Parental Investments and Educational Outcomes: Trivers–Willard in the U.S.

Abstract

In the U.S., there is evidence of a Trivers-Willard (T-W) effect in educational attainment, such that the sons of high status fathers attain more education than the daughters, and the daughters of low status fathers attain more education than the sons. This paper seeks to uncover the mechanisms by which this T-W effect occurs. Data are from the High School and Beyond Study by the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics. Results show that the T-W effect is not a result of the fact that fathers are less likely to be present in the homes of children of low status fathers. Other results show that the sons of high status fathers are more likely than daughters to be sent to private high school, whereas the daughters of low status fathers are more likely than sons to be sent to private high school. These parental investments pay off, as the sex gap in academic grade point averages (GPAs) (favoring women) is narrower for the children of high status fathers than the children of low status fathers. In turn, academic GPA in high school helps explain the T-W effect in educational attainment. Parental non-financial investment as measured by student academic expectations as sophomores in high school also helps explain why the sons of high status fathers obtain higher degrees than the daughters. Together, these two factors: student's academic GPA in high school and his/her expectations of educational attainment, fully explain the T-W effect in educational attainment in the U.S.

Sex-Biased Parental Investment among Contemporary Chinese Peasants: Testing the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis

“…In humans, the TWH is essentially involved with the relationships between parental socioeconomic status and sex-biased parental investment in children. Similar to several earlier studies (e.g., Bereczkei and Dunbar, 1997 ; Cox, 2003 ; Hopcroft, 2005 ; Pollet et al, 2009 ; Wallner et al, 2012 ; Hopcroft and Martin, 2014 , 2016 ), this study based the measure of parental status on overall status, and the measure of parental investment on investment in the education of offspring. All the studies obtained positive results regarding the TWH, in contrast to some other studies (e.g., Freese and Powell, 1999 ; Keller et al, 2001 ; Beaulieu and Bugental, 2008 ; Schnettler, 2010 ) that used different measures.…”

“…The sex difference in reproductive success co-varying with socioeconomic status is strongly supported by data from traditional societies (Betzig, 2012 ). Moreover, as Hopcroft and Martin ( 2014 , 2016 ) put it, much recent evidence from the contemporary U.S. and European countries points out that high economic status does promote males', rather than females' reproductive success (Hopcroft, 2005 ; Fieder and Huber, 2007 ; Nettle and Pollet, 2008 ), and lower-income males are less likely to have children (Hopcroft, 2005 ; Weeden et al, 2006 ; Barthold et al, 2012 ). The similar phenomena should take place in other countries such as contemporary China.…”

“…To avoid the methodological problems of the above-mentioned studies, Hopcroft ( 2005 ) and Hopcroft and Martin ( 2014 , 2016 ) use children's educational attainment to measure postnatal parental investment, on the basis that children's educational attainment strongly affects their economic, social and reproductive success in contemporary American society. In our view, the effect of education in contemporary Chinese society is similar to that in the United States.…”

“…Similar to Hopcroft ( 2005 ) and Hopcroft and Martin ( 2014 , 2016 ), this study uses years of education received by children to gauge postnatal parental investment. More years of education mean more investment by parents.…”

Synthesizing Proximate and Distal Levels of Explanation: Toward an Evolution-Informed Sociology

“…Similarly, former President of the ASA Massey (2002, p. 1) called for a deeper examination of "the biological foundations upon which our behavior ultimately rests." Withholding some notable exceptions (e.g., van den Berghe, 1975van den Berghe, , 1990Ellis, 1977Ellis, , 1995Ellis, , 1996Lopreato and Crippen, 1999;Horne, 2004;Hopcroft, 2005Hopcroft, , 2016aHuber, 2007;Turner et al, 2015;Hopcroft and Martin, 2016;Marshall, 2016;Mazur, 2016;Niedenzu et al, 2016;Walsh and Yun, 2016;Aunger, 2017;Daly and Perry, 2017;Montagu, 2017), we echo Lizardo and Massey's concern that the discipline has remained steadfast in its rejection of biological explanatory factors (see Ellis, 1995;Lizardo, 2014;Walsh and Yun, 2016).…”