Race and Social Status Differences in the Explanation of Educational Ambition

Educational ambition has been shown to be very important in models of status attainment. But other research results suggest that ambition develops in different ways among black (and possibly other lower-status) individuals than among their white counterparts. This paper analyzes the antecedents of educational ambitions of twelfth grade boys, comparing blacks with high- and low-status whites. The black-white comparison reveals major differences in the total explanatory power of the antecedents as well as their relative importance. Level of education of head of household has far less importance and one's view of the opportunity structure (fatalism) has more importance for blacks than for whites. High- and low-status whites resemble each other much more than either is like the blacks, although education of head of household is a stronger source of explanation of ambition for high-status whites. If mother's education is substituted for education of head of household, it sharply reduces the effect of SES of origin among high SES whites, sharply increases it for blacks, and has little effect for low SES whites. These findings indicate that models of educational ambition need to be quite different for blacks than whites, and they suggest non-linear relationships among whites.