The purpose of this study is to examine whether decision making styles of elementary school 8th
grade students predict their career development. In addition, the purpose of this study is to examine career
development of elementary school 8th grade students according to gender, age, perceived social economic status,
academic achievement, education levels of mother and father. The study group consisted of 400 (213 female and
187 male) students from 7 formal elementary schools. Adolescent Decision Making Questionnaire, Childhood
Career Development Scale and Personal Information Form are used to collect data. Simultaneous Multiple
Regression Analysis, one way ANOVA and t test are used to analyze data. The self-esteem in decision making,
vigilance, panic, complacency and cop-out subscales scones together accounted for a significant proportion of the
variance (%23) of the career development scores. The vigilance, decisional self esteem and panic are powerful
predictors of the career development. There are no significant differences in career development scores of the
students according to gender, the education levels of mother and father. When the ages, social economic status and
academic achievement levels of the students increase the career development levels of them increase.
Key words: Childhood career development, decision making styles/ strategies.
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