Annual Review, 1990–1996: Social Class, Work, and Retirement Behavior

JOURNAL OF VOCATIONAL BEHAVIOR ARTICLE NO.

49, 159–189 (1996)

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Annual Review, 1990–1996: Social Class, Work, and Retirement Behavior MICHAEL T. BROWN, CHRISTIE FUKUNAGA, DAWN UMEMOTO, AND LORI WICKER Department of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara This article reviews the literature, published between 1990 and 1996, in which the relation between social class and work and retirement behavior was studied. Work behavior was broadly defined to include vocational pre-entry, entry, and exit behaviors. Retirement behavior included nonemployment and discretionary behaviors such as leisure activities. Each major section of the review includes a summary of the literature reviewed and a presentation of significant methodological concerns. Finally, an attempt is made to direct scholars toward a more psychological conceptualization and operationalization of social class in future studies of work and retirement behavior. q 1996 Academic Press, Inc.

The Journal of Vocational Behavior, in commissioning this review of the literature on the effect of social class on work and retirement behavior, addresses an important omission in the field of vocational psychology. Vocational choice theorists tend to assume that factors internal to the individual are largely responsible for an individual’s life course, whereas industrial/ organizational psychologists focus on the interaction between individual characteristics and those of the work place, assuming that individual and organizational outcomes result from the interaction. Yet, forces external to both the individual and the work place affect both the work place and the individual; these forces have largely been uninvestigated by vocational psychologists (Osipow & Fitzgerald, 1996) and have been the province of sociologists. One of the most powerful external forces affecting career development is social class. Social class is a term used to refer to a status hierarchy associated with levels and types of economic resources, social valuation, and access to societal control and influence, with no one dimension being sufficient to reliably indicate social class (see Rossides, 1990). It is probably best to view social Address correspondence and reprint requests to Michael T. Brown, Counseling/Clinical/School Psychology Program (CCSP), Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9490. E-mail: via the Internet [email protected]. 159 0001-8791/96 $18.00 Copyright q 1996 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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class not as a ‘‘thing’’ but as a set of relations to economic resources, prestige, and societal power (see Vanneman & Canon, 1987, pp. 39–41; and Rossides, 1990, pp. 7–18). Though grounded in social relationships, social class is not merely a sociological phenomenon but also a psychological one. For example, social class reflects a person’s identification with various levels of economic resources, prestige, and societal power (see Centers, 1949, pp. 24–29; Crites, 1969). It should be noted that social class is typically indexed by level of occupational prestige, educational attainment, or income level, but these social indices, at best, are incomplete measures of the sociological phenomenon and indirect indices of the psychological phenomenon. None of the investigations reviewed in this report attempted to provide a psychological index of social class. While apparently ubiguitous and measurable, the influence of social class on vocational behavior has been virtually ignored by vocational psychologists (Osipow & Fitzgerald, 1996). Nonetheless, it is clear that early vocational choice theorists were aware of that influence. For example, Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad, and Herma (1951) restricted their theory-generating research on a sample of young, middle-class, white men because they wanted to study vocational choice process under conditions unfettered by social circumstances. The Theory of Work Adjustment (Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1964; Lofquist, & Dawis, 1991) does not explicitly address the role of variables such as social class in the development of needs or in the interaction between needs and the need reinforcing properties of occupations (cf., Tinsley, 1993). Even so, it explains that sundry work (and non-work) environments differentially satisfy psycho-occupational needs and it is known that the socioeconomic position of occupations is associated with their need satisfying properties. Also, Super (1990) noted that social class likely affects the nature of one’s developmental experiences via the opening and closing of career opportunities. Super infers that such experiences shape occupational and self concepts but says nothing more about the role of social class beyond this. Similarly, Holland (1985) posited that social class likely restricts the range of career options available to people but he seems to assume that this restriction is secondary to the primary role of personality in career choice. Further, he failed to consider that the chronic and pervasive experience of restricted options might affect the development of personality. Roe (see Roe & Lunneborg, 1990) viewed ‘‘family background’’ as highly influential in the shaping of occupational need structure, the amount and kind of education one might be afforded, the type of child rearing one might experience, and the expectations under which one might develop. However, beyond reliance on Maslow’s (1954) theory of needs, Roe did not specify the particular type of need structure that might be produced from growing up in a family whose background reflected different social classes present in American society. More contemporary theorists have begun to address the possible role of social class in vocational development and choice, though current articulations

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require greater specificity and clarity (see Lent, in press). For example, Gottfredson (1981) discussed how people’s views of who they are vocationally grounded, in part, in their social context, a context that is strongly influenced by social class. Yet, Gottfredson failed to specify the presummably classbased self-concepts, perceptions of accessibility, or occupational aspirations that should be evident if she was correct in her views. Vondracek, Lerner, and Schulenberg (1986) have similarly attempted to articulate a ‘‘developmentalcontextual’’ view of career development that emphasizes the role of ‘‘contextual affordances’’ in the development of career choice. Specifically, Vondracek et al. believe that environments offer individuals resources and opportunities (viz., affordances) that affect developmental outcomes, directly and indirectly, through perceptions of the affordances. However, they failed to specify the nature and scope of class-based affordances or the manner and degree to which such affordances are perceived. Relatedly, Lent, Brown, and Hackett (1994) offered a social cognitive model of career and educational behavior based on Bandura’s social cognitive theory (1986) that describes the ways that key features of the environment and the person interact in affecting the nature and scope of career development. However, the role of social class was not detailed with any specificity in the Lent et al. model. Krumboltz (1981) lists many of the environmental conditions and events that influence career development and describes how these affect the learning context of the developing person. Unfortunately, the theorist does not detail the specific influence of social class. Despite the current inadequacy of vocational theory and research on this issue, it is generally acknowledged that work choices and work behavior affects social class, and that social class affects work choices and behavior (see Hotchkiss & Borow, 1984). As Osipow and Fitzgerald (1996) point out, social class does not only affect the availability of resources for career choice and adjustment behaviors. It also affects the network of attitudes, customs, and expectations that constitute the social psychological context of vocational development. These include the encouragements one receives (or not), the work-related experiences to which one is exposed (either directly or vicariously), and the broader reactions of others (see also Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987). The purpose of this review is to suvey the literature that addresses the relations between social class, work, and retirement behavior. In this review, we define work behavior broadly to include vocational pre-entry, entry, and exit behaviors, and retirement behavior to include non-employment and discretionary behaviors. Methodologically, we employed PsychLit to search the literature for relevant journal articles and book chapters for the years bounded by 1990 and 1996. We used the key topics identified by Fitzgerald and Rounds (1989) to search titles and abstracts for publications on work behavior. We searched for publications on retirement behavior references using the following key word terms: leisure behavior, leisure time, hobbies, activities, life satisfaction,

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recreation, and lifestyle. The following key word terms for social class were used to circumscribe the searches: social class, educational attainment, occupational attainment, blue- and white-collar, and income. This search yielded 73 articles, book chapters, and books. Table 1 lists all of the journals sampled and the number of articles from each journal covered in this review. Similar to Fouad (1994), this review emphasizes empirical investigations and we do not make specific comments about the methodological adequacy of individual studies, but we do offer general comments about the methodology of research studies in the summary sections. It is important to note that social class can be viewed as reflecting three overlapping dimensions: economic, prestige, and power (Rossides, 1990). For the purposes of this review, we restricted our attention to the economic dimension and searched for articles that examined the relations of the following key aspects of this dimension: income, occupation (often operationalized as occupational prestige as opposed to occupational type), and education. This should not be taken to imply that other aspects of the economic dimension, like wealth and family stability, or variables associated with the prestige and power dimension have little or no career development salience. The converse is almost certainly true, but investigation of such relations have made no discernible appearance in the vocational behavior literature. SOCIAL CLASS AND CAREER CHOICE ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS

