Routes of success: influences on the occupational attainment of young British males

Using data from the National Child Development Study, the paper develops a complex path model predicting the occupational grade achieved by 4,298 empl oyed British males at age 33. Most British social mobility research has bee n based in the 'class structurationist' tradition, and the paper begins by comparing this with the 'status attainment' tradition, which is more common in the USA. The class structurationist approach has rarely analysed the fa ctors influencing individual occupational attainment, and those working in this tradition in Britain have often assumed that people from working-class origins fare worse on average than those from the middle class because of factors associated with their class disadvantage rather than any difference in individual characteristics such as ability or ambition. Status attainme nt research, however, has generally found that individual ability and motiv ation are the key factors influencing occupational attainment, and that cla ss origins count for comparatively little. Using various measures of class origins, parental support, qualifications, and individual ability and ambit ion, the paper goes on to develop a linear structural equations model which achieves a good fit to the data. The model demonstrates that individual ab ility is by far the strongest influence on occupational achievement, that m otivation is also important, and that factors like class background and par ental support, while significant, are relatively much weaker. The paper con cludes that occupational selection in Britain appears to take place largely on meritocratic principles.