Influence Of Family Background Research Articles

The Family Factor in Jewish-Gentile Intermarriage: A Sibling Analysis of The Netherlands

The tendency of members of many ethno-religious groups to marry within their group has been considered evidence for the persistent role of ascription in modern society. What is the role of the family of origin in this process? To answer this question, we study the marriage choices of Jews in the Netherlands, using a unique dataset and a novel analytical approach (i.e., multilevel analyses of sibling-data). Our models show that almost a third of the variation in Jewish endogamy can be attributed to a common family factor. Measured indicators of family background point to two underlying mechanisms: the intergenerational transmission of ethnic identities and the intergenerational provision of endogamous meeting and mating opportunities. Together, these mechanisms explain 75 percent of the total family influence. The degree to which members of ethnic and religious groups marry within rather than outside their group is often viewed as an indicator of the strength of ascription in society. Studies on marriage choice have shown that most forms of ethnic and religious intermarriage have become more common over time (Kalmijn 1991; Lieberson and Waters 1988), in line with the frequently made claim that the importance of ascription in society has declined (Blau and Duncan 1967). It has also been recognized, however, that this transition is far from complete. Ethno-religious boundaries in society may have become weaker, but they have certainly not disappeared. Most of the interest of marriage researchers has focused on new immigrant groups and their descendants, groups that have increased in size and that have become increasingly important in debates about integration and multiculturalism. Older ethno-religious groups, groups that are less visible, and groups that have declined in size have received comparatively little attention. This is particularly true for the position of Jewish persons in Europe. We re-examine the role of ascription in contemporary society by analyzing the marriage choices of Jews in the Netherlands after the Second World War. Using a unique data set and a novel analytical approach – multilevel analyses of siblings – we examine to what extent family background plays a role in explaining Jewish endogamy. Although it is often assumed that ethno-religious endogamy is an indicator of ascription, the degree to which this is true depends on how important the family of origin is in this respect. In other words, if choices are largely made within the group and the family factor is important, ethnicity is largely ascribed. If choices are endogamous but the parents play no role, choices are more individual in nature and ethnicity becomes ‘achieved’ rather than ‘ascribed.’ Under the assumption that one’s ethnic background is not visible in day-to-day encounters, people may choose their ethnic identity out of the ethnic options they have (Waters 1990). We argue that the importance of ascription in society should not only be assessed by measuring ethno-religious marriage boundaries, but also by assessing the extent to which ethno-religious endogamy is dependent on family background influences.

Patterns of Paid and Unpaid Work: The Influence of Power, Social Context, and Family Background

Over the last several decades there have been changes in how paid and unpaid labour is divided between men and women: The rate of women's participation in the labour force women has increased as has men's participation in household labour. Although a plethora of research has addressed these changes by analysing couple and individual data, few have examined them within the context of multi-generational families. Using a case study analysis of a three-generation family, this paper shows that gender, class, social context, and family background influence how paid and unpaid work is divided within families. The case study shows that the social context of a given time conditions the options women and men have available to them in negotiating the balance of work and family responsibilities. Yet within this context, family background also matters. Negative childhood experiences were an impetus for adult children negotiating patterns of paid and unpaid labour that were different from those of their parents.

The Primary School Dropout in Spain: The Influence of Family Background and Labor Market Conditions

The most outstanding event in the Spanish education system in the past two decades has been the overall improvement of enrolment in all educational levels. However, the primary school dropout rate in Spain is relatively high, and the evidence indicates that being a dropout is a permanent condition. This is the first study on dropouts in Spain, and it uses individual-level data from the Living and Working Conditions Survey (1985) to analyze the determinants of dropping out of primary school in Spain. This paper focuses on the impact of family socio-economic background and labour market conditions on dropping out. The results from logistic regression for dropping out are consistent with earlier literature. Specifically, they indicate that family socio-economic status variables are significant factors in determining the probability of dropping out, and the youth labour market conditions also have an impact on primary school dropout behaviour. Finally, some policy recommendations are discussed.

