Socioeconomic Stratification in Family Research

Abstract

Unresolved issues in stratification theory and measurement are pointed out and implications for family research are discussed. Sources of useful measures are suggested. In addition, the results of a survey of the use of socioeconomic stratification concepts in family research articles published from 1991 through 1993 in six major journals are presented. The results indicate that family researchers make extensive use of various socioeconomic variables. Two imperatives are emphasized, namely the need to place socioeconomic concepts in theoretical context and the need to learn more about the relative powers of various socioeconomic measures to account for important family variables and relationships among variables. The study of socioeconomic stratification has a long and complex history in the social sciences. Basic theoretical and methodological issues that have been debated for many decades without definitive resolution have been joined in recent years by additional contentious issues. Why societies are stratified, the dimension or dimensions of stratification and, consequently, the appropriate stratification variables to employ are unresolved issues. Perhaps that is one reason why recent family researchers have generally used socioeconomic variables in an atheoretical manner, with little apparent concern for relevant theoretical and methodological issues. Despite the unresolved controversies, however, family searchers might benefit from viewing the socioeconomic measures they use in terms of broader theoretical contexts. After all, family theorists and researchers have gained insights by viewing various family behaviors in terms of symbolic interaction, social exchange, and systems frameworks, even though these theoretical perspectives diverge from. each other and none is universally accepted as valid. Family theory and research can also benefit from more thorough consideration of relevant measurement issues and from efforts to identify the socioeconomic measures that are most useful in accounting for family variables. The central objective of this article is to increase awareness of the issues and alternatives that need to be considered when one uses socioeconomic concepts family theory and research. To that end we will (a) point out basic theoretical and methodological issues and some implications for the family, (b) present the results of a survey of the use of socioeconomic concepts in family research articles published from 1991 through 1993 in Journal of Marriage and the Family and selected sociological and psychological journals, and (c) indicate measurement Strategies and recommend needed research. STRATIFICATION ISSUES Long-Term Basic Issues in Stratification Theory Social class and socioeconomic status are concepts whose meanings are known to all social and behavioral scientists. The problem is that different social and behavioral scientists attribute different meanings for these concepts because they consciously or unconsciously take different positions on basic stratification issues. The following paragraphs will suggest what these issues are, but interested readers can find more complete analyses in several recent discussions of stratification history and theoretical issues (e.g., Borgatta & Borgatta, 1994; Boudon & Burricaud, 1989; Crompton, 1993; Langman, 1987). The long-term basic issues in stratification theory involve divergent answers to three questions. Why are societies stratified? Along what dimension or dimensions are they stratified? And what is the shape of the stratification hierarchy? Divergent explanations of the origins of stratification. Stratification theorists in general have assumed that people in modern societies are hierarchically arranged in terms of some value or values, but they have presented very different ideas about why these hierarchies exist. The dominant perspectives on why societies are stratified are the conflict view, the functionalist view, and the market view. …