Full Citation
Title: Class Inequality and the Adult Attainment Project among Middle-Aged Men in the United States, 1980-2010
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2015
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI:
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: The adult attainment project (AAP) consists of a series of traditional adult statuses: labor force participation, residential independence, marriage, parenthood, and homeownership. This study examines these status indicators holistically as part of a long-term project that is assessed later in adulthood (ages 35-45). Close examination of AAP affords us novel insights into the changing state of the American opportunity structure that go beyond what can be achieved through studying temporal patterns of adult status indicators independently. Over the study period rates of completed AAPs declined by double digits, and the difference in the odds of completing the adult attainment project between men in the upper and lower end of the income distribution doubled. There are structural and cultural explanations for the decline of AAP. Divergence hypotheses favor structural explanations involving social stratification processes. Convergence hypotheses favor cultural explanations based on the loosening of social norms regarding traditional adult statuses. This study uses factor analytic models on data from the Current Population Survey in conjunction with formal measurement invariance testing to evaluate these hypotheses. The adaptive differentiation hypothesis, a blended structural-cultural explanation that posits analytically distinct AAP profiles among high and low socioeconomic groups, receives the most empirical support. The results from this analysis affirm a structurally prevailing change in the lives of poor, working, and lower-middle class Americans.
Url: http://sociology.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/859/2014/09/Pais_Ray_AAP_Class_Inequality.pdf
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Pais, Jeremy; Ray, D. M.
Publisher: University of Connecticut
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Other
Countries: