DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Complex Family Backgrounds: A Latent Class Approach

这篇论文重新唤起了代际社会流动研究者之间关于如何在家庭层面衡量社会阶层背景的悬而未决的辩论。辩论涉及父母双方的社会地位，而不仅仅是父亲或户主的社会地位是否定义了整个家庭单位的地位。本文为解决这一争论提供了新的思路，为社会流动研究提供了方法论上的贡献。与此同时，这篇论文超越了对这场辩论本身的关注，将重点放在总体家庭阶层的优越衡量标准如何促进对家庭其他方面如何塑造儿童结果的了解上。具体地说，论文说明了以前对整个家庭社会阶层的测量包括重大的测量误差；它还表明，从离婚到随着时间的推移流动模式的变化等问题的研究结果受到了遗漏的变量偏差的影响。本文使用了公开的全国性调查数据，包括一般社会调查和全国青年纵向调查。分析策略主要包括社会流动性和成就的对数线性模型和对数乘法模型以及潜在阶级模型。本论文的中心研究假设如下：第一，配偶对整体家庭阶层背景的共同影响具有累积性，这意味着为了准确起见，必须包括配偶双方的身份。其次，关于父母共同影响的确切性质的信息可以用来创建包括配偶双方影响在内的家庭背景的简约衡量标准。第三，在关于社会流动模式随时间的变化以及不完整的家庭类型和种族对儿童结果的影响的新调查中，使用综合测量(S)将提高对这些重要主题的认识的准确性。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括：这项研究将对科学界和决策界都有利。其他社会科学家将受益于能够使用本项目中设计的家庭地位的联合衡量标准，而不是仅由父亲的地位定义的衡量标准。这项研究将为社会学中关于家庭破裂负面影响背后的机制以及更广泛的社会流动过程背后的机制的理论辩论提供信息。最后，我将努力向政策受众传播这些发现，因为它们可能会为关于支持婚姻的反贫困政策或促进非居民父母参与不完整家庭的政策的讨论提供参考。

This dissertation reanimates an unresolved debate among intergenerational social mobility researchers about how to measure social class background at the family level. The debate concerns whether or not the social status of both parents, as opposed to that of the father or the head of household only, define the status of the family unit as a whole. The dissertation takes a new approach to resolving this debate and in doing so makes a methodological contribution to social mobility research. At the same time, the dissertation extends beyond concerns with this debate per se to focus on ways in which superior measures of overall family class can advance knowledge about how other aspects of families shape children's outcomes. Specifically, the dissertation illustrates that prior measures of overall family social class include significant measurement error; it also shows that findings on issues ranging from divorce to changes in mobility patterns over time have suffered from omitted variable bias as a result. The dissertation utilizes publicly available national survey data including the General Social Survey and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Strategies of analysis primarily include log-linear and log-multiplicative models and latent class models of social mobility and attainment. The central research hypotheses of the dissertation are the following: First, the joint influence of spouses on overall family class background is of a cumulative nature, meaning that the status of both spouses must be included for accuracy. Second, information about the exact nature of the joint parent influence can be used to create a parsimonious measure of family background that includes the effects of both spouses. Third, use of the comprehensive measures(s) in new investigations of change over time in social mobility patterns and effects of non-intact family types and of race on children's outcomes will improve the accuracy of knowledge about these important topics. The broader impacts of this research include the following: This research will be beneficial to both the scientific and policy-making communities. Other social scientists will benefit from the ability to use the joint measure of family status designed in this project rather than one defined by the fathers' status only. The research will inform theoretical debates in sociology around the mechanisms behind negative effects of family disruption as well as behind social mobility processes more generally. Finally, I will work to disseminate the findings to a policy audience as they will potentially inform discussion on pro-marriage anti-poverty policies, or policies to promote non-residential parent involvement in non-intact families.