Investigating 7th and 8th grade students' behaviors for their choice of proffesion in terms of different variables

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of gender, type of school, perceived socio-economic status, perceived academic achievement, attitude in the education level of parents on the 7th and 8th grade students' professional decision making ability. Research work is done with descriptive method. A total of 550 students (284 female, 266 male) studying in the 7th and the 8th grade level was selected among schools in the province of Gaziantep, Turkey. As the data collection tools, Occupation Decision-Making Competence Scale and personal information form developed by the researcher were used. For comparing two groups of variables in the study "Unrelated Sample t-Test", for the comparison of more than two groups "one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)" was applied. "Scheffe" test was implemented to unveil the difference between sub-groups. Statistically significant factors was included in a multiple regression to examine how they predict 7th and 8th grade students' professional decision making ability. The analysis results showed a positive relationship between students' vocational Decision-Making Competence levels and their perceived academic achievement and the attitudes of parents. It was found that students with high achievement had higher vocational decision making competencies than those with low academic achievement. Parents paying attention to the decision of selecting an occupation also positively influenced the decision making competency of the students. According to the multiple regression results, the parents'positive attitude in the process of selecting an occupation has been significantly shaped by the academic achievement of students. Students with high academic achievement reported parental attitude as supporting while those with low academic achievement reported their parents' attitudes to be oppressive. Key words: Career Decision Making Competense