It has been long speculated that the career choice of an individual is affected by their social class. Our review uncovered a modest amount of research on the relation between social class and career choice, attitudes and behaviors. However, the possible strength and nature of these associations may have been rendered undetectable due to the casual manner in which social class has been included in research studies. Further, there are psychological aspects of one’s social class that, although unconscious to the individual and unmeasured in the studies, influence career choice. Career Choice Attitudes Career intentions. Lakhani and Gade (1992) examined the career decisions of 85 husband and wife military couples who were assigned to the same post. The authors expected the current family earnings to influence the career intentions of these dual U.S. Army career soldiers. Family income, defined as the sum of the gross monthly earnings of the couple, was discovered to be a positive and significant predictor of career intentions; those who had higher family incomes had greater intentions of making the U.S. Army their career. Career beliefs. Riverin-Simard (1992) investigated whether social class determined the manner in which 786 adults living in a metropolitan area of Quebec used either adaptive or creative functions. Those who exercise adap-

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ANNUAL REVIEW 1990–1996 TABLE 1 Summary of Journals Reviewed and Number of Articles in Each Journal Journal title

Number of articles

Journal of Vocational Behavior The Career Development Quarterly Youth & Society Clinical Rehabilitation Journal of Career Development Journal of Counseling Psychology Sex Roles Work and Occupations Academy of Management Journal Adolescence American Annals of the Deaf American Journal of Sociology American Sociological Review Annual Review of Sociology Australian & New Zealand Journal of Sociology Behavior, Health, and Aging Canadian Journal of Counseling Crime & Delinquency Disability, Handicap, & Society European Journal of Personality Group and Organizational Management International Journal of Adolescence and Youth International Journal of Aging and Human Development Journal of Adolescence Journal of Adolescent Research Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology Journal of Biosocial Science Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology Journal of Counseling Psychology Monograph Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology Journal of Economic Psychology Journal of Epidemiology and Community Mental Health Journal of Gerontological Social Work Journal of Leisure Research Journal of Negro Education Journal of Personality & Clinical Studies Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare Journal of the American Medical Association Megamot Minnesota Studies in Vocational Rehabilitation Nursing Research Perceptual and Motor Skills Psychological Reports Psychology and Aging Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research Social Forces Social Psychology Quarterly Social Science Medicine Social Science Quarterly Social Science Research Sociological Forum The Journal of Applied Gerontology Vocational Evaluation and Work Adjustment Bulletin Women and Health Work and Stress

5 4 4 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Total Journal Citations

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tive functions believe they do not exert control over their career, while those who exercise mainly creative functions believe that they are active participants in the creation of their career futures. The respondents were divided into the following three socioeconomic status (SES) groups: privileged class, middle class, and disadvantaged class. Unfortunately, no information was provided to discern how the SES groups were derived. Nonetheless, the data showed that the privileged class typically exercised creative functions while the middle and disadvantaged classes exercised mainly adaptive functions. However, all classes used primarily adaptive functions when constrained within a time frame when thoughts of death were salient. Career aspirations and preferences. Jacobs, Karen, and McClelland (1991) set out to discover the factors influencing the occupational aspirations of young men. Eight surveys of a sample of 5125 young men, whose ages ranged from 14 to 24 in 1966, were conducted in the years between 1966 and 1975. To measure social class the researchers categorized father’s occupation into the following categories: ‘‘manual’’ versus ‘‘nonmanual’’ or ‘‘white-collar’’ versus ‘‘blue collar.’’ Among the reported findings, white-collar groups evidenced higher aspirations than did those from blue-collar groups. Interestingly, the differences between men became narrower rather than greater over time. Craft occupations were more often the choice for blue-collar groups than for white-collar groups. Those belonging to the white-collar group were more likely to maintain white-collar job aspirations over time, the obverse being true for the blue-collar group. In addition, those from disadvantaged backgrounds were less likely to hold high aspirations, persist with these aspirations, and were further from their goals when compared to their advantaged counterparts. However, there appeared to be an interaction effect between level of education and social class. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds but with high educational background appeared to show the same or higher aspirations for professions. It should be noted that the investigators reported findings based upon an inspection of trends as opposed to analyses of statistical significance. Lauver and Jones (1991) explored factors associated with the perceived career options of American Indian, White, and Hispanic rural high school students. They discovered that social class, determined using the prestige level of parents’ occupation, significantly influenced self-efficacy for predominantly female occupations for Whites and Hispanics. In addition, social class affected Hispanic students’ self-efficacy for predominantly male occupations. Marjoribanks (1991a) examined the impact of social context on the educational and occupational aspirations of 400 Australian students, age 16, belonging to either Anglo-Australian, Greek, or Southern Italian backgrounds. Social status was defined by parents’ occupation (ranks of prestige in the Australian context) and educational attainments. Educational and occupational aspirations were assessed by asking the students to identify what occupation and education level they expected and hoped to obtain by age 25. Results showed

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that occupational aspirations highly discriminated among the social groups, as did educational aspirations. Also, social status group differences were more evident than were ethnic group differences. In another investigation, Marjoribanks (1991b) attempted to find support for independent relations between family human and social capital and the educational attainments and occupational aspirations of 420 Australian 20year-olds (225 women and 195 men). Marjoribanks defined human capital as ‘‘an equally weighted composite of parents’ education and occupations.’’ Family social capital was defined as the young adults perception of the educational relationship between themselves and their parents. Educational attainment was assessed by simply recording the amount of schooling that was completed by the young adult. Occupational aspirations were determined by asking the young adults what occupations they realistically imagined themselves in when they were 30 years old. The results do not show independent contributions of each capital. Family human and social capital, in combination, significantly predicted both educational attainment and occupational aspirations. McDonald and Jessell (1992) attempted to identify variables which exerted an influence on the occupational attitudes (i.e., thoughts about whether they would consider a particular occupation for themselves) and perceived abilities (i.e., confidence in their ability to perform a particular occupation) of 242 7th and 8th graders. Social class was determined by Hollingshead’s (1975) four factor index which uses the level of education completed by each parent in addition to the occupation level of the parents. The data showed that those students who were from higher SES backgrounds were found to be members of the high occupation group. Also, social class was significantly related to high occupational attitude and perceived abilities. Mullet, Neto, and Henry (1992) studied occupational preferences and their determinants among 1278 5th-year students (15– to 16-year-olds), of whom 489 were French and 789 were Portuguese. A student was categorized into high or low social class on the basis of their parents’ occupational type. Those belonging to the high SES group had parents who were professionals, teachers, engineers, technicians, and skilled workers. Within the low SES group were students who had parents who were employees and farmers. Students who were classified into the high SES group preferred more prestigious jobs than those categorized in the low SES group. Students within the high SES group also preferred jobs which were viewed as being the most difficult to enter and the least accessible. Solorzano (1992) explored the effects of social class, sex, and race on mobility aspirations among African American and Caucasian students drawn from the 24,599 students in the National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 8th graders. Social class was operationalized as father’s occupation, father’s and mother’s education level, family income, and material items in the household. On the basis of a combined score, students were classified into low,

