Differential Mother and Father Influences on the Educational Attainment of Black and White Women

Abstract

This study examines the impacts of maternal and paternal influences on the educational attainment of women and whether these parental effects operate similarly for white and black women. Specifically, the study measures the differential effects of mother's and father's education, occupation, and encouragement. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience (NLS), 428 white and 145 black women were examined. Findings indicate different patterns in the way mothers and fathers affect their daughters' educational attainments. For both groups of women, father's education was found to be a generally better predictor than mother's education, while mother's occupation was more important than father's occupation. Mother's occupation and parental expectation variables were relatively more important for black women, and parental education variables were more important for white women.