Toby L. Parcel

Measures of socioeconomic status: Alternatives and recommendations.

MUELLER, CHARLES W., and PARCEL, TOBY L. Measures of Socioeconomic Status: Alternatives and Recommendations. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 13-30. In this paper we argue that it is ill-advised to use impressionistic or outdated measures of SES in psychological research. After we critique such inappropriate measures, 2 occupation-based measures, the Duncan Socioeconomic Index and the Siegel Prestige Scale, are recommended as the best measures of the SES of individuals or household heads. Another strategy is described for measuring household or family SES where the household characteristics and composition vary.

Early Parental Work, Family Social Capital, and Early Childhood Outcomes

This article evaluates the impact of parental working conditions on both a cognitive child outcome and a social one among a national sample of three- to six-year-old children with employed mothers. Current maternal working conditions (i.e., a mothers working conditions at the time of the study) affect verbal facility, but paternal work hours in the early years have significant effects on childrens behavior problems. Mothers current occupational complexity interacts with her resources and employment characteristics to influence both cognitive and social outcomes. The conclusion is that adequate parental resources contribute to the forms of family social capital useful in facilitating positive child outcomes, but that conclusions regarding negative effects of maternal work in the childs first year have been overgeneralized.

Capital at Home and at School: Effects on Student Achievement

We investigate the effects of both family and school capital on student math and reading achievement. We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) merged Child-Mother Data for 1992 and 1994, to which indicators of capital in the childrens schools for 1993-94 and 1994-95 have recently been added. We study children who attended first through eighth grades in both 1992 and 1994, with samples of 2034 for math achievement and 2203 for reading recognition. Findings suggest that school capital effects are modest in size while family capital effects are stronger; combinations of school and family capital boost or modify additive findings. We sketch directions for future research and discuss the usefulness of analyzing school and family capital as parallel concepts.

Determining Children's Home Environments: The Impact of Maternal Characteristics and Current Occupational and Family Conditions.

This study examines determinants of the home environments employed mothers provide for their young children, and investigates the impact of current employment experiences, current family conditions, and maternal and child characteristics in shaping childrens home environments. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youths 1986 Mother-Child Supplement, the study focuses on 795 employed mothers with a child aged three through six years old. As work socialization theories suggest, the occupational complexity of mothers work positively affects the home environments mothers provide for their children. In addition, larger family size produces less optimal child environments. The personal resources that mothers bring to their childrearing-self-esteem, locus of control, educational attainment, and age-also have significant effects on childrens home environments. Given the importance of home environment for childrens cognitive and socioemotional development, these findings suggest pathways by which maternal resources and current occupational and family environments have intergenerational repercussions.

Maternal working conditions and children's verbal facility : studying the intergenerational transmission of inequality from mothers to young children

We develop arguments regarding the impact of maternal working conditions on childrens verbal facility as a vehicle for studying the intergenerational transmission of inequality from mothers to yound children. We argue that the better paying the mothers job and the more substantively complex the work activities in her occupation, the higher her childs measured verbal facility. We also expect a nonlinear relationship between maternal work hours and verbal facility

Effects of Low-Wage Employment on Family Well-Being

Assumptions about the processes that link a mothers employment to the development of her child must underlie expectations about how children may fare when their mothers move from welfare dependence into employment. This article explores the idea, mentioned in the research overview by Zaslow and Emig in this journal issue, that the working conditions such as wages, work hours, and task complexity that mothers experience on the job can influence their behavior as parents and shape the home environments they provide for their children. This article discusses the significance of home environments for childrens intellectual and emotional development and considers how home surroundings change when mothers begin jobs that are more rewarding or less rewarding. The authors conclude that, while maternal employment is not necessarily harmful, if welfare recipients find only low-wage, stressful jobs, working may prove costly for both family and child well-being. The authors recommend that welfare-to-work programs devote attention to (1) assisting mothers to obtain more complex work at good wages, (2) helping mothers understand the role home environments play in shaping childrens development, and (3) encouraging parents to make their childrens home surroundings as positive as possible.

Capital and Context: Using Social Capital at Home and at School to Predict Child Social Adjustment∗

Research examining the influence of social relationships on child outcomes has seldom examined how individuals derive social capital from more than one context and the extent to which they may benefit from the capital derived from each. We address this deficit through a study of child behavior problems. We hypothesize that children derive social capital from both their families and their schools and that capital from each context is influential in promoting social adjustment. Using a large national data set and structural equation modeling, we find that social capital at home and at school can be measured as separate constructs and that capital at home is more influential than is capital at school. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research on social capital and for practical interventions promoting social adjustment.

