Citation

Coleman JS, Berry CC, Blum ZD. Soc. Sci. Res. 1972; 1(3): 293-304.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1972, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0049-089X(72)90078-6

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This analysis examined the major differences in patterns of occupational achievement of blacks and whites during the first decade of labor force experience after last leaving full-time schooling. In large part, the analysis was designed to further examine differences between blacks and whites observed in Parts I and II, i.e., that the processes underlying the attainment of two dimensions of achievement, status and income, may be different for the two groups.

The results of canonical analysis showed directly what the earlier separate analyses of status and income had implied: for whites, status is the dimension of occupational achievement to which background resources are more fully directed, while for blacks, income is the dimension toward which these resources are utilized. The difference between blacks and whites holds both for the initial job and for the job held 10 years later.

A second canonical correlation showed that the strategy of whites, using background resources to obtain jobs in which status is higher relative to income, has long-range implications. These resources are valuable at the later time not just for the status but for income, to a much greater extent than is true for blacks. This difference between blacks and whites, in the utility of background resources, is especially evident in the case of educational attainment.