Home-Centred Working Class Parents' Attitudes Towards their Sons' Education and Careers

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Abstract
Working class parents' attitudes to their sons' education and future occupations are examined to see if there are variations in line with the embourgeoisement thesis. Parents' aspirations for their sons are higher and their involvement in their sons' education stronger amongst those with a high expenditure on housing, the home and consumer durables, holding constant the `middle classness' of their own backgrounds. Those with higher expenditure of this kind are also more likely to be socially isolated and home-centred in their leisure activities and to evidence greater overlapping of conjugal roles. The more socially isolated and home-centred parents have higher aspirations for their children and greater involvement in their children's education; the involvement of the father in his children's education appears to be particularly important. The more socially isolated, home-centred parents are also more likely to vote Conservative. The scholastic achievement of the child is the most influential determinant of parental aspirations. The evidence is that the above patterns are not the result of the middle-classness of the parents' home backgrounds, education or work histories. Two interpretations are considered: firstly that these middle class patterns of behaviour are the result of the influence of middle class people, such as the boys' teachers; and secondly that they result from the advantageous effects upon the boys' scholastic achievement of the home environments to be found amongst home-centred families. The two explanations are not regarded as mutually exclusive.

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