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low–middle, high–middle, and high social classes. More African Americans aspired to attend college than did Caucasian students within all social class quartiles except the highest; more Caucasians than African Americans aspired to attend college within the highest social class; social class was positively related to educational aspirations regardless of race; African Americans had greater expectations of holding professional positions than did Caucasian students within the low and the low-middle social class group; African American females and Caucasian males had higher expectations of holding professional positions than did others within the highest social class group; and student occupational expectations were positively associated with social class regardless of race. Farmer and Chung (1995) investigated the variables associated with career commitment (i.e., the importance placed on a pursuing a particular career), mastery motivation (i.e., motivation to engage in or complete difficult and challenging tasks), and career aspiration (i.e., the prestige level associated with one’s ideal occupation) which have been positively linked with later achievement levels among 47 male and 41 female undergraduates enrolled in an introductory psychology course. Social class was indexed by father’s and mother’s educational level. The only significant result involving social class was that mother’s education level was a significant predictor of mastery motivation. The result has interesting implications because these investigators discussed how mastery motivation has been found to significantly predict persistence and achievement within a career (cf., McClelland, 1985). Mau, Domnick, and Ellsworth (1995) sought to determine characteristics of female students who tended to aspire to science and engineering occupations rather than homemaking occupations. Their sample was composed of 930 eighth-grade female students whose data was part of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988. Social class was operationalized as a composite score including parent’s educational attainment (ranging from 1 Å did not finish high school to 6 Å doctoral or other graduate degree), occupation (as rated by the Duncan Social Economic Index), and family income (ranging from 1 Å none to 15 Å over 200,000). Each score was standardized and then converted into quartiles. These investigators concluded that female students who aspired toward science-engineering occupations evidenced higher social class scores than those not aspiring toward these occupations. Career decision-making attitudes. Hesketh, Elmslie, and Kaldor (1990) wanted to determine the importance of prestige, sex-type, and interests in influencing students’ career choices and decisions. Social class was defined according to Daniel’s (1983) Australian prestige scale rating of their parents occupation and the highest prestige rating among parent’s occupations was used. The 90 high school juniors comprising the sample of respondents were grouped into high and low social classes. Across all social class groups, interests were considered to be more important than prestige in making career decisions, and prestige was considered to be more important than sex-type.

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Although both groups considered prestige to be more important than sextype, the difference was greater among those from the high social class group. Hurrelmann, Engel, and Weidman (1992) studied the relations of father’s educational attainment to career uncertainty and adolescent stress in the Federal Republic of Germany. Participants of this study included 1717 students from urban and rural areas whose ages ranged from 13 to 16 years. Complicating the interpretation of findings was the fact that the students were drawn from approximately four different types of schools in Germany, stratified by student social class. Reported results indicated that uncertainty of career prospects was more likely to be exhibited by children having fathers with low educational attainment. Also, those children were more likely to experience adolescent stress. Luzzo (1992) investigated ethnic group and social class differences in the career decision-making attitudes, vocational congruence, and decision making skills of approximately 400 students at a California state university. Social class was operationally defined using the Duncan Index to classify their parents’ occupations. The highest index value between parents, in two parent cases, was used to indicate the social class of the student. There were no significant results relating social class to career development. Rains, Bisley, and McAlees (1992) classified 54 Native Americans students as above the federal poverty level (28%) or below the federal poverty level (52%) on the basis of socioeconomic status. The participants were drawn from three summer youth employment programs, between the ages of 14– 21, and lived on or near two Indian Reservations in the Midwest. These authors used the Vocational Decision-Making Interview to assess aspects of career decision making. The ‘‘above the poverty level’’ group had a slightly higher mean score than the ‘‘below the poverty level’’ group on the Employment Readiness subscale. No other results were statistically significant. Penick and Jepsen (1992) examined the potential interaction of social class and family background variables to determine influences on the career development of 215 11th graders and their parents living in rural or small town settings in Iowa. Social class was determined using the Nock and Rossi (1979) regression coefficients that weight both parents’ occupational prestige and levels of education, marital status, and the number of children living at home. These researchers found no significant results. Summary Studies of career choice attitudes within the last 5 years show great variety but little consistency in findings. The lack of consistency is due chiefly to the low incidence of investigations of social class influences on career choice attitudes. The current review reveals that social class correlates directly with beliefs about control and ability and with the prestige level of one’s occupational considerations, preferences, and aspirations. In addition, prestige appears to be more important to persons in the higher social classes than to

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persons in lower classes. Many of the reviewed studies attempted to index social class during the decision-makers’ early development by indexing their parents’ social class using parental educational and occupational data. It is striking how much variety is observed in how social class is indexed utilizing parent data. In some cases, the data from the parent with the highest social class index were used but, in other cases, the data from both parents was combined or analyzed separately. Multiple indices of social class (e.g., educational level, occupational level, occupational type, income) were used in some studies but only one of the many possible indices was used in others. Income level was rarely used as a social class index. Some indices (i.e., mother’s education level) appear more likely to be associated with findings of social class distinctions in career choice attitudes than other indices but much more research employing multiple social status indices is needed before a clear picture emerges. Career Choice Behavior Career choice behavior refers to physical or cognitive behaviors indicating movement toward commitment to an occupation or group of occupations. As such, it includes career decisions (i.e. education and/or intermediate employment obtained) which have been made and/or employment which has been obtained. Several authors have shown that social class is significantly related to career choice behavior. Adolescent work behavior. Mortimer, Finch, Owens, and Shanahan (1990) studied various aspects of the work behavior of 1105 ninth graders as part of a longitudinal examination of adolescent work experience. The authors operationally defined SES as the sum of standardized values of parent’s education and family income. Results indicated that those of higher SES level began to work at significantly younger age than those belonging to lower levels of SES. In addition, within higher SES families, the parents held an opinion which was supportive of their children starting work at earlier ages. Owens (1992) investigated the pertinent influences involved in the decision to enter the work force or the military, or to advance one’s education after high school. He analyzed data from the longitudinal Youth in Transition sample which consisted of 2213 10th grade boys in the United States who were assessed during the 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, and at 1 and 5 years after high school. The author focused on the data from post-high school years. Though not stating how social class was indexed, Owens discovered that lower social class boys typically entered the work or military context while the highest social class boys entered college. Educational/occupational attainments. Poole, Langan-Fox, and Omodei (1990) examined aspects of the career orientation of women who belonged to either high or low SES. SES was operationalized as a composite score of parents’ occupation and education (double-weighting father’s data), which was subjected to a median split applied to the total composite scores to

