Parents’ Beliefs about Children’s Economic Mobility and Parenting Behaviors: Variation by Family Income

• In Event: Socioeconomic Status Across the Life Course as a Predictor of Health and Parenting Outcomes

Abstract

Income inequality has increased dramatically in the United States since the 1970s (Atkinson, Piketty, & Saez, 2011), and absolute economic mobility has declined alongside (Chetty et al., 2017). Research on how these economic phenomena shape children’s development typically focuses on socio-demographic or policy structures that limit intergenerational economic mobility. The effects of these social and structural forces are likely to be driven, however, at least in part by psychological and behavioral processes. For example, experimental research finds that a greater disparity between those at the top and bottom of the socioeconomic status distribution weakens people’s beliefs in the possibility of intergenerational economic mobility (Davidai, 2018); beliefs about economic mobility, in turn, shape young people’s academic persistence (Browman et al., 2019). The present study significantly expands our understanding of these processes by investigating how parents’ beliefs about economic mobility are associated with their behaviors with and for their children in ways that, like youth’s academic persistence, can reinforce or interrupt the intergenerational transmission of inequality.

Specifically, we examine the relationship between parents’ beliefs about economic mobility and self-reported investments of time and money in their children’s development. It is possible that, just as students’ beliefs in limited intergenerational mobility weaken their academic persistence, similar beliefs among parents are connected to their likelihood of making investments in their children’s development. We examine differences in these processes by family background. We also distinguish parents’ beliefs in general economic mobility (e.g., “Everyone, no matter who they are, can significantly change their status in society”) from their beliefs in their own child’s chance for downward (“I think it’s possible that my child will move down the socioeconomic ladder”) and upward (“I think it’s possible that my child will move up the socioeconomic ladder”) mobility.

A sample of parents with at least one school-aged child (5 – 17 years; N = 1000) from diverse socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds across the U.S. will be recruited through Prolific Academic (https://www.prolific.co/). Our key survey constructs include economic mobility beliefs and parents’ investments measured as the number of minutes in the past 24 hours (0 – 120) spent on specific enrichment activities with the child and how much money parents spent in the past year on investments like tutoring, sports or private education (0 - $50,000+).

Preliminary results are drawn from a pilot of 32 parents from the Prolific panel. The results suggest that parents who believe more strongly in the possibility for economic mobility in general and for their child invest more money in their child’s enrichment and education. These associations are stronger for higher income versus lower income parents (Table 1). A similar, albeit nonsignificant, pattern emerged for parents’ time investments with respect to beliefs in downward mobility only (Table 2). The final study will provide a more formal and statistically powerful test of these results in a larger sample of parents and allow us to test more robustly for moderation by parent income. The research provides a new type of evidence for the importance of addressing broader societal inequality.

Authors

• Rebecca Ryan, Georgetown University
  Presenting Author

• Ariel Kalil, University of Chicago

• Mesmin Destin, Northwestern University