Determinants of the Difference Between Mother's Educational Expectation for Her Daughter and the Mother's Own Education

Stevens, Janet Gettings

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Description

Title

Determinants of the Difference Between Mother's Educational Expectation for Her Daughter and the Mother's Own Education

Author(s)

Stevens, Janet Gettings

Issue Date

1980

Department of Study

Human Resources and Family Studies

Discipline

Human Resources and Family Studies

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Sociology, Individual and Family Studies

Language

eng

Abstract

• The objective of this study was to find the determinants of the mother's educational expectation for her daughter compared to the mother's own education. This study differed from other studies involving parental expectations for their children because it compared this expectation with the mother's own education.
• The source of data used in this study is the 1970-71 Survey of Life Styles of Families. This study used only the "typical" sample from the Survey. Households from the "typical" sample were stratified by the occupation of the head-of-household. These households were selected randomly from the Champaign-Urbana households which had a mother or a mother-substitute under 65 years of age and at least one child under 18 years. Student households were ineligible. Due to the nature of this study, only 280 families in which a mother, her husband, and at least one daughter were present were included in the sample.
• The dependent variable analyzed was based on four questions. The first two questions were about the education the mother expected for her daughter or daughters. (In families with more than one daughter, the highest level of education the mother expected for any one daughter was used.) The responses to these questions were grouped into high school education or less, high school plus job training, and college. The dependent variable was created by comparing the education the mother expected for her daughter to the mother's own education. The responses to this variable were same or less education for daughter and more education for daughter. Data were analyzed, using multiple regression analysis, to determine the relative importance of 34 variables.
• The adjusted coefficient of multiple determination for the difference between mothers' educational expectations for daughters and the mothers' own education was .57 and significant at the .01 level. The regression equation accurately estimated 85 percent of the dependent variable response for the A-half and 88 percent for the V-half. Since the estimates were not different significantly (.01 level) from the naive classification, this regression model is a good predictor of the expectations mothers have for their daughters' education compared to the mothers' own education. Significant (.05 level and beyond) beta coefficients were found for socioeconomic and attitude variables. The significant socioeconomic variables were (1) education of mother, (2) education of maternal grandmother, (3) educational difference between the mother and her husband, (4) family income, and (5) occupation of mother. The significant attitude variable was "If a family needs more money it is all right for a child to quit school and help out for a while."
• Due to the relative dominance of the beta coefficient for the socioeconomic variable, education of mother, a regression was run leaving out all other variables. Using this new regression and the original regression with ten variables, an F-ratio was calculated. The results showed that the only significant determinant of the difference between the education the mother expects for her daughter and the mother's own education was the education of the mother. However, a regression was run using only the other nine variables in the final regression. The adjusted R('2) for these variables was .33 (significant at the .01 level).
• After this study was begun, data from a 1976-1977 FACE study at the University of Illinois on these same families became available. From the Quality of Life Survey, 142 mothers from the 280 families used in this study were interviewed again. Among these mothers, 99 had at least one daughter beyond high school age. Three-fourths of these 99 mothers had daughters who had completed or were currently enrolled in the education their mothers had expected.

Graduation Semester

1980

Type of Resource

text

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