Career success: The role of teenage career aspirations, ambition value and gender in predicting adult social status and earnings

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Abstract

Links between family social background, teenage career aspirations, educational performance and adult social status attainment are well documented. Using a contextual developmental framework, this article extends previous research by examining the role of gender and teenage ambition value in shaping social status attainment and earnings in adulthood. Drawing on data from an 18-year British follow up study we tested a path model linking family background factors (such as family social status and parental aspirations) and individual agency factors in adolescence (in particular, career aspirations and ambition value) to social status attainment and earnings in adulthood. The findings suggest that ambition value is linked to adult earnings. That is, young people for whom it is important to get on in their job earn more money in adulthood than their less ambitious peers. The findings also confirm that teenage career aspirations are linked to adult social status attainment, and suggest that family background factors, teenage career aspirations and ambition value interact to influence social status attainment and earnings in adulthood. Gender differences are discussed.

Section snippets

A contextual developmental approach

Based on assumptions formulated within a developmental contextual framework (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, Schoon, 2006, Vondraceck et al., 1986) we test a model specifying the pathways linking family socioeconomic background factors, parental educational aspirations, teenage career aspirations, teenage ambition value and educational performance at age 16 to adult social status attainment and earnings. The model enables us to examine both the role of individual agency and its embeddedness in a wider

Hypotheses

According to socialisation theories young people from more privileged homes have more educational opportunities, greater access to financial resources, role models, occupational knowledge, and informal networks (Erikson & Jonsson, 1996; Schoon et al., 2007, Schoon et al., 2007, Schoon & Parsons, 2002). We therefore hypothesise that parents from privileged social backgrounds will have (H1) higher incomes, and (H2) higher educational aspirations for their children (Erikson & Jonsson, 1996, Schoon

Method

This article used data collected for the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), which is a continuing longitudinal study following children born in a week of April 1970. Data collection sweeps have taken place at ages 5, 10, 16, 26, 30 and 34 years. The data used in this analysis was collected at birth, at age 16, and at age 34. Although missing data due to survey loss and incomplete response is a problem (especially in analyses drawing on multiple sweeps of data collection), bias due to attrition

Results

Table 1 shows means, standard deviations and correlations between the variables for the male and female samples. Before we present the results of the analyses, we briefly discuss the descriptive findings. Significant differences between males and females reported in the following are p < .05, borderline significant differences are p < .1.

Males and females experienced no significant differences in family social background at birth (measured by parental occupational status, mothers’ education,

Discussion

This research illustrated a link between teenage ambition value and adult earnings. That is, young people for whom it was important to have a job that enabled them to get ahead earned more money in adulthood than their less ambitious peers. However, the research did more than establish a link between ambition value and adult earnings. It also explored the way in which family background and individual agency factors (in particular, teenage career aspirations and ambition value) interact to

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