Routes of success

Influences on the occupational attainment of young British males

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2139159
AutoresRoss Bond (0000-0002-3829-1275, University of Sussex), Peter Saunders Rod Bond (autor de correspondencia), Rod Bond, Peter Saunders (0000-0003-1368-1696)
Año1999
Volumen50
Número2
Páginas217-249
Fecha de publicación1999-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaBritish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-4446.1999.00217.x
PMID15260024
OpenAlexW2104508022
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas30
Referencias citadas32

Using data from the National Child Development Study, the paper develops a complex path model predicting the occupational grade achieved by 4, 298 employed British males at age 33. Most British social mobility research has been based in the ‘class structurationist’ tradition, and the paper begins by comparing this with the ‘status attainment’ tradition, which is more common in the USA The class structurationist approach has rarely analysed the factors influencing individual occupational attainment, and those working in this tradition in Britain have often assumed that people from working‐class origins fare worse on average than those from the middle class because of factors associated with their class disadvantage rather than any difference in individual characteristics such as ability or ambition. Status attainment research, however, has generally found that individual ability and motivation are the key factors influencing occupational attainment, and that class origins count for comparatively little. Using various measures of class origins, parental support, qualifications, and individual ability and ambition, the paper goes on to develop a linear structural equations model which achieves a good fit to the data. The model demonstrates that individual ability is by far the strongest influence on occupational achievement, that motivation is also important, and that factors like class background and parental support, while significant, are relatively much weaker. The paper concludes that occupational selection in Britain appears to take place largely on meritocratic principles

Class (philosophy · Demographic economics · Disadvantage · Economics · Educational attainment · Meritocracy · Occupational prestige · Political science · Population · Social class · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Status attainment · Working class · Computer Science · Demography · Early Childhood Education and Development · Education Systems and Policy · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology