Exploring Late Adolescents’ Experiences with Career-Related Messages on Entertainment TV and in Social Media in Belgium: A Focus Group Study
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Media is an important socialization actor through which adolescents can learn about careers. Nine focus group interviews were conducted with 44 late adolescents ( M age = 16.27; SD age = 0.54; 56.82% female) in high schools in Belgium to explore how youth in this age group receive career-related messages, the work tasks, skills, values, and ethics that are cultivated, and the ways adolescents experience and judge the perceived realism of career-related messages received via entertainment TV/social media. A combined inductive and deductive thematic analysis of the data revealed various pathways through which adolescents intentionally and unintentionally received career-related messages. Moreover, the adolescents had been cultivated to value specific work tasks/skills (e.g., social skills) and intrinsic and extrinsic work values and work ethics (e.g., working hard to succeed, centrality of work) when consuming career-related messages through TV/social media. Lastly, the perceived realism of such messages depended on content elements (e.g., a balanced portrayal of work values). Differences related to career-related messages on social media versus entertainment TV were observed. Practical implications for various groups (e.g., career counselors, media content producers) are discussed.
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research
Authors: Ilse Vranken, Laura Vandenbosch
Institutions: Research Foundation - Flanders, KU Leuven
Language: English
Subfield: Applied Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4311237462