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Family interaction, gender, and status attainment value

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Abstract

Past research on adolescent attainment has virtually ignored the interactional aspects through which children learn attainment values. Using a simulated career game, parent-child interaction (father, mother, and adolescent son or daughter) was coded to assess its impact on the child's attainment value. Encouragement patterns, parental opportunity awareness, and family affect were examined. Results revealed differences in these family interaction variables as sources and determinants of adolescent attainment value, depending upon sex of child. The variables were able to account for considerably more of the variation in sons' attainment value than daughters'.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Washington State University, USA

    Marilyn Ihinger-Tallman

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  1. Marilyn Ihinger-Tallman
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Additional information

This study was made possible by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (#15521-04), the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA) (*G-75), and the Minnesota Center for Comparative Studies in Technological Development and Social Change (funds provided by the Ford Foundation) (#26301), principal investigator, Irving Tallman. The author would like to acknowledge the helpful comments made by Viktor Gecas, Jeylan Mortimer, Irving Tallman, and especially Milton Rokeach on an earlier draft of this article.

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Ihinger-Tallman, M. Family interaction, gender, and status attainment value. Sex Roles 8, 543–556 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287718

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