What Shapes the Alignment of Expectations?
The original Wisconsin Models of Sewell, Haller, and Portes (1969) and Sewell, Haller, and Ohlendorf
(1970) show that parents’ socioeconomic status indirectly influences students’ educational aspirations
through a weak influence on academic performance and a stronger effect on significant others’ influence.
The encouragement of significant others, and the information and examples they provide for students enable
them to attain various levels of educational credentials (Conklin and Dailey 1981; Picou and Carter 1976;
Reitzes and Mutran 1980). While parents are considered the most influential significant others, teachers also
influence students’ expectations of themselves, as do friends, coaches, and relatives (Cheng and Starks 2002;
Duncan 1994; Haller and Woefel 1972; Spenner and Featherman 1978). Peers, too, can be considered
significant others, important for support and encouragement (Steinberg, Dornbusch, and Brown 1992), and
neighbors may serve as role models and sources of information about particular career paths (Duncan 1994;
Wilson 1987; Briggs 1998).
In addition to the individual influences of significant others, other researchers have suggested that
the social capital that the family and schools can provide are important influences on educational
expectations (Qian and Blair 1999; Teachman and Paasch 1998). For example, Teachman and Paasch (1998)
find that youths in two-parent families have higher educational expectations than those in single-parent
families. Others find that the structure of schools influences educational expectations (Coleman, Hoffer, and
Kilgore 1982; Hoelter 1982). Though little research has explicitly examined this link, neighborhoods and the
social capital they provide may also influence the alignment of youths’ educational and occupational
expectations. Wilson (1987) argues that concentrated urban poverty reproduces itself in part because youths
have few role models through which to shape their educational and occupational aspirations and
expectations.
Obstacles to Aligning and Realizing Expectations
However, even youths with aligned ambitions may be blocked from achieving them by a host of
factors, including insufficient family and school resources, lack of peer support, or neighborhood
disadvantage. Scholars agree that the effects of living in disadvantaged neighborhoods on the individual
outcomes of children and youth exist beyond family and individual level variables, though they disagree on
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Convention