What Does it Take to Get Ahead? Individual Characteristics, Community Contexts, and Stratification Beliefs among Youth in China

Abstract

Abstract Research on youth in disadvantaged neighborhoods suggests that community contexts can affect youth’s beliefs about what it takes to get ahead. Nevertheless, a systematic analysis of such beliefs across a variety of communities remains rare. Using data from the China Family Panel Study from 2010 to 2014, we examine how individual characteristics, community socioeconomic status (SES), and their interplay are linked to young adolescents’ views on the importance of meritocratic, structural, and fatalistic contributors to future success. Results show that being in school for more years, having better-educated parents, having a higher family income, and being in communities with elevated SES generally lead youth to place greater importance on meritocratic elements and less emphasis on structural and fatalistic elements. Parental education is more strongly associated with the dismissal of a fatalistic view about who gets ahead in higher-SES communities. Meanwhile, the positive influence of community SES on meritocratic beliefs is stronger for poorer youth. Finally, we find that meritocratic beliefs are conducive to greater future progress in verbal and math skills, suggesting that such beliefs have important consequences for youth.