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determine ‘‘high’’ and ‘‘low’’ family of origin SES. For both SES groups, exploratory tendencies at age 17 affected occupational interests and senior school attainment. However, the greatest effects of exploratory tendencies was on school attainment for high SES women and on occupational interests for low SES women. Left wing political attitudes predicted career orientation both SES groups. For low SES women only, the relation between college/ university attainment determining professional attainment was extremely robust. College/university attainment affected career orientation for high SES women but not for low SES women. The results indicate that SES appears to mediate the relation between important career choice variables and educational/occupational attainments for women. Pfeiffer (1991) researched the influence of socio-economic factors on the employment status and income of 619 New England-area disabled people aged 18–65. Level of educational attainment was used to index the social class of the respondent. The results indicated that educational attainment was a significantly influential variable for both the employment and income of participants. de Graaf and Huinink (1992) examined several family background variables (father’s occupation, father’s and mother’s educational attainments, and number of siblings) and their ability to predict the educational attainment of men and women in the Federal Republic of Germany and the occupational status of West German men. Background data for their sample was taken from the German Life History Study. Father’s occupation status was coded using Mayer’s Socio-Economic Status Scale, having scores ranging from 10, for unskilled agrarian workers, to 311, for self-employed professionals with more than 49 employees. Data concerning father’s and mother’s level of educational attainment were also analyzed. The results demonstrated that parent’s own educational attainment appears to be a stable influence on their child’s educational attainment. Two family background variables were found to be significant with regards to child’s occupational status. First, father’s occupational status had the largest positive effect on occupational status. Next, mother’s educational attainment also had a positive effect on occupational status. Marks (1992) examined the differential influence of ascription versus achievement over a 25-year span by comparing the impact of each on the occupational attainment of individuals in Australia. Ascription was measured by father’s occupational status while achievement was measured by the education level acquired by an individual. There was no correlation between father’s and respondent’s occupational status, but a correlation was discovered between respondent’s education and occupational status. The results demonstrated that the influence of ascriptions declined over time whereas the influence of achievement increased. Manaster, Chan, and Safady (1992) examined the influences of academic success among 151 migrant Mexican American children, 14–20 years of age, enrolled in a summer enrichment program. The authors hypothesized that

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students experiencing higher academic success, operationally defined as those students who attended a Rural Upward Bound program that enrolled migrant students who showed promise of benefiting from college prep education, would belong to higher social status groups. The academically unsuccessful group were students enrolled in the State Migrant program who had been retained from advancing to the next grade once or twice. Social status was defined on the bases of family size, education, and occupational status. Findings supported the authors’ hypothesis. Undheim and Nordvik (1992) examined the relation between social status and academic achievement in 250 16-year-old (9th grade) Norwegian students. The investigators conducted their investigation in an educational system characterized by the absence of any ability grouping or tracking. The parents’ status index was a composite of parents’ education and parents’ occupation. Although significance levels were not reported, the findings indicated that correlations between parents’ status index and academic achievement was moderate. In addition, parents’ education was an especially significant element for the highest achieving students, with 81% of the students in the top 10– 15% reporting that their fathers had college preparatory secondary school and beyond as compared to only 46% of all the other students. Nagoshi, Johnson, and Honbo (1993) investigated the influences of parental attainment on the educational attainment, occupational attainments, and income of 183 Caucasian participants and 186 Japanese participants. All came from families belonging to middle and upper-middle classes. Results showed that parent attainment (i.e., educational attainment, occupational status, and income) had a small but consistent influence on participant’s educational attainment (viz., father’s educational attainment) and only a negligible influence on their income. Sweeting and West (1994) investigated the effects of social class background on career development events using data from a longitudinal study (Scotland Twenty-07 Study: Health in the Community). Only data from the first cohort, studied initially as 15-year-olds and again at ages 16–17 and 18–19, were examined. Social class was defined according to the British Registrar General’s Classification of Occupations using father’s occupation, if present, or the mother’s occupation, if not present. Then social class was collapsed into three social class categories ranging from high to low, namely social classes I, II, and III non-manual, social class III manual, and social classes IV and V. At age 18, those from non-manual labor backgrounds were more likely to have started college than those from manual labor backgrounds, who were more likely to have changed their employment or training scheme. Those from social classes IV and V were more likely to experience changes in work responsibility (not clearly defined), promotion or completion of a training scheme than persons from the other social classes. These finding show a clear distinction between the non-manual and manual classes. The manual class was more likely to make the transition from secondary school

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to work or training rather than to continue on to higher education which was common for the non-manual classes. Career-relevant behaviors. Kasen, Ouellette, and Cohen (1990) examined the relation between social class and the likelihood of young, deaf adults receiving post-secondary education. The participants were 21 women and 25 men determined to be severely hearing impaired who were part of a longitudinal study of adults who were deafened from congenital rubella. Information about parents’ education, occupation, and income were combined to form a five category social class index. Results revealed that the higher the social class, the more likely the children were to go to postsecondary school and to be placed into a regular classroom (viz., mainstreamed). Cardoza (1991) examined possible factors contributing to the attendance and persistence of 1252 Hispanic women in college. This researcher used follow up data from the High School and Beyond longitudinal survey. Social class was indexed by parental educational and occupational level, annual family income, presence of a place to study while in high school, and presence of over 50 books within the household. Regression analyses did not find social status to be a significant predictor of college attendance or persistence for Hispanic college women. Socioeconomic status as a determinant of gang affiliation/membership was investigated by Lasley (1992). Lasley attempted to determine whether gangs were being occupied by increasingly older individuals and whether this was initially effected or influenced by the social status of these individuals. Participants for this study were 435 members drawn from lower and middle/upper class gangs. The social status of parents was assessed by educational attainment and occupational prestige. The subsequent values were reduced to reflect two class categories, namely, low and middle/upper classes. The researchers did not find any significant differences in age between the two groups of gangs (low or middle/upper). Individual gang member age was found to be similar to what has been historically found; the younger are still those most predominantly involved with gang activity. However, an interaction effect was found that revealed African American gang members from low social status backgrounds were slightly older than their Caucasian counterparts from either low or middle/upper social class gangs. Although somewhat tangential to typical career research, Murray (1992) examined the sexual career paths of African American females; we present the study because academic and occupational decision-making can be significantly affected by pregnancy. The authors wished to explain possible differences between social classes with respects to the sexual career paths of African American adolescent females. Data were obtained from 4621 African American women between the ages of 20 and 38 who were part of a representative national sample of women between the childbearing ages of 15 and 44. Social class within this study was determined by the mother’s educational attainment; women were later divided into high, middle, and low social status groups.

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Results indicated that girls belonging to high and middle social groups began to date only fractions of a year later than those belonging to low social class backgrounds. The age at first coitus was 17.0, 16.9, and 16.4 for high, middle, and low social class backgrounds, respectively, and the time span between beginning dating and first coitus was shorter for the low status group. The duration of preconception sexual activity was similar for middle and low status groups and was lower than for the high status group. There were no social class differences with regards to age of first conception; all had their first child at age 18 or older. Several interaction effects indicated that different variables contributed significantly to the prediction of age at first coitus, duration of preconception sexual activity, and age at first conception depending on social class. Because the above results were based on no statistical comparisons, it is uncertain whether there are significant differences between the groups. Summary. This review shows that social class appears to be highly positively related to a key career entry behavior, educational attainment. There are also indications that occupational attainments may be affected by social class but that this effect is mediated by level of educational attainment. It is important to note that career choice behaviors beyond those related to early career entry have not been studied. Future investigations should examine the relation between social class and a wider range of career choice behaviors (e.g., number and nature of job choices, number and nature of training choices, monetary and social rewards received via job choices, interview and job search behaviors, and decision-making behaviors), using more conventional methods of operationalizing social class. Most of the investigations reviewed combined information about parents’ education, occupations and, to a lesser degree, income. Often, it was not clear how the combination was effected. Yet, a strength of investigations in this area is that they appear to reflect the value of scientists for multiple indices of status. Nonetheless, current methodological approaches fail to demonstrate the unique contributions of these related but distinct components of social class. SOCIAL CLASS AND WORK BEHAVIOR

