children’s and adolescents’ developing interests, values, and aspira-
tions. Kohn and his colleagues’ research, the most prominent work in
this area, focuses predominantly on the link between fathers’ work-
ing conditions and their value orientations and psychological func-
tioning (Kohn, 1969; Kohn & Schooler, 1983). Kohn and Schooler
argue that the personality traits important to fathers’ success at work
influence the qualities fathers value most in their children. Men
whose work requires them to make independent decisions value self-
direction in their children; those whose work places greater empha-
sis on following directions or the supervision of others are more likely
to want their children to be obedient. According to the occupational
linkage hypothesis, these values are transferred to children and come
to influence their own choice of occupations and capacities to act in
a self-directed way, thus perpetuating the class structure intergenera-
tionally. Kohn, Slomczynski, and Schoenbach (1986) have demon-
strated, in fact, that the self-directed values promoted by parental jobs
are communicated to children, affecting their own values.
There is considerable support for the link between parents’ job
conditions and their work values. Rewards derived from work, like
autonomy and pay, foster the valuing of the same rewards among
both men and women (Mortimer & Lorence, 1979; Lindsay &
Knox, 1984; Johnson, 2001a). Other research has focused on the
links between parents’ occupations, their values, and their chil-
drearing practices, demonstrating that the higher the socioeco-
nomic status of parents, the more likely they are to engage in more
effective, authoritative parenting and to foster close and commu-
nicative parent-child relations (Gecas & Nye, 1974; Greenberger,
O’Neil, & Nagel, 1994). Mortimer and her colleagues’ research
shows that the degree of supportiveness in the parent-child rela-
tionship influences various attitudes and behaviors in children that
facilitate socioeconomic attainment (Mortimer & Finch, 1986).
For example, closer and more communicative relationships with
fathers predict greater self-confidence on the part of sons. Other
work shows that the quality of parent-child relationships is a cen-
tral mechanism through which parents’ socioeconomic position
52 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT