Can personality traits and intelligence compensate for background disadvantage? Predicting status attainment in adulthood.

ABSTRACT: This study investigated the interplay of family background and individual differences, such as personality traits and intelligence (measured in a large U.S. representative sample of high school students; N = 81,000) in predicting educational attainment, annual income, and occupational prestige 11 years later. Specifically, we tested whether individual differences followed 1 of 3 patterns in relation to parental socioeconomic status (SES) when predicting attained status: (a) the independent effects hypothesis (i.e., individual differences predict attainments independent of parental SES level), (b) the resource substitution hypothesis (i.e., individual differences are stronger predictors of attainments at lower levels of parental SES), and (c) the Matthew effect hypothesis (i.e., "the rich g

SUBMITTER: Damian RI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4433862 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature