The Educational and Occupational Attainment Process The Role of Adolescent Status Aspirations

by Inoue-Smith, Yukiko

• ISBN13: 9780761813422
• ISBN10: 076181342X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-04-15
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

The Educational and Occupational Attainment Process established a variation of the 1969 Wisconsin model to address the nature of attainment, and to satisfactorily answer whether the process of attainment is the same for women as men, and whether socioeconomic status plays a similar role for women in the process when examined from the same sociological perspectives as men. A sample was drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. The author used path analysis to estimate the direct and indirect effects implied by the proposed model, and the effects of personal background characteristics were hypothesized to be manifested indirectly, mediated by high school academic performance and significant others' (parents, teachers, and peers) influence. This study revealed that the attainment process is basically the same for men and women and that privilege of social origins is just as important for women as men. Like the Wisconsin model estimation, the author shows that the key to occupational attainment is educational attainment, indicating a strong link between educational and occupational attainment in modern American society. Her results punctuate the paradox of women's superior high school performance, yet lower levels of educational and occupational aspirations, and educational attainment than men. This provides considerable evidence that the development and the maintenance of "educational ambitions" in high school experiences exert a pronounced influence on an individual's success chances in the adult and occupational world.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
Introduction	1	(4)
Problem to be Studied	2	(1)
Purpose of the Study	3	(2)
Review of Literature	5	(12)
Status Attainment Models	5	(6)
Women in American Higher Education	11	(3)
Social Origin and Status Attainment	14	(3)
Methodology	17	(22)
The Path-Analytic Model	17	(4)
Data and Sample	21	(2)
Variables	23	(6)
Path Analysis	29	(3)
Descriptive Analysis	32	(7)
Results	39	(12)
Direct Effects	39	(6)
Indirect and Total Effects	45	(6)
Discussion	51	(10)
Comparisons with the Wisconsin Model	51	(3)
The Status Attainment Process	54	(4)
Impacts of Marriage and Children	58	(1)
Summary and Conclusion	58	(3)
References	61	(9)
Appendix A NLS Test Battery	70	(1)
Index	71