The Effects of Family Disruption on Social Mobility

The experience of family disruption during childhood substantially increases men's odds of ending up in the lowest occupational stratum as opposed to the highest. Family disruption also weakens the association between dimensions of men's occupational origins and destinations. The socioeconomic destinations of men from nonintact family backgrounds bear less resemblance to their socioeconomic origins than those of men from intact backgrounds. Men from traditional two-parent homes exhibit a stronger pattern of intergenerational occupational inheritance than do men from disrupted families. These effects are the same for blacks and whites. Recent changes in family structure may lead to greater universalism in contemporary American society.