This section examines the relation between social class and work behavior for employed individuals. Three main areas of research emerged from this review, work centrality, quality of job experiences, and differences between white-collar and blue-collar workers. Work Centrality The degree to which work is central to a person’s self concept varies across individuals. Kanter (1977) described a model of work centrality in which workers who have many opportunities for job advancement will hold work as more central to their lives. According to Kanter, workers who lack such opportunities will seek other means outside of work to fulfill their sense of

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worth and efficacy. Our review of the literature indicates that individuals with a high social class level tend to place more priority on work than individuals with a low social class level. Gecas and Seff (1990) suggested that all work contexts are not equally relevant or central to workers’ overall self-esteem. Their sample consisted of 228 working men, mostly in midcareer. The men were fairly well distributed across social class and 90% of them were between the ages of 34 and 55. Results support their hypotheses that social class and associated occupational conditions will have a stronger effect on self-esteem when work is central to their self-evaluation and that family variables will have a stronger effect on self esteem when work is not central to self-esteem. Burris (1991) found that work centrality (i.e., the prioritizing and structuring of work and family responsibilities) varies according to social class for employed mothers. Respondents were 164 mothers from a large southwestern city, categorized into three levels by their occupation, education, and income. The high social class women gave work roles a higher priority and work was more likely to intrude upon family life than the reverse. Low social class women tended to let family intrude upon work more than to let work intrude upon family. The lower and middle social class women tended to give priority to the mother role over the worker role. Some of the nonprofessional women were also likely to voluntarily ‘‘drop down’’ in the occupational hierarchy (e.g., take a job that is inequitable to the amount of education they have received) to care for their children during their early years. High and middle social class women, on the other hand, had higher levels of work centrality, expressed a strong motivation to succeed, and had higher levels of work enjoyment. High social class women also tend to have jobs that allowed them more flexibility to integrate work and family. Modified work schedules, generous maternity leaves, and better child care were factors that enabled the high social class women to prevent family concerns from intruding upon work, factors that were not present for many of the lower social class women. Researchers have also studied the differences between men and women on work centrality. Manheim (1993) studied an Israeli sample of 209 working men and 136 working women to see what factors are attributable to differences in work centrality between men and women. Social class was measured by a scale developed by Tyree (1981) which has been found to be highly correlated with education, income, and prestige. Women had a significantly lower level of work centrality than men, primarily in the intermediate social class groups where most of the working women were located, as opposed to the high and low social class groups. Relative to the men, the intermediate group also had a high number of women with inconsistent statuses; that is, the women’s occupational position was below their level of education. This status inconsistency reduced the work role centrality for both men and women, as Manheim suggested, to alleviate a sense of inequity. The men and women did not differ in work centrality for the lowest and the highest social class

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groups. The author suggested that these groups, in comparison to the intermediate social class groups, did not experience as much status inconsistency. When considered with the findings of Burris (1991), these findings suggest that women in the higher social classes encounter a number of experiences that support greater work centrality relative to lower social class women. Cornfield and Kim (1994) found that union attitudes varied according to social class for 1452 non-self-employed workers. Social class was measured by workplace socioeconomic status, which included indicators such as respondents’ occupation and income, and background socioeconomic status, which included characteristics such as education, ethnicity, age, and gender. The researchers found that social class had a negative relation to prounion attitudes. Unions were likely to legitimize themselves among low-social class workers through appeals to worker identities that derive from their social backgrounds, not occupational backgrounds. On the other hand, corporations seemed to have legitimized themselves with high social class workers by capturing their occupational identities. The effects of social class on prounion attitudes was mediated more by attitudes towards work and employers than attitudes toward unions, with high social class workers identifying more with their occupational identity and low social class workers identifying more with their social backgrounds. Their findings are consistent with the previous findings of Gecas and Seff (1990). Howes et al., (1995) studied 67 African American and 139 Caucasian mothers and found that high social class African American women, as measured by their mother’s education and family income, perceived their jobs as more demanding than low social class African American women. Summary. Research since 1990 shows that social class is positively associated with work centrality in men and women. Findings are suggestive that where men and women differ with respect to work centrality, the difference is due to the differential experience of status inconsistency in the middle social classes. The reviewed research indicates that higher social class women possess jobs that allow more flexibility to integrate work and family. However, additional study is necessary before those findings can be considered definitive. It should be noted that whereas these investigators characteristically employed multiple indicators of social class, only one attempted to index background, as opposed to current class standing. It may be that the developmental experiences associated with class standing not only affect men and women’s current class standings but also the attitudes and behaviors associated with current social status. Further investigation may clarify this issue. Quality of Job Experiences The quality of employment affects employee health and absenteeism. Minor depression with mood disturbances is more frequent among lower social class individuals, as measured by education and income, and the existence of minor depression with mood disturbances has a significant relation to the amount

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of disability days taken (Broadhead et al., 1990). As previously noted, lower social class individuals often do not possess jobs that allow for occupational direction, control, and planning which, in turn, is associated with depression. Research has shown that lack of control over work is related to long absences and controlling for social class reduces the risk ratio (Marmot, Feeney, Shipley, North, & Syme, 1994). Marshall and Barnett (1991) analyzed the quality of job experiences for 229 African American and Caucasian female licensed practical nurses and social workers. The researchers operationalized social class by current occupation, either licensed practical nurse or social worker, because they reflect differences in education and income. They found that lower class individuals were more likely to hold dead-end jobs and had more hazardous jobs than higher class individuals. Whitely, Dougherty, and Dreher (1991) conducted a study examining mentoring and socioeconomic origin as determinants of early career outcomes for 404 managers and professionals who were graduates of three colleges of business. Social class was determined by income, type of job held, and educational background. The researchers found mentoring to be related to both promotion rate and total compensation. An interaction effect was also found, indicating that career mentoring did not predict early career promotions for employees from lower class backgrounds as it did for higher class backgrounds. The years of work experience and continuous work history were related to the promotions of lower class employees. Further research is needed to explain why the benefits of career mentoring varies according to class. Research also indicates a relation between social class and type of job held. Link, Lennon, and Dohrenwend (1993) studied 429 community residents and 98 psychiatric patients diagnosed with depression. They found that low social class individuals are less likely to hold jobs that allow for occupational direction, control, and planning. Ninety percent of the occupations that allowed for occupational direction, control, and planning were white collar jobs. These jobs were less likely to be physically demanding or to involve undesirable conditions and more likely to be substantively complex and to involve the management of others. College graduates were three times as likely as noncollege graduates to have occupations involving this element. Furthermore, the absence of occupational direction, control, and planning was associated with major depression and distress. When the researchers held these factors constant, the inverse relation between social class and depression declined. Further research is needed, however, to examine how the absence of these factors affects actual job performance. Summary The available research supports the conclusion that individuals with low social class tend to hold jobs that are not as financially, psychologically, or physically rewarding as those held by individuals with upper social class. Further, there are limited findings that show that social class background, in addition to current social class, affects the attainment of more rewarding occupations.

