University Students' Causal Conceptions about Social Mobility: Diverging Pathways for Believers in Personal Merit and Luck

Autor/inn/en	Shane, Jacob; Heckhausen, Jutta
Titel	University Students' Causal Conceptions about Social Mobility: Diverging Pathways for Believers in Personal Merit and Luck
Quelle	In: Journal of Vocational Behavior, 82 (2013) 1, S.10-19 (10 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0001-8791
DOI	10.1016/j.jvb.2012.08.003
Schlagwörter	College Students; Social Mobility; Social Status; Student Attitudes; Influences; Socioeconomic Status; Goal Orientation + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Collegestudent; Soziale Mobilität; Sozialer Status; Schülerverhalten; Influence; Einfluss; Einflussfaktor; Socio-economic status; Sozioökonomischer Status; Zielorientierung; Zielvorstellung
Abstract	Many college students hold ambitious goals for upward social mobility via post-college careers. However, in the current economic recession such optimistic expectations are not a given. The present study examines how college students' current social status and beliefs in causal factors for socioeconomic status (SES) attainment lead to diverging goal-engagement and goal-disengagement promoting pathways that influence expectations for future SES attainment. Data from an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of 419 university students are analyzed. Most study participants expected to attain a significantly higher level of SES than their parents. Moreover, we identified two pathways of SES-related beliefs, goal engagement or disengagement, and goal attainment. An engagement-promoting pathway consisting of meritocratic-oriented causal beliefs and increased goal engagement tendencies was associated with higher expected personal SES. Conversely, a disengagement-promoting pathway consisted of luck-oriented causal beliefs and enhanced goal disengagement tendencies along with decreased expected personal SES. College students' current social status, causal conceptions about SES and goal engagement/disengagement tendencies fully mediate the relationship between perceptions of one's own family of origin's SES and one's expected personal SES. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10