Differential Mother and Father Influences on the Educational Attainment of Black and White Women

Abstract

This study examines the impacts of maternal and paternal influences on the educational attainment of women and whether these parental effects operate similarly for white and black women. Specifically, the study measures the differential effects of mother's and father's education, occupation, and encouragement. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience ( N U ) , 428 white and 145 black women were examined. Findings indicate different patterns in the way mothers and fathers affect their daughters' educational attainments. For both groups of women, father's education was found to be a generally better predictor than mother's education, while mother's occupation was more important than father's occupation. Mother's occupation and parental expectation variables were relatively more important for black women, and parental education variables were more important for white women.Increasing interest in the status attainment of women reflects an important change in traditional thought, which at one time considered the social position of females almost entirely in terms of the accomplishments of their fathers or husbands (Parsons, 1954;Turner, 1964). Women have rightly become a more important focus of sociological research (see Falk and Cosby, 1975,1978). Their educational and occupational accomplishments are usually studied using a model of socialization based on earlier research involving males (Alexander and Eckland, 1974;Sewell and Shah, 1968;Treiman and Terrell, 1975; Waite and Moore, 1978). The first aim of this study was to reexamine certain aspects of this approach in order to determine whether there are differential parental influences on women's educational achievement. Our emphasis was not on comparisons between males and females; rather, we were concerned with the relative importance of certain variables in the model for a representative group of young women. The second objective of this research was to determine whether parental influences on educational attainment operate differently for black and white women. Given our interest in sex-and race-specific influences on the attainment process, we briefly review previous research that addresses each of these issues.

Gender Differences in the Effects of Socioeconomic Background

“…However, later studies were less consistent with the same-sex socialization model. Reeder and Conger (1984) concluded that among daughters, father's education was more important than mother's, but mother's occupation was more important than father's. Consistent with the same-sex socialization model, Crook (1995) found in that in Australia mothers' characteristics influenced their daughters' education more than their sons' but concluded that 'parents are no more likely to influence the educational and occupational attainment of their like-sexed than their opposite-sexed children'.…”

Ethnic Capital and Class Reproduction: Comparing the Impact of Socio-Economic Status on Children's Educational Attainment Across Ethno-Religious Groups in Israel

“…It appears that mothers' educational achievements and occupational positions are as crucial in predicting children's educational attainments. For many groups, including mothers' social background improves the prediction of educational attainment (Korupp, Ganzeboom and Van Der Lippe 2002, Reeder and Conger 1984, Rothon 2008. The present study shows that mothers' social and economic background is crucial and has to be included in the analysis in order to better understand educational attainment and help explaining the persistence of educational inequality in Israel.…”

Life Satisfaction and Intergenerational Mobility Among Older Hispanics in the United States

“…This is likely because more Hispanic respondents did not know or did not report their mother’s education level relative to their father’s education. Thus, this study focuses on the effects of the difference in years of education between the respondent and their father, based on the historical educational context of this cohort and previous research suggesting educational level of fathers is more predictive of educational attainment (De Vries & De Graaf, 2008; Keage et al, 2016; Reeder & Conger, 1984), reason for attending college (Schlechter & Milevsky, 2010) and career aspirations (Khampirat, 2020). Race and years of education, along with other demographic information is maintained in the HRS Tracker File.…”