Influence of Social Media on Career Choice Among Students in Public Day Secondary Schools in Kiambaa Sub-County, Kiambu County, Kenya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70619/vol6iss7pp1-17-951Keywords:
Social Factors, social media, Career Choice, Secondary school students, Career guidance, Social Cognitive Career Theory, Kiambaa Sub-CountyAbstract
This study examined the influence of social media on career choice among students in public day secondary schools in Kiambaa Sub-County, Kiambu County, Kenya. The study was anchored on the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). The study adopted a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, in which a cross-sectional survey provided the quantitative strand and semi-structured interviews provided the qualitative strand. The target population comprised 5,000 students, 30 guidance and counseling teachers, and 15 principals drawn from a census of all 15 public day secondary schools in the sub-county. Yamane's formula was applied to the student population to obtain a sample of 370 students, who were selected through proportionate stratified random sampling, while all 30 guidance and counselling teachers and all 15 principals were purposively included. A total of 297 students (80.3%), 23 teachers (76.7%), and 12 principals (80.0%) responded, giving an overall response rate of 80.0%. We collected data using a structured questionnaire and interview guides. We established content and face validity through expert review and assessed reliability through a pilot study, with Cronbach's alpha of 0.822 for the social media variable and an overall instrument reliability of .849. Quantitative data were analysed in SPSS version 29 using descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation and linear regression, while qualitative data were analysed thematically and integrated with the quantitative results through joint displays. The findings revealed a positive, statistically significant relationship between social media and career choice among students in public day secondary schools in Kiambaa Sub-County (r = .476, p < .001), with social media independently accounting for 22.7% of the variance in students' career choice. The study concluded that social media is a substantial and increasingly influential factor in students' career decision-making, exerting a double-edged effect that broadens career awareness and, without adequate guidance, risks fostering unrealistic career expectations. The study recommends that schools formally integrate social media literacy into career guidance programmes to help students critically evaluate online career content, that career guidance and counselling teachers actively engage with the platforms students already use to contextualise online career portrayals, and that government agencies and professional bodies leverage social media to disseminate accurate and diverse career information, thereby countering the disproportionate visibility of a narrow set of highly publicised careers.
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