Social Inequality and Status Attainment

Florida State University, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

SES-1060988 Koji Ueno Florida State University Status attainment refers to the process in which people obtain positions in the status hierarchy. Sociodemographic background strongly affects the level of success in status attainment, which produces and reproduces inequality across social groups. This study considers sexual orientation as a dimension of sociodemographic background and investigates whether and how sexual orientation influences status attainment. Statistical analysis is conducted using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) Waves 1 through 4. The level of success in status attainment is measured by educational qualifications, occupational prestige, and earnings. The project pays special attention to the dynamic aspect of sexual orientation by assessing the continuity and change in same-sex experience (attraction, dating relationships, and sexual contact), and it highlights the dynamic aspect of status attainment by tracing youth as they complete secondary and postsecondary education, enter the labor force, and take on family roles. The project will identify what factors give rise to the relationship between sexual orientation and status attainment outcomes and what factors exacerbate or moderate the relationship. Broader Impacts This study seeks to make three major contributions to the discipline of sociology. First, focusing on sexual orientation, the research will extend the existing knowledge about social inequality in the status attainment process, which has mainly concentrated on race, gender, and family socioeconomic class as social determinants of inequality. Second, the study will increase understanding about the relationship between sexual development and status attainment. Extending the past research that focused on heterosexual development, the study examines the impact of same-sex sexual development on status attainment. Third, research findings will increase knowledge about the diversity within the sexual minority population by considering individual differences in sexual development and status attainment as dimensions of diversity.