Students Who Talk More with Their Parents... Higher Chances of Entering Medical School

If the Topic of Conversation is Interest and Aptitude... Choosing Majors like Medicine, Education, and Arts

A study found that the more frequently parents engage in conversations about school or academic departments, the higher the likelihood of their children attending college.

In particular, when the topics of conversation were interests and aptitudes, children were more likely to choose majors such as medicine, education, or arts and physical education rather than humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, or engineering.

According to Yonhap News on the 5th, Hwang Young-sik, a senior researcher at the Education Innovation Headquarters of Chungnam National University, and Joo Young-hyo, an associate professor at Gyeongsang National University, revealed these findings in their paper titled "Factors Influencing High School Students' Decisions to Pursue Higher Education and Major Selection: Focusing on Student Background and Parental Variables."

'Cheering Message to a Test-Taking Son'
Photo by Yonhap News

The research team analyzed a sample of 1,297 students from the "Korean Education and Employment Panel Survey II," which tracked second-year high school students from 2016 until last year.

First, males had a higher college enrollment rate than females. Regarding subject grades, higher math scores were associated with a greater likelihood of college enrollment. Korean and English grades did not show a significant correlation with enrollment rates.

Additionally, as parents' wage and financial income increased, the likelihood of their children attending college also rose. Higher parental real estate and financial income were linked to children choosing majors in natural sciences and engineering.

The more frequently parents engaged in conversations about school and academic departments, the higher the chances their children would attend college. Moreover, frequent discussions between parents and children about interests and aptitudes tended to lead children to select majors requiring relatively specialized and specific skills, such as medicine, education, and arts and physical education.

On the other hand, conversations with parents about school and department choices, which influenced higher education enrollment, were found not to have a significant impact on major decisions.

Academies in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. [Photo by Yonhap News]

The research team explained, "Conversations between parents and children have a significant influence on deciding to pursue higher education, and depending on the topics discussed, they can have a broad impact extending to major selection."

They added, "In the past, parents were more likely to be passively involved in their children's career paths after college entrance, but now parents are not only deciding on college enrollment but also intervening and influencing specific career choices."

Meanwhile, in 2021, Visang Education, an educational and cultural company, conducted a survey in May targeting 405 parents of elementary school students through the parent education information community 'Mom & Talk' on the topic of 'Conversations with Children.' The survey found that more than six out of ten parents spent less than one hour per day talking with their children on average.

When asked about the average daily conversation time with their children, 30.9% of parents responded "30 minutes or more but less than 1 hour," the highest percentage. This was followed by "10 minutes or more but less than 30 minutes" (29.1%), "1 hour or more but less than 2 hours" (22.0%), "2 hours or more" (11.9%), and "less than 10 minutes" (6.2%). In other words, 66.2% of respondents spent less than one hour per day talking with their children on average.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.