Is the intergenerational transmission of high cultural activities biased by the retrospective measurement of parental high cultural activities?

Abstract

In this article we study the bias caused by the conventional retrospective measurement of parental high cultural activities in the effects of parental high cultural activities and educational attainment on son's or daughter's high cultural activities. Multi-informant data show that there is both random measurement error and correlated error in the respondent's report of parental high cultural activities. Correlated measurement error is the consequence of the fact that adult children who have higher rates of high cultural activities, report higher levels of parental cultural activities than the parents themselves do. When controls for both types of measurement error are included in structural models, the total intergenerational effect of parental high cultural activities appears to be larger than in a model without controls for measurement error, but the direct intergenerational effect is not biased if educational attainment is controlled for. The effect of educational attainment on high cultural activities is larger in models that correct for measurement error. In addition, the effect of educational attainment is stronger than the effect of parental high cultural activities, both with and without correction for measurement error.

Parental media socialization and educational attainment: Resource or disadvantage?

“…First, we made use of retrospective data, which is frequently argued to be affected by memory effects and social desirability. Additional analyses on respondents' reports of parental cultural capital using the FSDP-data however revealed no systematic bias De Vries & De Graaf, 2006). Own calculations, using both respondents' and parents' reports of prior parental reading support these claims.…”

“…Also, respondents' recall may be skewed by memory effects and social desirability bias. However, previous research on the FSDP data shows that no systematic error exists in retrospective measures of parental cultural capital De Vries & De Graaf, 2006). Additional analyses using interviews with the parents of a subset of our respondents (FNB 2000, N = 319), enabled us to compare respondents' reports on parental reading behavior with reports by the parents themselves.…”

Art and Socialisation

“…Fourth, most measurement of early socialization occurs retrospectively and by proxy and may be vulnerable to both random and systematic measurement error; as such, reports may contain too much noise or be biased toward current practices (De Vries and De Graaf, 2008). Researchers have occasionally been successful in obtaining nonproxy measures, i.e., by obtaining reports of the socializing agents themselves.…”

“…These studies find that when education is controlled, parents' cultural participation is a strong determinant of the children's arts participation, with standardized effects around .30 years (e.g., Kraaykamp and Nieuwbeerta, 2000;Kraaykamp and Van Eijck, 2010;Yaish and Katz-Gerro, 2012). Slightly stronger effects are reported in studies that control random measurement error (De Graaf and De Graaf, 1988;Ganzeboom, 1982) and systematic measurement error (De Vries and De Graaf, 2008).…”

Mediaoverdracht in het ouderlijk gezin - De gevolgen van ouderlijke mediasocialisatie voor huidige lees- en televisievoorkeuren

“…Voorgaand onderzoek naar ouderlijke culturele socialisatie op basis van dezelfde data heeft echter aangetoond dat er vrijwel geen sprake is van vertekening door systematische fouten (e.g., De Graaf, De Graaf & Kraaykamp, 2000;De Vries & De Graaf, 2008). Dit neemt niet weg dat wij willen wijzen op het feit dat herinneringseffecten kunnen resulteren in een lichte overschatting van het directe imitatie-effect.…”