1. Introduction Career Decision Making is one of the most crucial factors that contribute to the formation of adolescents’ vocational identity. It is a process influenced by individual factors (e.g. personality, gender) as well as by adolescent’s family context. The role of family on CDM process of both adolescents and young adults has long been acknowledged by many career theorists (Gottfredson, 1981. Roe, 1957. Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996). Additionally, a great number of studies were conducted in an effort to shed a light on the exact nature of family’s contribution to career decision process. More precisely, family dependence, enmeshed family relationships, parental couple’s problems, and authoritarian family interactions lead to adolescents’ low ΨΥΧΟΛΟΓΙΑ, 2011, 18 (3) ◆ 333-347 PSYCHOLOGY, 2011, 18 (3) ◆ 333-347 1. Address: Assistant Professor, General Department of Education, ASPETE, 14121 N. Heraklion, Attiki, Greece. Tel.: +30 2102896932. E-mail: kkounen@aspete.gr & kkounenou@primedu.uoa.gr The relationship between technical high school students’ career decision making ability and family KALLIOPE KOUNENOU 1 The present paper focused on the exploration of the relationship between family vari- ables (family cohesion & adaptability), parental authority style and technical high school students’ career decision making ability. The sample of the study consisted of 150 students (males & females) enrolled in electro logical & graphical courses of two public technological high schools. FACES III was used for the measurement of family variables, Parental Authority Questionnaire - PAQ was used for the measurement of parental authority style, and Career Decision Making Scale was used for the assessment of students’ career decision making difficulties. The results showed that authoritarian style positively correlated with family obstacles and total score in decision making difficulties. Authoritative style was negatively related to family obstacles and positively to lack of clear career interests; permissive style was negatively related to family obstacles. Results also revealed gender differences in career decision making abil- ity, while descriptive characteristics of family variables did not permit any further examination. Implications for practice and limitations of present research are discussed. Keywords: Career decision making ability, Family, FACES III, Parental authority style, Technical high school adolescents. ABSTRACT