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White-Collar vs Blue-Collar Workers Our review of the literature also revealed studies that operationalized social class in terms of white-collar and blue-collar workers. Some differences emerged from this literature. Appelberg, Romanov, Honkasalp, and Koskenvou (1991) studied 14,578 Finnish employees aged 24 to 64 years. They discovered that both sexes white-collar workers reported significantly more interpersonal conflicts at work than blue-collar workers. They proposed that these findings could be explained by more complex social networks found in the white-collar workplaces rather than with self-selection of certain personal characteristics (e.g. hostile A-types) to white-collar jobs. Cohen and Hudecek (1993) conducted a meta-analysis that examined the moderating effect of type of occupation on the relation between organizational commitment and turnover. They suggested that employees in higher-status occupations have more schooling and general training that increases their opportunities for employment. Their relation with the organization can be characterized as an exchange relation where employees will only be committed to the organization if their expectations regarding aspects of their job and occupation are met. In contrast, employees from lower-status occupations tend to have less schooling and training which limits their employment alternatives and increases their desire for stable employment. The total number of studies included 36 independent samples and the total sample was divided into two main occupational groups: white-collar and blue-collar employees. Results indicated that the organizational commitment-turnover relation was stronger for white-collar employees than for blue-collar employees. Lusk, Kerr, and Ronis (1995) studied health-promoting lifestyles of bluecollar, skilled trade, and white-collar workers. Job classification codes from the union contract were used to identity 638 blue-collar and skilled trades workers in a midwestern automotive plant. The Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (1987) was used to measure health-promoting behaviors. Results indicated that white-collar workers were significantly higher than the other two groups on self-actualization, exercise, and interpersonal support subscales, and blue-collar workers were significantly lower than the other groups on nutrition and health-promoting lifestyle. Their results also indicated that those with college degrees had higher scores on stress management. Marmot (1995) investigated the relation between self reported health status and sickness absence for 6895 civil servants in London. White-collar and blue-collar jobs were classified into one of six civil service grades, based on salary. Results indicated that among both men and women, the lower the employment grade, the higher the rate of sickness absence. Furthermore, long absences were better predicted by baseline health conditions than shorter absences. Summary. The research indicates a difference between white-collar and

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blue-collar employees in absenteeism, health-promoting lifestyles, and the relation between organizational commitment and turnover rates. The amount of research examining the relation between social class and work behavior is much too limited to yield a comprehensive picture. Promising are research studies using multiple measures of social class and including measures of current and background status. SOCIAL CLASS AND RETIREMENT

Research on the effects of social class on leisure and retirement behavior during the review period has typically examined differences in leisure activity, life satisfaction, time of retirement, and work after retirement between those persons from a low social class and those from a high social class. Researchers operationalized social class according to respondents’ current income, level of education, occupation preretirement, or some combination of the indicators. Generally, social class was examined as a control variable and little new information was developed about social class and retirement behavior. This section reviews investigations that explored the effects of social class on leisure and retirement and related behaviors. In addition, a subsection summarizing findings unique to African-Americans is included. This subsection emerged from the review and indicates a growing research interest in the retirement behavior of African Americans. Social Class and Leisure Much of the research on social class and retirement focused on the relation of social class to the hobbies and leisure activities of retired persons. The types of hobbies and activities examined ranged from membership in a formal organization to playing bridge. Hu (1990) examined the effects of social class indicators, educational attainment and occupation prior to retirement, on the hobbies of 651 retired persons living in Shanghai, China. The results indicated that education and previous occupation had more of an effect on choice of hobby than age and sex. Reading as a hobby was positively correlated with level of educational attainment and was most actively pursued by those who had completed at least 12 years of education. Physical exercise and productive activity (e.g., knitting, sewing, painting, and making handicrafts) were the most common hobbies of people who had completed up to 9 years of education. Those who had completed up to 6 years of education were most likely to engage in visual– auditory hobbies (e.g., watching television, and listening to the radio). Persons who had previously worked as unskilled laborers were more likely to engage in visual–auditory hobbies than were previous intellectuals and office workers. The latter were more likely to chose reading than workers. Pohjolainen (1991), in their study of 361 men and 487 women retirees, found that social class, based on the educational level and income of the retired person, was positively correlated with organizational activity

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(membership in an organization and participation in their work) and interest activity (e.g., reading, outdoor activities, traveling). No correlation was found between social class and informal participation (visiting friends and relatives). Floyd, Haynes, Doll, Winemiller, Lemsky, Burgy, Werle, and Heilman (1992) examined a heterogenous sample of 159 men and 243 women retirees and found that individuals who drew enjoyment from reduced stress and responsibilities and from social interactions tended to have lower levels of education, lower preretirement income, and lower levels of current income. Gibson (1993) analyzed data collected from a National Survey of Black Americans (Jackson & Gurin, 1987) and found very few social class differences in the activities of African-American retired persons when current income level and preretirement employment type were used as indicators of social class. Those with incomes less than $6,000 were slightly more likely than those with higher incomes to be doing nothing, sitting, or resting. Those with low incomes were slightly more likely than those with mid and high incomes to list the following retirement activities: keeping house, gardening, doing nothing, sitting, and resting. They were less likely to name sports, hobbies, and other leisure activities. Previous white-collar workers were most likely to list visiting, talking, and volunteer work. Blue-collar workers were most likely to list gardening, doing nothing, sitting, or resting. Service workers were the most likely to identify housekeeping as a leisure activity. However, these differences must be interpreted with caution because the sample sizes and differences were small. Streib (1993) examined differences in retirement communities based on the status of the community and the activities in which people in the communities engaged; the exact operational definitions of low income and high income community were not provided. He discovered that the lower income communities tended to contain small manufactured homes (i.e., trailer homes) and a small recreation hall for community meetings, dances, shared meals, and playing cards and bingo. Higher income communities tended to have expensive luxurious homes, a large clubhouse, one or more golf courses, tennis courts, one or more swimming pools and exercise machines. In addition, Streib (1993) found that residents of the lower income communities engaged in a high amount of visible street activity, such as talking to neighbors in the morning. That type of activity declined in amount as the income of the communities increased. Streib reasoned that the decline was probably due to the fact that the people in increasingly higher income communities traveled more and thus, were away from home and neighbors more frequently. Furthermore, the houses tended to be further apart as the income of the communities increased. However, the retirement activities in which people participated was not affected by social class. Streib speculated that retirement communities tend to have a homogenizing effect.

