September 20, 2021
We have a new article published from KLAMS project! Journal of Mobility and Stratification published the article titled “Social Mobility, Adolescents’ Psycho-Social Dispositions, and Parenting” co-authored by Dr. Dara Shifrer and Dr. Heili Pals. Dr. Dara Shifter first joined KLAMS project after attending KLAMS workshop at Texas A&M University in 2014. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Sociology Department at Portland State University.
This article applies the Social Structure and Personality framework to investigate the contributions of adolescents’ psycho-social dispositions to social mobility, and then the contributions of parents’ socioeconomic status (SES) and parenting to adolescents’ psycho-social dispositions. The findings show that upward social mobility is inhibited by poor psycho-social dispositions, particularly by negative self-feelings. SES, in turn, also affects psycho-social dispositions. Family income is more relevant (i.e., variance explained) than parental education for adolescents’ locus of control, while parental education is more relevant for adolescents’ negative self-feelings. Finally, our findings indicate that parenting can disrupt the cycle of social reproduction, with lower SES adolescents exhibiting lower levels of negative self-feelings if their parents are more attached or less authoritarian.