Relação família-escola: novo objeto na sociologia da educação

Este artigo trata do aparecimento, a partir dos anos 1980, de um novo objeto no campo da Sociologia da Educação: o das interações entre as famílias e a instituição escolar. Parte-se do exame das primeiras formas de tratamento dado, pelos sociólogos, ao tema da família, as quais se limitavam a observar a influência do background familiar sobre os destinos escolares das crianças. A isso ela contrapõe as abordagens atuais que enfatizam os processos domésticos e cotidianos, e as práticas concretas dos atores, através dos quais se dá (ou não) essa influência.

The influence of family background on teachers' ratings of children starting school

A survey of teachers' ratings of classroom behaviour was conducted with respect to children who had recently commenced school. Three subscales of learning behaviour: Distractible, Apprehensive and Uncooperative (The Learning Behaviours Scale, LBS; Stott, McDermott, Green, & Francis, 1988) were employed, together with brief scales of teacher expectations of academic success and of their personal reactions to the children. Fathers' occupational status (SES) was found to be a significant predictor of learning behaviour on the three LBS scales and of teachers' expectations of later academic success, although the variance accounted for was only between 5 and 16% for boys, and was generally negligible for girls' learning behaviour. The effects of SES were found to be mainly evident in children considered “at risk” in various learning behaviours. For boys, this reflected a striking dichotomy between blue collar and white collar backgrounds, with teachers expecting the former group of boys to be four times more likely to make poor academic progress than other boys. Teachers' personal reactions to children were not found to be influenced by SES, but were linked to the display of inappropriate learning behaviour by boys. Teachers appeared highly sensitised to boys' behaviour, implying a negative “set”, whilst being correspondingly unconcerned about such behaviour in girls.

FAMILY BACKGROUND, EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT IN URBAN ETHIOPIA†

Most studies suggest that family background has a strong effect on earnings both directly and indirectly through the returns to own education. However, such effects might reflect the influence of family background on entry into work rather than a productive effect on earnings. The paper uses data from a survey of 16–29 year olds in urban Ethiopia to examine the impact of family background on selection into work and earnings. Family background strongly influences entry into the public sector; accounting for such selection removes its impact on earnings. This contrasts with the persistence of family background effects on private sector earnings.

Patterns of Entry into Cohabitation and Marriage Among Mainland Puerto Rican Women

This paper adds to our limited knowledge of racial and ethnic variation in union formation by describing and analyzing the first unions of mainland Puerto Rican women. Retrospective history data show that Puerto Ricans have shared in the post-1970 shift toward cohabitation. Puerto Rican women, however, are much more likely to enter informal first unions than the general population, and have a low propensity to transform informal unions into legal marriages. The paper examines the influence of family background and current activities on union timing and type. The relationship between partner attributes and the choice between formal and informal coupling is also considered.

The Process of Status Attainment in Greece

A 1977 sample of 6,112 male and 2,644 female employees in Greece is used to quantify the relationship between family background, ability, education, occupation, and earnings. Alternative path models fitted to the data give results as follows: education has a strong direct and indirect effect on earnings. Compared to education, ability and family background have a relatively small direct effect on earnings; however, the indirect influence of family background on the respondents' educational attainment is strong. The effect of education on earnings is stronger for females than for males. These results are compared to results obtained by similar models in other countries.

