Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

3-1987

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Human Ecology

Major Professor

Gary Peterson

Committee Members

Priscilla White, Betsy Haughton, Charles Hamilton, John Peters

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the issue of status attainment, the process by which young persons secure positions in the educational and occupational hierarchies, has received widespread attention in the social science research (Haller and Portes, 1973; Matras, 1980; Otto, 1986; Sewell and Houser, 1975; Spenner and Featherman, 1978). The majority of these studies have focused on middle-income, college-oriented men, and only recently have investigators begun to examine the status attainment process as it applies to women (Alexander and Eckland, 1974; Falk and Cosby, 1975; Hall, 1979; McClendon, 1976; Scanzoni, 1979; Sewell and Shah, 1968; Triemen and Terrell, 1975).

The present study contributed to the literature on the status attainment of women by investigating the attainment process in a unique sample: low-income women from rural Appalachia. Concepts from the symbolic-interaction-role perspective were used to conceptualize the status attainment processes of these women (Hall, 1979). The specific purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between such family and social psychological variables as significant other influences, fertility and gender-role attitudes on the educational and early occupational attainment of the subjects. Many of the unique aspects of low-income Appalachian family life also were addressed in this study.

The sample consisted of 46 females (41 white and 5 black) and was drawn from a 16 year longitudinal study of Appalachian youth from depressed areas of four southern states (Southern Regional Technical Committee, 1974). The youth were investigated in (a) 1969 when they were in fifth and sixth grade, in (b) 1975 when they were in high school, in (c) 1979 and (d) 1985 when they were young adults.

Secondary analyses of qualitative data from in-depth interviews were used to identify the processes and mechanisms through which significant others, fertility and gender-role attitudes influenced educational and occupation attainment. The results indicated that significant others used a wide array of strategies to influence the job and schooling decisions of the women in this study. Individuals within the family (e.g., mothers, fathers, siblings and grandparents) tended to use expressions of confidence and encouragement more frequently, while extrafamilial individuals (e.g., teachers, counselors, and peers) tended to use specific advice and role-modeling more often. Fertility patterns influenced the job decisions of these subjects by (1) postponement of work outside the home while children were young, (2) evoking an acute awareness of the provider role, and (3) contributing to the selection of jobs that were compatible with chiIdrearing. Many of these childbearing women also reported that they (1) postponed further education, (2) pursued additional education to enhance the provider role, or (3) aspired to further education in order to serve as a learning resource to their children.

An overwhelming number of women approved of married women with children working outside the home. As a result of their own child care responsibilities, subjects reported an array of actions that influenced their job and educational decisions. These mothers also seemed to be influenced by a strong cultural imperative to remain at home when their offspring were of preschool age. Results from this study also suggested many implications for program planners, researchers and practitioners to enhance the quality-of-1ife for low-income women from rural Appalachia.

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