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Turner, Bailey, and Scott (1994) examined factors that influence attitudes toward retirement and retirement planning among 2760 40 to 65 year old university employees. Employees with higher incomes were most likely to be involved in financial planning and those with only a high school education and technical workers were unlikely to be involved in location planning. Riddick and Stewart (1994) examined 618 women (20.6% African American and 79.4% Caucasian), aged 64 years and older living in private households and found that current income was the third strongest predictor of the type of leisure activity practiced, preceded by leisure repertoire planning and perceived health for retired Black and White women. Summary. Research on the relation between social class and leisure activity indicates that differences are most apparent with those activities that require an expenditure of money and with those activities that are intellectually stimulating. Thus, retired individuals of higher social class (e.g., higher income or higher level of educational attainment) were found to engage in more expensive and intellectual stimulating activities such as traveling and reading. Conversely, retired individuals of lower social class engaged in less expensive and less intellectual stimulating activities such as sewing and watching television. There is less difference between individuals with higher and lower social class with respect to those activities that do not depend on one’s financial situation or intellectual abilities (e.g., playing cards and visiting friends and family). It should be noted that research in this area tended to use at least two indices of social class, educational level and current income, both of which represent current social class standing. However, retirement behavior also may be influenced by one’s social class of origin. Thus, future research should examine the relation between social class of origin and retirement behavior. Social Class and Retirement Included in this subsection is research on life satisfaction of retired individuals, time of retirement, and work after retirement. Floyd et al. (1992) found that satisfaction with government and community agency services was positively correlated with current income levels for both men and women and with preretirement income levels for women. They reasoned that individuals with higher incomes are able to afford better quality services. Richardson and Kilty (1991) classified a purposive sample of 250 Midwestern individuals (114 men, 108 women) into three categories of adjustment to retirement: declining, stable, and improving. Individuals in the declining group were more likely to have had a low occupational status job prior to retirement or to currently have relatively high household incomes but to have experienced a substantial reduction in income six months after retirement. They were also more likely to be women. The improving group was more likely to have had high occupational status prior to retirement, and to currently

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have relatively low household incomes. They tended to be men of high preretirement occupational status with minimal loss of income after retirement. With regards to satisfaction with relationships, the group experiencing no change tended to be men with high current household income and high preretirement occupational status. The improving group tended to be women with low preretirement occupational status. Other general findings were as follows: women with low preretirement occupational status were most vulnerable to adjustment problems, occupational status had more of an effect on well-being than did income or education, and the greatest difficulties were experienced by older retirees, women who worked in low status jobs, and retirees with the greatest drop in income. Fridlund, Hansson, and Ysander (1992) examined the working conditions of 131 male patients aged 65 years or younger, before and after their first myocardial infraction. They found that blue-collar employees tended to take early retirement and reasoned that the tendency towards premature retirement and reduction in working days could be the result of a bad fit between the employees and their occupation. Relatedly, Davies, Rosenberg, Connell, and Fisher (1993) examined the interest of 756 corporate retirees, aged 55 and over, in cardiovascular health promotion programs. They discovered that the respondents interested in health promotion were more educated (viz., had higher social statuses) than those not interested. Weis, Koch, Kruck, and Beck (1994) examined the problems of vocational integration that 56 cancer patients aged 22 to 62 (80.1% female) faced after being diagnosed with and treated for cancer. They found that blue-collar workers were more often forced into early retirement than white-collar workers. Weis et al. reasoned that cancer and its treatment, best facilitated by the accesibility or resources, affects one’s ability to do physically demanding work, commonly a requirement for blue-collar workers. Additionally, whitecollar workers tended to have flexibility in their work activities and outside their former occupation, but blue-collar workers tended not to be able to resume their former work activities. Instead, inferior types of work activities associated with less pay and lower status tended to be offered to blue-collar workers. Thus, blue-collar workers opted for early retirement versus continuing to carry out demanding physical work or taking an inferior position. Weis et al. noted that this finding should be interpreted with caution because the percentages of blue- and white-collar workers were not comparable. Very little research during the review period examined the relation between social class and issues related to the timing of retirement. Gibson (1993) found no notable social class differences in age at retirement for African American males, but persons having lower income and less education were more likely than the higher groups to have retired unexpectedly and unwillingly. In contrast, Choi (1994) studied 298 Caucasian and 110 African American males who had similar work histories and found that African American male homeowners (homeownership being an index of class standing) were

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less likely to retire than renters. Persons with 9–12 years of education were more likely to retire than those who had 13 years or more of education. Persons who worked in professional/managerial/administrative positions were much less likely to retire than those who had held laborer and other positions. Those who had previously worked in clerical/sales/service positions were more likely to retire than those who had been laborers and others. Choi concluded that the significance of homeownership and type of occupation implies that African American males who are in the upper economic strata tended to delay (or avoid) retirement as compared to those in lower economic strata. Riddick and Stewart (1994) found that current income level had no direct influence on the global life satisfaction of African Americans or European Americans. Social class and working after retirement was examined only as it relates to African-Americans and women, two groups that tend to have lower social class in today’s society and thus are more likely to return to work for economic reasons. Perkins (1993) surveyed 99 African American and Caucasian women, ranging in age from 66 to 84. All of the women reported that they had been receiving social security and were returning to work for economic reasons. Gibson (1993) found that retired African Americans with incomes less than $6000 were less likely to be working after retirement than those with incomes $6000 and over, those with low education were least likely to be still working, and those previously in white-collar occupations were most likely to still be working. Summary. The findings that exist on social class and retirement are scattered and based on different indices of social class, making it hard to derive any specific conclusions. However, it appears that adjustment to retirement is affected by previous occupational status and the amount of reduction in income experienced; to some degree, this adjustment appears to be related to having the means of purchasing greater amounts and quality of services. Additionally, findings support the conclusion that persons of lower social class tend to retire earlier and for different reasons than those of higher social class. However, and contrary to Choi (1994), Gibson (1993) found no social class differences in age at retirement for African Americans. The different findings may be attributed to the fact that social class was assessed differently in this research (viz., homeownership and large educational level classifications versus income and education levels). Education, current income, and preretirement occupational status tended to be used to operationalize social class in this research area but it should be noted that the first use of ownership status as an index of social class observed in this review appeared here. The research on social class and working after retirement has only examined African Americans and working class women. The findings with regards to the women indicate that their retirement income is inadequate and additional

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income is often needed. The findings with regards to African-Americans indicated that those members of the lowest social class were less likely to be working after retirement than those with a higher social class; this may be because they may qualify for social services and/or social security. Social Class and African-Americans In addition to the findings reviewed above, Gibson (1993) covered additional topics with regards to African-Americans, retirement, and social class. He found that many African Americans did not consider themselves retired despite the fact that they were age 55 and older and no longer had working status. Many considered themselves disabled or disabled workers. Individuals with incomes less than $6000 were more likely than those with incomes of $6000 and above to call themselves disabled; individuals with a low level of education (0–8 years) were the most likely to call themselves disabled than those with higher levels of education; individuals with a high level of education (some college) were the least likely to call themselves disabled; and those in blue-collar and service occupations were more likely than those in white-collar occupations to call themselves disabled workers. Gibson (1993) explored the reasons for retirement expressed by his sample of African Americans as a function of income and previous occupational status. African Americans with incomes less than $6000 were more likely than those with incomes $6000 and above to retire for reasons of age. Those with a high level of education (some college) were most likely of all groups to give poor health as the reason for retiring. African Americans with more than 12 years of education were more likely than those with 12 years of education or less to give job-related reasons for retiring. In addition, whitecollar workers were slightly more likely than blue-collar or service workers to retire for job-related and mandatory reasons. Gibson (1993) discovered that many African Americans consider themselves disabled as opposed to retired mainly for financial reasons. It was economically advantageous for them to maintain the disabled title as opposed to the retired title. This may be a finding more reflective of differences in social class attitudes and values than to ethnic/racial differences given the large portion of African Americans who are in the lower social class. On the other hand, the reasons that African Americans may discontinue to work after age 55 may differ from those of other ethnic persons, perhaps as a consequence of the differential experience of oppression and discrimination they may face on the job. Finally, unlike some Caucasians, many African Americans may not have the prospect of a good retirement pension after working so many years for a company as a retirement inducement; again, this appears more reflective of social class differences than ethnicity. TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTION OF SOCIAL CLASS Our review of the literature published between 1990 and 1996 indicates that social class is related to important elements of career behavior. The

