Robert D. Mare University of California, Los Angeles
This research examines multigenerational influences on educational, occupational and income achievement and inequality. It investigates the ways that individuals are advantaged or disadvantaged by their grandparents and more remote ancestors. It asks: Do grandparents and other kin affect the well-being of grandchildren beyond the benefits that the grandchildren receive from their parents? Do grandparents and other more remote ancestors have more of an effect in some kinds of families than in others? Specifically, are these effects particularly large for the most affluent families or for the poorest families or possibly other types of families? In addition, the research focusses on how demographic factors may modify the effects of grandparents on their grandchildren. These include the effects of increased longevity, which makes grandparents more likely to survive long enough to help their grandchildren; family size, which affects how many people share resources within families; and divorce and non-marital childbearing, which may increase the need for grandparents to help their adult children raise their grandchildren. The study will also ask: Which families are most successful over many generations because they both grow in size as well as prosper economically? And, which families are likely to die out? This research addresses these questions in both the United States during the past 50 years and in several historical populations in China. It makes novel use of longitudinal survey data and genealogical data from archived population registers. These data, unlike conventional survey data, enable one to follow the same families for many generations, thereby showing the connections between the resources and actions of people in one generation on their descendants several generations later.
Broader Impacts. The findings of this research will advance the public's understanding of the multigenerational mechanisms through which families contribute to social inequality or offset short term adverse family circumstances. The findings will guide policymakers in identifying the most disadvantaged groups and in remedying their hardships. The results of the study will contribute to a wider understanding of how grandparents and parents contribute to the success of later generations. The research also will inform the public of the scientific value of genealogical records and contribute to the development of new databases for studies on long-term trends in social well-being and hardship. As a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Population, the Principal Investigator will use this research to influence future thinking and research about social inequality and demographic processes. The approaches and research findings from this project will also enrich sociology curricula in colleges and high schools. As a teacher of social stratification to classes of undergraduate sociology students in a large public university, many of whom are first generation college students, the Principal Investigator will use the results of this research to better inform these students about the causes and consequences of social inequality.
