Content area
Full text
Using High School and Beyond data and multinomial logit modeling, this analysis explores the parental impact on a student's choice of academic major. Family measures that have traditionally been used in status attainment models have focused primarily on father. This analysis includes measures for both the mother and the father to gauge their individual impact. Results indicate that mothers influence students' choice of academic major most readily through emotional and normative channels. In addition, mothers generally encourage the pursuit of nontechnical majors, whereas fathers encourage the pursuit of technical majors. The implications of this analysis are that mothers ought to be included more systematicly in status attainment models.
KEY WORDS: academic major; college; mother; father.
Mothers wield considerable influence over their children. Research indicates that maternal factors affect children's vocational choices (McBroom, 1985; Steele & Barling, 1996; Tickamyer & Blee, 1990), cognitive and social development (Menaghan & Parcel, 1991; Parcel & Menaghan, 1994), delinquency (Hillman, Sawilowsky, & Becker, 1993; McCord, 1991; Yamoor, 1992), religiosity (Kieren & Munro, 1987), gender stereotypes (Powell & Steelman, 1982; Smith & Self, 1980), and political orientations (McAdam, VanDyke, Munch, & Shockey, 1997).
Given mothers' considerable influence on their sons' and daughters' lives, the relative absence of mothers in the status attainment literature is striking. Status attainment models recognize the significant effect the family has on the years of education a student receives, but "family" measures have been predominantly paternal (for reviews, see DiPrete & Grusky, 1990). Family background has traditionally been defined in terms of the father's occupation, education, and income. If considered at all, the measurement of maternal factors has traditionally been limited to her level of education.
The purpose of this analysis is to augment measures of family background to include the mother as well as the father. In doing so, I considered the role of both the mother and the father in a student's educational choices by identifying those factors that influence the selection of academic disciplines. Specifically, I considered how fathers and mothers affect a student's choice of academic major for the baccalaureate degree.
By considering academic major, I expanded the focus of the status attainment perspective to look at content rather than at years of education. The status attainment literature has primarily focused on...