Johnson Monica Kirkpatrick, Hitlin Steven
Washington State University.
University of Iowa.
Soc Forces. 2017 Mar;95(3):997-1022. doi: 10.1093/sf/sow094. Epub 2017 Feb 3.
Optimistic assessments of life chances can positively influence life outcomes, but conflicting theories suggest these assessments either reflect structural privilege or develop as a result of childhood hardship. In addition, competing hypotheses suggest that these assessments may matter differently depending on who holds them. We examine whether family socioeconomic status shapes adolescents' expectations about how successful their lives will turn out. We distinguish generalized life expectations (GLE), capturing anticipated success in life across multiple domains, from intergenerational comparative expectations (ICE), which register expectations about improvement relative to observed success within the respondent's family lineage. We find that adolescents from higher socioeconomic status families are simultaneously more optimistic about their likely success in life (GLE) but less likely to anticipate relative improvement in life success across generations (ICE). Holding high GLE in combination with low ICE predicted doing better in adulthood across a range of health, attainment, and well-being outcomes, though in most cases high GLE, regardless of ICE, was the key. These beneficial patterns are, for the most part, at least as beneficial for socioeconomically disadvantaged youth as they are for advantaged youth.
对生活机会的乐观评估能够对生活结果产生积极影响，但相互冲突的理论表明，这些评估要么反映了结构性特权，要么是童年苦难的结果。此外，相互竞争的假设表明，这些评估的重要性可能因持有它们的人而异。我们研究了家庭社会经济地位是否会塑造青少年对自己未来生活成功程度的期望。我们区分了广义生活期望（GLE），即对生活中多个领域预期成功的捕捉，以及代际比较期望（ICE），即对相对于受访者家族谱系中观察到的成功而言的进步的期望。我们发现，来自社会经济地位较高家庭的青少年同时对自己在生活中可能取得的成功（GLE）更为乐观，但对跨代生活成功的相对进步（ICE）的预期则较低。同时持有高GLE和低ICE预示着在成年后的一系列健康、成就和幸福结果方面表现更好，不过在大多数情况下，高GLE，无论ICE如何，都是关键因素。在很大程度上，这些有益模式对社会经济处境不利的青年至少与对处境优越的青年一样有益。