Effects of family structure on the earnings attainment process: differences by gender.

This study compares how being raised in an original, two-parent family and being raised in other family structures affects educational achievement, occupational status, and earnings attainment for a national sample of 30- to 59-year-old women and men. Data are derived from the 1989 Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Findings suggest that family structure has different effects by gender. Although both men and women from original, two-parent families earn more, on average, than those from other family structures, for women, this effect occurs through educational attainment. For men, the association between family structure and attainment is explained by other family background variables, including smaller family size, being Catholic, higher levels of parental education, and being White. Men who are raised by both natural parents are not advantaged educationally, compared with those who grow up in other types of family structures. A cohort analysis for men that compares baby boomers with prebaby boomers, however, suggests contradictory effects of family structure that deserve more exploration. Key Words: divorce, earnings attainment, family structure, gender, two-parent families. How does family structure in childhood affect an individuals subsequent socioeconomic wellbeing? We know that the absence of the father lowers cognitive test scores for young children (Mott, 1993) and that being raised by a single parent may interfere with high school graduation (Coleman, 1988; McLanahan, 1985; Shaw, 1982) and with the availability of funding for higher education (Steelman & Powell, 1991). McLanahan and Sandefur (1994) argue that children raised by only one biological parent are deprived of economic and social resources, which negatively affects their future success. Boys who grow up in original, two-parent families have a greater chance of achieving a higher occupational status than those raised in families headed by women (Duncan & Duncan, 1969), and boys who are raised by their mothers have a greater chance of ending up in occupations with lower status than those their fathers held (Biblarz & Raftery, 1993). Amato and Keith (1991) indicate that children who experienced parental divorce are more likely than those raised in original, two-parent families to exhibit psychological, behavioral, social, and academic problems. A great deal of evidence suggests that being raised without both natural parents involves costs for both children and the larger society. (See McLanahan & Booth, 1991, and Seltzer, 1994, for comprehensive reviews and Demo, 1992, for some counter arguments.) These studies do not tell us, however, whether divorce affects children when they mature to adulthood. In addition, prior research on the effects of family structure on socioeconomic outcomes frequently has failed to consider effects by gender by considering men only (Biblarz & Raftery, 1993; Duncan & Duncan, 1969; Greenberg & Wolf, 1982; Krein, 1986) or has been limited by confining attention to outcomes in young adulthood (Hill, Augustoniak, & Ponza, 1987). This article extends previous work by providing a clear causal picture of the effects of childhood family structure on adult socioeconomic outcomes for both men and women. We differentiate two broad categories of family structure: those respondents who were raised by both natural parents most of the time until they were 16 years old (original, two-parent family status) and those who report that they were not. We provide a rationale for using these broad categories and expand on this definition. We study (a) how growing up with both natural parents affects educational attainment, occupational status, and earnings, compared with growing up in other family structures, and (b) whether these effects differ by gender. THEORETICAL GUIDANCE Human capital and status attainment perspectives provide useful bases for studying the effects of family structure on adult socioeconomic outcomes. …

The effects of maternal working conditions and mastery on child behavior problems: studying the intergenerational transmission of social control.

We assess the impact of maternal sense of mastery and maternal working conditions on maternal perceptions of childrens behavior problems as a means to study the transmission of social control across generations. We use a sample of 521 employed mothers and their four-to six-year-old children from the National Longitudinal Surveys Youth Cohort in 1986. Regarding working conditions, we consider mothers hourly wage, work hours, and job content including involvement with things (vs. people), the requisite level of physical activity, and occupational complexity. We also consider maternal and child background and current family characteristics, including marital status, family size, and home environment. Maternal mastery was related to fewer reported behavior problems among children. Lower involvement with people and higher involvement with things, as well as low physical activity, were related significantly to higher levels of perceived problems. In addition, recent changes in maternal marital status, including maternal marriage or remarriage, increased reports of problems; stronger home environments had the opposite effect. We interpret these findings as suggesting how maternal experiences of control in the workplace and personal resources of control can influence the internalization of control in children.

Wealth Accumulation of Black and White Men: The Case of Housing Equity

This paper looks at racial differences in how male workers accumulate housing equity. Findings from a national sample suggest major differences favoring whites in the payoff to such characteristics as earnings, age, marital status, and area of current residence. Blacks and whites also differ in the form of the relationship between years of schooling and housing equity. When the analysis is confined to homeowners only, many of these racial differences remain. The findings provide evidence concerning racial inequity in the United States housing markets and thus allow inferences concerning discrimination in housing. The findings also dramatize racial differences in a key form of wealth accumulation as a complement to other reports of racial differences in socio-economic outcomes.