INFLUENCE OF FAMILY BACKGROUND ON THE EDUCATIONAL AND LABOUR‐FORCE OUTCOMES OF YEAR 12 SCHOOL‐LEAVERS

SummaryCurrent Government education policy presents some stark contrasts. While subsidies to secondary students are being increased significantly by an expansion of secondary allowances, individual subsidies at the tertiary level are to be reduced via a system of fees or taxes. This policy development is substantially predicated upon the Government's belief that higher education students tend to come from privileged backgrounds. This study explores that hypothesis by analysing the influence of family background on the transition of Year 12 school‐leavers to further education or the labour‐force.Excellent data from the Australian Longitudinal Survey are used to focus on some previously under‐researched aspects of this question. Six models axe reported, each offering different trade‐offs between the competing needs for comprehensive coverage of explanatory variables and data coverage.The strongest result obtained is the consistent significance of the mother's educational qualifications in the child's decision to proceed to further education. Equally interesting is the insignificance of the father's educational level. The paternal variables which influence tertiary outcomes are income and/or occupation. Attendance at a private non‐Catholic school is also influential.The paper reports provocative evidence on the outcomes of the children of non‐English speaking migrants. While this group is often perceived as educationally disadvantaged by their parents' ethnic origins, the results of this study indicate that they are more likely to proceed to tertiary studies than are the children of English speakers.Part‐time employment of school children is an increasingly common phenomenon. The preliminary evidence here indicates that the children involved subsequently have lower representation in tertiary institutions but higher employment probabilities in the labour‐force.The results imply that mothers and fathers play different roles in influencing their children's outcomes. But there is often a high degree of correlation between maternal and paternal characteristics which makes it difficult to identify separately their respective influences.In summary, the results suggest that family background matters. But the implications for public policy which aims at redressing imbalances in society are complex. On the one hand the children of the well educated and from private schools are more likely to attend tertiary institutions. On the other hand, the migrant “success” story suggests that motivated individuals have it within their grasp to determine their educational and work outcomes. Together, the results point to the importance of attitudes in determining participation in tertiary education and suggest that attention to this factor could enhance the effects of educational subsidies provided to low income families.

Careers Open to Talent? Family Background and Pay in America and Britain

The study is concerned with contrasting and explaining the influence of family background on pay in America and Britain. A particular concern of the study is whether Britain is too “difficult” for those without family connections in the business world to become managers.

What School Factors Raise Achievement in the Third World?

Within industrialized countries, much is known about the relationship between schools’ material inputs or social practices and pupils’ achievement levels. Less is known about school effects in developing countries. In the Third World, the secular school is often a novel institution, operating in social settings where written literacy and formal socialization are relatively recent phenomena. Therefore, even schools with limited material resources appear to have a stronger impact on academic achievement, independent of pupils’ family background, than within industrialized countries. This optimistic claim is undercut, however, by limitations in how pupil background characteristics have been specified within empirical models. I review 60 (multivariate) studies conducted in the Third World that (a) report on the school’s aggregate influence on academic achievement versus the influence of family background and (b) assess the relative influence of alternative school inputs and organizational practices, pointing to more efficient strategies for raising pupil achievement. A framework is introduced to critically evaluate this existing empirical work and to suggest a second generation of questions that researchers might ask in the future.

Social Class Differences in Family-School Relationships: The Importance of Cultural Capital

This paper summarizes a qualitative study of family-school relationships in white working-class and middle-class communities. The results indicate that schools have standardized views of the proper role of parents in schooling. Moreover, social class provides parents with unequal resources to comply with teachers' requests for parental participation. Characteristics offamily life (e.g., social networks) also intervene and mediate family-school relationships. The social and cultural elements of family life that facilitate compliance with teachers' requests can be viewed as a form of cultural capital. The study suggests that the concept of cultural capital can be used fruitfully to understand social class differences in children's school experiences. The influence of family background on children's educational experiences has a curious place within the field of sociology of education. On the one hand, the issue has dominated the field. Wielding increasingly sophisticated methodological tools, social scientists have worked to document, elaborate, and replicate the influence of family background on educational

What School Factors Raise Achievement in the Third World?

Within industrialized countries, much is known about the relationship between schools’ material inputs or social practices and pupils’ achievement levels. Less is known about school effects in developing countries. In the Third World, the secular school is often a novel institution, operating in social settings where written literacy and formal socialization are relatively recent phenomena. Therefore, even schools with limited material resources appear to have a stronger impact on academic achievement, independent of pupils’ family background, than within industrialized countries. This optimistic claim is undercut, however, by limitations in how pupil background characteristics have been specified within empirical models. I review 60 (multivariate) studies conducted in the Third World that (a) report on the school’s aggregate influence on academic achievement versus the influence of family background and (b) assess the relative influence of alternative school inputs and organizational practices, pointing to more efficient strategies for raising pupil achievement. A framework is introduced to critically evaluate this existing empirical work and to suggest a second generation of questions that researchers might ask in the future.

