than that of those in LowPS; (3) Career-related behaviors with high parental support, low interference, and high engagement are most conducive to the career development of college students. The findings highlight the significant role of parental career behaviors in college students’ career adaptability, indicating that high support, low interference, and high engagement enhance adaptability. Tailored interventions for different parental profiles are necessary to improve students’ career development, which would benefit to guiding the college student’s career planning.