The Educational Attainment Process: Results from a National Sample

The process of educational attainment of U. S. youth is reexamined on the basis of a recent, nationally representative data set. Strict comparison with past models is impossible, given differences in measurement, sampling, and time of data collection. Still, the general structure of the final model differs in theoretically significant ways from past findings. Present results reduce the importance of social psychological intervening variables, such as parental status and academic performance. The overall trend of these results suggests a process in which personal influences and subjective orientations are of less significance than the "structural" effects of parental resources and the bureaucratic evaluation of ability. Theoretical and policy implications of these findings are also discussed.