7.4 Social Class Reproduction

LO 7.4: Explain how social class is reproduced across generations.

It is possible to experience either upward or downward social class mobility in the United States. However, few people will experience a significant change in their social class status over their lifetime. Further, those at the bottom and those at the top of the social class hierarchy experience even less upward or downward mobility than those in the middle (Smith et al., 2022). Figure 7.12 shows that about half the people in the bottom or top fifth of wealth-holders when they are aged 30-34 remain there when they are 50-59.

Scholars have also examined social class mobility by studying differences in occupational status between fathers and sons. Analyzing data on occupations from the U.S. Census and the American Community Surveys beginning with the year 1850, researchers found that more social mobility occurred for White men born before 1900, and most of that was a result of industrialization, which led to sons of farmers leaving farms for new occupations (Song et al., 2020). For White men born after 1940, upward mobility declined.

Finally, studies of more recent decades have uncovered racial differences in upward and downward mobility. For example, Chetty et al. (2020) focused on children born between 1978 and 1983 in the United States to compare their childhood and adult social class backgrounds. They found that White, Asian American, and Hispanic children more often experienced upward mobility, while Black Americans and American Indians more often experienced downward mobility.