The Persistence of Poverty: A Theoretical, Historical Review of Socioeconomic Status Measures

• In Event: Defining and Measuring Advantage and Disadvantage in Education

Abstract

The first author provides a systematic review of how researchers have historically measured socioeconomic status (SES) and how those measures have changed over time. From 92 found articles that empirically evaluated SES measures, there were 150 extracted SES measures. Each article was analyzed using the theoretical lenses of Community Cultural Wealth (CCW; Yosso, 2005), Bourdieu's (1989) Forms of Capital, and the Social Class Worldview Model (SCWM; Liu et al., 2004). Results displayed varying trends by decade, with earlier SES measures including components on social capital while more recent measures incorporated aspects of cultural and economic capital. Subjective perspectives of social class became more common toward the turn of the century and few measures included components from more asset-based frameworks. The “Big 3” measures (parental education, parental occupation, and income) (Saegert et al., 2007) have been common measures across time.

This presentation will discuss how the measures align with deficit- and asset-based theoretical frameworks and how changes in measurement follow societal discussions of advantage and disadvantage. In alignment with the conference theme, this presentation will identify key historic and current deficit-framed measures to avoid in policy and research, gaps for researchers to address in future work, and constructs that show promise for answering future policy and research questions. This study prompts researchers to question the status quo of measuring and operationalizing SES in our field, and pushes them to explore and use alternatives that will yield more accurate and more asset- or strengths-based estimates.

Authors

• Rachel L. Renbarger, FHI 360
  Presenting Author

• Kody Bryce Long, Oklahoma State University
  Presenting Author

• Tracey N. Sulak, Baylor University
  Non-Presenting Author