Choosing one’s occupation is an important life decision for young adults. This decision may be particularly complicated for biculturals who have access to two potentially conflicting sets of career-related cultural norms. The present study examined the role of both mainstream and heritage acculturations in the context of career decisions, for a sample of bicultural Chinese emerging adults in Canada (N = 194). Results first verified the validity of a modified measure of Berzonsky’s (1989) identity processing styles in the career domain. Path analysis supported our proposed model and showed that Canadian acculturation predicted an informational career identity style, whereas Chinese acculturation predicted a normative career identity style. Furthermore, self-efficacy and intrinsic life goals mediated the relation between Canadian acculturation and an informational style, whereas family allocentrism and extrinsic life goals mediated the relation between Chinese acculturation and a normative style. Two unhypothesized pathways also emerged: intrinsic life goals negatively mediated the relation between Canadian acculturation and normative style; family allocentrism mediated the relation between Chinese acculturation and informational style. Finally, an informational style was positively related to eudaimonic well-being and meaningfulness of career field, whereas normative and avoidant styles were negatively related to the well-being measures. Overall, this study provided support for an acculturation framework for examining career identity styles among biculturals.

Published as:Tao, Dan, Rui Zhang, Evelina Lou, and Richard N. Lalonde. The Cultural Shaping of Career Aspirations: Acculturation and Chinese Biculturals' Career Identity Styles. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement 50, no. 1 (2018): 29-41. http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-13934-004 This author post-print is made available on Dickinson Scholar with the permission of the publisher. For more information on the published version, visit American Psychological Association's Website.