Perceived Parental Influence and Work-Value Orientation.

Perceived predominance of influence by one parent over the other as reflected in the work-value orientations of college women was studied. The Parental Influence Inventory and a modified form of the Work-Values Inventory, based on a recent factorial study of the work-values of women, were administered to 315 college women. Results: (a) Perceived parental influence is highly related to the socio-economic status of the family (as indicated by the occupational level of the father), and only in this relationship was it significant. (b). Fathers who are engaged in professional work and whose level of education and training is superior to that of the mother exert a greater influence on the female child but she does not appear to introject the father's work-value orientation, rather, it is the father's idealized goals for the daughter that are internalized. (c) The girl who identifies with the mother more often comes from a home where the father works at the skilled or unskilled level, and where work is a more realistic possibility for the women, and orientations are therefore stronger on all work-values. The notion that women workers of lower-socio-economic status seek extrinsic values in work and that those of upper-socio-economic status seek intrinsic values is not supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]