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question for the vocational psychologist is ‘‘Why?’’ Why is the prestige level of one’s career choices or level of one’s educational and occupational attainments related to social class background? Why does the importance of an occupation in the lives of men and women vary as a function of social class background? Why are current and background social class standings related to quality of occupational attainments? Finally, is the relation between social class and retirement behavior merely a function of what services or activities one can afford or are psychological variables implicated? Four problems challenge the ability of scholars to provide answers to those questions. First, there is the fact that the relation between social class and career behavior was rarely a central focus of investigators. Generally, measures of social class were employed as control variables rather than as independent variables. Often, social class effects were analyzed as an afterthought of research; thus, findings were of an exploratory, rather than explanatory, nature. Second, the research varied considerably as to whether developmental or current contextual aspects of social class were the subject of study, as reflected in the varying use of either parent’s or the respondent’s social class data. The distinction between current and background social class has implications for the measurement and understanding of social class differences. It appears to us that measuring social class by employing parent data (i.e., parent occupation, parent education, and parent income) indicates that the researcher is interested in the developmental effects of class on career behavior. On the other hand, the use of research participant data (i.e., respondent’s income or educational level) indicates that the research focus is on the effects of a respondent’s current class context on vocational behavior. We urge more clarity from investigators as to what aspects of social class they are studying and why they are studying them. Third, the fact that social class consists of three interrelated components— economic resources, prestige, and power—seems to have been ignored by researchers. Our literature search located few studies in which indices of all three class components were employed. An important consequence is that we have an incomplete and often unidimensional view of the relation between social class and career behavior. Fourth, investigators have failed to articulate and measure the psychological dimensions of social class. As a consequence, existing research suggests that social structure variables are implicated in shaping macro-level work and retirement destinies but we know little if anything about how social class affects individual vocational behavior. We believe that the field of career psychology needs to develop a psychological conception of social class. Our earlier definition—a set of relations of an individual to economic resources, prestige, and societal power—is inadequate because it says little about how the individual’s social class shapes his or her self-perception or perception of the world, nor how it influences

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others’ perceptions of the person. We, therefore, venture that social status incorporates career psychology dimensions such as: aspirations and preferences, goals and expectations, perceptions of instrumentality and how the world operates, and task approach and career decision-making skills (cf., Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1990). As Vondracek et al. (1986) stated, the physical and social environment associated with various social classes sets the stage for facilitating and delimiting certain direct and vicarious learning experiences, social interactions, attitudes, and behaviors (cf., Crites, 1969; Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994; Osipow & Fitzgerald, 1994). We contend that demographic assessments of social stratification are poor indicators of social-psychological states, much as one’s sex and age are inadequate references for gender or developmental status (cf., Beutler, Brown, Crothers, Booker, & Seabrook, in press). As vocational psychologists begin to index the psychological, or psychosocial, qualities of social class, it is useful to consider again the economic, prestige, and power dimensions; each of these consists of a number of social structure variables that may have psychological significance (cf., Rossides, 1990). For example, the economic dimension can be viewed as consisting of the following: income, wealth, occupation, education, family stability, and education of children. We expect class-based, career-related, and psychological processes to be associated with interests, career goals, occupational mobility, retirement and leisure behavior for each of the three dimensions of class. Consider that even though economic resources make possible certain opportunities such as better education, the mere possession of those resources does not dictate that those resources will be used in that way. For example, simply giving people more money will not, in and of itself, change the life direction of people if social class is as much a psychological as it is a social phenomena. If social class reflects a person’s view of themselves and their place in the world (cf., Osipow & Fitzgerald, 1994), then demographic indices that assess amount of income, level of education, and type of occupation are inadequate and studies of the relation between demographic indices of social class and vocational behavior are incomplete, at best. The idea of a class mentality has been suggested before, most recently by Phillips (1991) who argued that the perception of one’s powerlessness and one’s present-oriented failure to plan actively for the future is linked to social class. Centers’s (1949) pioneering work of almost 50 years ago supports the view that people are conscious that they belong to a class. Furthermore, he theorized that a person’s status and role with respect to the economic processes of society imposes upon and instills within the person certain attitudes, values, and interests relating to that status. Relatedly, Centers found significant differences between large business owners and managers and unskilled and semiskilled manual workers on measures of conservatism–radicalism and class membership. More recent evidence that people perceive themselves as belonging to a class can be found in the work of Carter (1994) and Davis and Robinson (1988).

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Contemporary empirical data that supports the notion of broad class-based perceptions. The current review supports a relation between social class and attainment of pretigious educational and occupational outcomes. Beliefs about control and about one’s ability, two variables related to efficacy, were associated with class indices. The present review also supports the idea that the importance of work to one’s identity and one’s willingness to continue to work in later life are systematically related to social class. Further, selection of prestigious occupations is correlated with beliefs about one’s ability to control one’s future (Hannah & Kahn, 1989; Klaczynski, 1991), and social class has been shown to correlate with the prevalence of the selection of prestigious occupations and the presence of internality beliefs (Klaczynski, 1991; Mirowsky & Ross, 1986; Zainuddin & Taluja, 1990), and locus of control, with higher class associated with greater internal locus of control (Rancor & Sanderman, 1991). We agree with other scholars (e.g., Crites, 1969; Vondracek, Lerner, & Schulenberg, 1986) that social class is as much a psychological reality as it is a social and economic one. Consequently, the exploration and explication of class-based vocational phenomena requires more focused attention. Current efforts to document the effect of social class on vocational behavior are useful but incomplete because researchers failed to index the social psychological qualities referenced by demographic status indices. Studies of the career psychology may be especially timely given current changes in the social and economic structure of the world of work and, more generally, society. REFERENCES Appelberg, K., Romanov, K., Honkasalo, M., & Koskenvuo, M. (1991). Interpersonal conflicts at work and psychosocial characteristics of employees. Social Science Medicine, 32(9), 1051–1056. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Betz, N. E., & Fitzgerald, L. O. (1987). The career psychology of women. Orlando, FL: Academic Press. Beutler, L. E., Brown, M. T., Crothers, L., Booker, K., & Seabrook, M. K. (in press). The dilemma of factitious demographic distinctions in psychological research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Broadhead, E., Blazer, D., & George, L., & Tse, C. (1990). Depression, disability days, and days lost from work in a prospective epidemiological survey. JAMA, 264(19), 2524–2528. Burris, B. H. (1991). Employed mothers: The impact of class and marital status on the prioritizing of family and work. Social Science Quarterly, 72(1), 50–66. Cardoza, D. (1991). College attendance and persistence among Hispanic women: An examination of some contributing factors. Sex Roles, 24, 133–147. Carter, V. J. (1994). The family, the workplace, and work technology. Work and Occupations, 21(3), 308–334. Centers, R. (1949). The psychology of social classes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Choi, N. G. (1994). Racial differences in timing and factors associated with retirement. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 21(3), 31–52. Cohen, A., & Hudecek, N. (1993). Organizational commitment-turnover relationship across occupational groups. Group & Organizational Management, 18(2), 188–213.

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