ERIC Number: EJ966968
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Mar
Pages: 32
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0037-7732
EISSN: N/A
Advancing Age, Advantaged Youth: Parental Age and the Transmission of Resources to Children
Powell, Brian; Steelman, Lala Carr; Carini, Robert M.
Social Forces, v84 n3 p1359-1390 Mar 2006
Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, we identify parental age as influential in the parental provision of economic resources, social capital and cultural capital to adolescents, as well as in parental educational expectations for their children. At the bivariate level, the relationship is curvilinear, suggesting that having comparatively young or old parents is disadvantageous to teenagers, at least with regard to resource allocation. With controls for socioeconomic background and family structure, however, the pattern typically becomes positive and linear: as the age of the parent rises, so too does the transmission of resources to adolescent offspring. These patterns hold for most economic, social and cultural resources, although the pattern is strongest for economic ones and weakest--albeit still significant--for more interactional ones. Although maternal age is the primary focus of this article, supplementary analyses also confirm a generally positive relationship between paternal age and parental resources. These results suggest that parental age may warrant attention similar to that given to family structure, race and gender.
Descriptors: Academic Aspiration, Adolescents, Family Structure, Socioeconomic Background, Social Capital, Resource Allocation, Parent Child Relationship, Advantaged, Youth, Longitudinal Studies, Age, Mothers, Family Financial Resources, Correlation, Race, Gender Differences, Cultural Capital, Parent Aspiration
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A