IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v36y2001i4p703-726.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rising College Expectations among Youth in the United States: A Comparison of the 1979 and 1997 NLSY

Author

Listed:
  • John R. Reynolds
  • Jennifer Pemberton

Abstract

We examine the rise in college expectations among 15- and 16-year-olds in the 1979 and 1997 NLSY. Probit models estimate the effects of gender, race/ethnicity, family characteristics, and local economic conditions on the probability of expecting a college degree. Race/ethnic differences and the influences of family resources and county economic conditions declined between 1979 and 1997. In contrast, girls became more likely to expect a college degree than boys, and family structure grew in importance over time. Family resources and structure appear to shape expectations largely through differences in school peers, teacher quality and interest, and past academic performance.

Suggested Citation

  • John R. Reynolds & Jennifer Pemberton, 2001. "Rising College Expectations among Youth in the United States: A Comparison of the 1979 and 1997 NLSY," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 36(4), pages 703-726.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:36:y:2001:i:4:p:703-726
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/306963
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. William Elliott & Monique Constance-Huggins & Hyun-a Song, 2013. "Improving College Progress among Low- to Moderate-Income (LMI) Young Adults: The Role of Assets," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 382-399, December.
    2. Cynthia Feliciano & Yader R. Lanuza, 2016. "The Immigrant Advantage in Adolescent Educational Expectations," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 758-792, September.
    3. Benjamin W. Cowan, 2018. "Sources of Bias in Teenagers' College Expectations," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 99(1), pages 136-153, March.
    4. Ben Jensen & Mark N. Harris, 2008. "Neighbourhood Measures: Quantifying the Effects of Neighbourhood Externalities," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 84(264), pages 68-81, March.
    5. Clemens, Elysia V. & Helm, Heather M. & Myers, Kristin & Thomas, Christina & Tis, Matt, 2017. "The voices of youth formerly in foster care: Perspectives on educational attainment gaps," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 65-77.
    6. Pamela Giustinelli, 2022. "Expectations in Education: Framework, Elicitation, and Evidence," Working Papers 2022-026, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    7. DeBacker, Jason M. & Routon, P. Wesley, 2017. "Expectations, education, and opportunity," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 29-44.
    8. Lekfuangfu, Warn N. & Odermatt, Reto, 2022. "All I have to do is dream? The role of aspirations in intergenerational mobility and well-being," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    9. Sorokina, Olga V., 2008. "Credit Constraints in the Demand for Education: Evidence from Survey Data," MPRA Paper 11932, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Chowa, Gina A.N. & Masa, Rainier D. & Wretman, Christopher J. & Ansong, David, 2013. "The impact of household possessions on youth's academic achievement in the Ghana Youthsave experiment: A propensity score analysis," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 69-81.
    11. Wright, Nicholas A. & Arora, Puneet, 2022. "A for effort: Incomplete information and college students’ academic performance," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Elliott III, William, 2009. "Children's college aspirations and expectations: The potential role of children's development accounts (CDAs)," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 274-283, February.
    13. Brañas-Garza, Pablo & Ciacci, Riccardo & Ramírez, Ericka G. Rascón, 2022. "Anchors matter: Eliciting maternal expectations on educational outcomes," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. McDade, Thomas W. & Chyu, Laura & Duncan, Greg J. & Hoyt, Lindsay T. & Doane, Leah D. & Adam, Emma K., 2011. "Adolescents' expectations for the future predict health behaviors in early adulthood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 391-398, August.
    15. Elizabeth Raleigh & Grace Kao, 2010. "Do Immigrant Minority Parents Have More Consistent College Aspirations for Their Children?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1083-1102, December.
    16. Elliott, William & Sherraden, Michael, 2013. "Assets and educational achievement: Theory and evidence," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 1-7.
    17. Sorokina Olga V., 2012. "Constraints in the Demand for Education: What Can we Learn from Subjective Assessments?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, October.
    18. Lv, Bo & Zhou, Huan & Liu, Chunhui & Guo, Xiaolin & Zhang, Caiyun & Liu, Zhaomin & Luo, Liang, 2018. "The relationship between mother–child discrepancies in educational aspirations and children's academic achievement: The mediating role of children's academic self-efficacy," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 296-301.
    19. Mitzi K. Lauderdale & Stuart J. Heckman, 2017. "Family Background and Higher Education Attainment Among Children of Immigrants," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 327-337, September.
    20. Cowan, Benjamin W., 2011. "Forward-thinking teens: The effects of college costs on adolescent risky behavior," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 813-825, October.
    21. Kim, Youngmi & Sherraden, Michael, 2011. "Do parental assets matter for children's educational attainment?: Evidence from mediation tests," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 969-979, June.
    22. Nabil Khattab, 2014. "How and when Do Educational Aspirations, Expectations and Achievement Align?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 19(4), pages 61-73, December.
    23. Jason M. DeBacker & P. Wesley Routon, 2021. "A culture of despair? Inequality and expectations of educational success," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(3), pages 573-588, July.
    24. Elliott, William & Choi, Eun Hee & Destin, Mesmin & Kim, Kevin H., 2011. "The age old question, which comes first? A simultaneous test of children's savings and children's college-bound identity," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1101-1111, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:36:y:2001:i:4:p:703-726. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.