Balancing the Theoretical Toolkit: A Quantitative Examination of Social Mobility and Culture
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Date
2019-05-17Author
Baggett, Nathan Cole
0000-0002-6886-904X
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Stratification researchers of the last four decades have contributed a multitude of information on how class-origins, culture, and social psychological factors affect class reproduction. However, scholarship has spent comparatively less effort in exploring cultural elements that can facilitate upward mobility for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. This thesis addresses this research imbalance through providing a nuanced look at cultural, social, and economic factors associated with educational mobility. Specifically, I investigate how educational aspirations offset financial constraints for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. I employ regression analyses to examine how common educational mobility is for individuals from less-educated households and then test to see how financial constraints inhibit upward mobility. Finally, I integrate both parental aspirations and self-expectations in education to determine how social psychological factors impact the mobility process. I discover that individuals and parents with high educational expectations can negate the devastating effects of financial constraints. This thesis details a modern account of mobility by showing how individuals from less educated households can attain educational mobility in a time of stark class inequalities.