Predicting the Educational Attainment of Los Angeles Women

Social psychological variables such as identification and communication with significant others, perception of others' expectations, and self-perceptions influence the effect that social and family structural variables have on educational attainment. Using available data on Los Angeles women collected in 1973 and 1975, this article further investigates the relative role of structural and social psychological variables in predicting the educational attainment of women. With some modifications, findings replicate those of other studies. Women's perceptions of their mother's education and aspirations as well as their own educational aspirations predict the amount of education attained. Early heterosexual experience, pregnancy, and early first marriage decrease completed education. Research describing the structure and process by which social status is attained has a long history. Completed education, occupation, and income of an individual and/or their spouse are agreed to be major indicators of both an individual's and a household's status and to be major components of their prestige in the society (Powers 1982). Intergenerational consistency in status has been demonstrated repeatedly, with numerous studies demonstrating a positive relationship between parental socioeconomic status and that of their children (Blau & Duncan 1967; Duncan, Featherman, & Duncan 1972; Kerckhoff 1976). The exact process by which social status is transmitted from generation to generation and the variety of information that minimally must be considered to explain differing levels of either educational or occupational attainment remain vague, appear to differ for men and women and by ethnic group, and to change somewhat over cohorts (Powers & Holmberg 1982; Featherman & Stevens 1982; Boyd & McRoberts 1982; Halaby 1979; Treas & Tyree 1979). It is generally agreed that a combination of institutional, social and family structural variables, the resources associated with pertinent structural indicators, patterns of social interaction, self-perceptions of ability, and actual ability influence the educational Direct all correspondence to: Linda B. Bourque, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1772. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.58 on Tue, 11 Oct 2016 04:57:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 138 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Volume 32, Number 1, 1989 and occupational status attained by an individual and hence their social status and prestige. Further, it is generally agreed that educational attainment is a primary predictor of eventual adult social status and mediates the influence of many other variables thought to be important determinants of both educational attainment and adult social status. At the same time, studies suggest that the eventual status attained and the process by which status is attained may differ by race, by sex, and over time (Sewell, Hauser, & Wolf 1980; Treas & Tyree 1979; Hout & Morgan 1975). Until recently, studies of women's status attainment have been rare and few detailed attempts have been made to incorporate social psychological variables into structural and familial models of status attainment. Whereas the occupational status of women's first jobs generally have been shown to be higher than that of men's first jobs, the relative importance of educational attainment, parental status indicators, educational ability, and self, peer, and parental aspirations in predicting the occupational status of the first job and subsequent job mobility has been found to differ for women and men (Alexander & Eckland 1974; Marini 1980; Cooney, Clague, & Salvo 1982; Sewell et al. 1980; Halaby 1979). There is, for example, some evidence that parental status influences same-sexed children more than opposite-sexed children, that men benefit from educational resources and encouragement more than women, and that the timing of marriage and childbearing influence women's eventual status attainment more than that of men. Davies and Kandel (1981) note that The treatment of the inter-personal variables suffers from two limitations. In most models, especially those tested on the Wisconsin data, social influences are measured by a composite index that groups together the indicators of parental, peer and teachers' influences as "significant others" influence... Even when interpersonal influences are disaggregated, with certain exceptions, investigators discuss the mediating effect of these variables as a group and not of each type of influence separately (364). Davies and Kandel emphasize the importance of differentiating the influence of parents from that of peers. They further suggest that teenagers' perceptions of their parents' aspirations regarding their eventual education may differ from their parents' stated aspirations for their child. Studies by Smith (1981), Rosen and Aneshensel (1978), Gandara (1979), Mercy and Steelman (1982), Faunce (1984), Brookover, Erickson, and Joiner (1967), and Marini (1978, 1980) similarly emphasize the need to differentiate the effect of mothers from fathers, like-sex from opposite-sex friends, and to determine the relative importance of selfconcept on a student's perception of their academic ability, their educational aspirations, their eventual educational attainment, and the adult roles adopted. In summary, recent literature on status attainment increasingly recognizes and emphasizes the importance of studying the status attainment of women, the role of women in the status attainment of others, and the role that social-psychological factors play in understanding and predicting both educational and adult status This content downloaded from 157.55.39.58 on Tue, 11 Oct 2016 04:57:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms PREDICTING THE EDUCATIONAL ATrAINMENT OF Los ANGELES WOMEN 139 attainment. Further, the need to measure and identify both social-structural and social-psychological variables in detail, specifically as they relate to a child or teenager's role as a student, is emphasized. Using available data on Los Angeles women collected in 1973 and 1975, the objective of this article is to further investigate the relative role of family, structural and social psychological variables in predicting the educational attainment of women. Unique to this data set is information about whether the young woman talked with her parents about educational matters. Thus we were particularly interested in knowing whether such communication systematically contributed to the amount of variance explained in later completed education.1 DATA AND METHODOLOGY The data used in this analysis were collected as part of a study of fertility behavior and attitudes toward population policy. A sample of women between the ages of 16 and 22 was drawn, using the sample frame of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area Survey (LAMAS).2 Of the 255 women interviewed in 1973, only 168 could be located for a reinterview two years later in 1975. Women available for reinterview were somewhat more likely to be Anglos from higher income families. Reinterviewed women were as likely to report being married in 1973 and were only slightly older than nonresponders at first sexual experience. Nonresponders in 1975 were significantly more likely to have a mother who worked full-time when they were children and less likely to report talking with either parent about educational matters (see Table 1). All data were collected during face-to-face household interviews. With some minor alterations, the 1975 survey questionnaire was identical to the 1973 instrument. No data were collected from records or from the parents, friends, or spouses of respondents. The survey instrument was divided into five substantive areas: (1) education, (2) labor-force participation and aspirations, (3) sexual behavior and attitudes, (4) marital behavior and expectations, and (5) childbearing behavior and expectations. Following each substantive area, the respondent was asked with whom, if anyone, she talked about these issues. She was also asked with whom she would ideally want to discuss these particular issues. Finally, each woman was asked her perception of her parents' educational expectations for her, and her own personal educational aspirations. Three sets of variables and their interrelationships are investigated in this analysis: (1) background characteristics as reported in 1973, (2) educational behaviors and aspirations and heterosexual experience as reported in 1973, and (3) educational attainment as reported in 1975. The specific social and family structural variables examined include mother's educational level, father's educational level, family income, father's occupational status, religious affiliation of family of origin, ethnicity, mother's labor-force participation during respondent's childhood, number of siblings, and respondent's age in 1973. Educational attainment of the respondent in 1973 was intentionally deleted from the model. Socialpsychological variables included in the model are high school curriculum, educaThis content downloaded from 157.55.39.58 on Tue, 11 Oct 2016 04:57:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 140 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Volume 32, Number 1, 1989 Table 1 Comparison of Women Enrolled in 1975 with Women Not Enrolled in 1975 and with Women for Whom No Data were Available in 1975 Enrollment and Data Availability