The Relationship between Parental Social Class and Endorsement of Items on the Protestant Ethic and Conservatism Scales

The influence of family background, especially parental social class on offsprings' value orientations has led to much debate. The correlations between parental social class and endorsement of the Mirels and Garrett Protestant Ethic Scale and Wilson and Patterson's Conservatism Scale for a sample of 108 undergraduates were significant between lower-class background and endorsement on both scales.

Entry into marriage and parenthood by young men and women: The influence of family background

We investigate the influence of family background on early entry into marriage and parenthood among white, Hispanic, and black men and women ages 14 to 22 in the first (1979) wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Family background is highly associated with early entry into marriage for whites of both genders and female Hispanics and also with early entry into parenthood for all groups except black males. Large group differences in family characteristics explain most of the difference between white and Hispanic women in early marriage and parenthood and about half the difference in early parenthood between black and white women but do not explain the observed variations among other race-gender groups.

Sibling data and the family background influence on child health.

This study, using sibling data for the first time in health economics, explores the effects of family background on child health. The method used estimates the proportion of variance due to family influences via a correlation coefficient for sibling data for two child health measures: approximately 22 per cent of the variance in days missed from usual activities and 43 per cent of the variance in visits to the medical facilities may be attributed to family influences on child health status. These estimates are compared with those obtained by multivariate regression analysis, the customary method employed in exploring child health determination. The comparison underscores the value of the sibling information utilized in the first method: the regression analysis explains only one seventh of the total family background effect revealed through the sibling data. The estimates further indicate that the residual, nonfamilial determinants are a major source of influence on child health.

The Influence of Family Background on Education, Earnings, and Wealth

Tthis paper examines the extent to which wealth explains the relationship between family background and adult economic status for white and black males. Wealth is treated both as a component of family background and as a measure of adult economic status. The findings reveal that parental wealth influences schooling independent of other, social components of family environment. For white males, parental wealth has a direct effect on earnings, even controllingfor its effect on schooling. Also, for white males, parental wealth exerts a direct and stronger effect on son's wealth after controlling for its effects on schooling and earnings. The issue of equality of opportunity has generated a good deal of research. Most of this work has attempted to answer two related questions: How strong is the influence of family background on adult economic status? How is inequality transmitted from one generation to another? The answers to these questions vary greatly and have stirred up considerable

The Influence of Family Background on Education, Earnings, and Wealth

The Influence of Family Background on Education, Earnings, and Wealth

Schooling's Influence on Memory Test Performance

ROGOFF, BARBARA. Schooling's Influence on Memory Test Performance. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 260-267. The effect of schooling on memory test performance was investigated while controlling statistically for family background selection factors. 60 9-year-old Highland Mayan children whose schooling varied from kindergarten level to third grade were? given tests of scene recognition, scene reconstruction, sentence recognition, and story recall. Predictiveness of school grade for memory test performance was tested using multiple regression to control for parental schooling, Spanish fluency, occupations, wealth, and religion. School grade contributed significantly to the prediction of test performance over and above the predictiveness of the family background variables. In 3 of the 4 memory tests, inclusion of child's grade in the equations reduced the influence of family background to an insignificant level. The results demonstrate that in this sample the relationship between schooling and memory test performance is not simply due to family background selection bias. Suggestions are made that future studies investigate the mechanisms of schooling's effect, as well as the generality of schooling effects to cognitive activities occurring outside of tests.

Family Background, School and Early Marriage

Longitudinal data from a national probability sample ofA merican women reveal the central influence offamily background on timing of marriages during high school ages (ages 14-17). Families appear to influence marriage timing indirectly, through impact on school as an alternative to marriage. Black girls more often come from families with attributes which lead to early marriage, but they are only about half as likely to form early marriages as white girls from similar educational and family backgrounds. High ruraland low suburban rates ofearly marriages for whites are consequences of differing family socioeconomic patterns by size of place.