Perceived career congruence between adolescents and their parents as a moderator between goal orientation and career aspirations

•Study tested the relationship between goal orientation and career aspirations.•Mastery-approach and performance-prove orientations were significant predictors.•Perceived career congruence between adolescents and their parents tested as a moderator.•Mastery-approach was more related to aspirations when perceived congruence was higher.•Performance-approach was less related to aspirations when perceived congruence was higher.

We surveyed 601 Indonesian high school students (57.6% girls, mean age = 16.4 years) and investigated whether perceived career congruence between adolescents and their parents served as moderator between goal orientation (i.e., mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoid) and career aspirations. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that perceived congruence moderated the effects of mastery-approach and performance-approach, but not performance-avoid, on career aspirations. Mastery-approach orientation was more strongly related to career aspirations when perceived congruence was higher; whereas, performance-prove orientation was more weakly related when perceived congruence was higher. These findings highlight important roles for approach orientations and perceived career congruence between adolescents and their parents in career aspirations of adolescents in collectivist contexts.