Engaging Parents for Students Career and Academic Success

Parents have a significant influence on their children’s career choices, particularly in settings where family guidance plays a crucial role. Research by Carlana (2024) demonstrates that parental influence often reinforces gender-stereotypical beliefs, steering girls away from fields like STEM. To address this, we propose a large-scale randomized intervention in Uzbekistan aimed at shifting parental perceptions and encouraging greater support for girls pursuing high-income careers. The intervention aims to challenge parental biases and encourage greater support for children’s career ambitions by using real-life examples to inform parents about the advantages of high-income professions. We will target parents of 6th- and 7th-grade students, a critical period for shaping early career aspirations and guiding academic and extracurricular pathways. We will assess both parental attitudes towards high-income careers, especially for girls, and observe any subsequent effects on students’ academic outcomes and future career plans in the long-run. Our intervention, developed in collaboration with New Uzbekistan University and the Ministry of Education, builds on insights from a recent study with 9th-grade students in Uzbekistan. The study showed that while students frequently discuss career plans with their parents, these conversations were linked to lower career aspirations among girls. Moreover, an intervention aimed at increasing students’ career ambitions had a smaller impact on girls who actively engaged in career discussions with their parents, suggesting that parental influence can unintentionally restrict their aspirations. These findings underscore the need to directly involve parents in reshaping their perceptions of high-income careers for their children.