Abstract
Existing research has shown that parents influence their children in terms of the career choices they
make. This study investigated whether parental influences, specifically reciprocity with the father,
have any effect on the advancement within the workforce when the child reaches adulthood. Other
parental influences on self esteem and levels of hostility have also been shown to carry forward into
adult life and this study investigated whether there is a relationship between these variables and the
position attained within the workforce.
Results from this study indicate there is no significant difference in levels of reciprocity with
the father between the three groups ‘Administration’, ‘Technical’ and ‘Managerial’ (F (2,83)
= 1.79, p = 0.17), that there was a strong negative significant relationship between Hostility
and Self Esteem (r (83) = 0.53, p < 0.01), the relationship between Reciprocity and Self
Esteem was positive; however the result was not statistically significant, and the relationship
between Reciprocity and Hostility was negative and not significant
