Explorations in Equality of Opportunity, 1955-1970

Contains information gathered in a longitudinal survey of a national sample of adults who were high school sophomores in 1955 and who participated in a 1970 follow-up survey. The 1970 study was designed to explore the determinants and long-range consequences of individual mobility in the United States. In 1955, in 42 public high schools across the nation, 4,151 sophomores were given aptitude and career goals questionnaires by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). In 1970, the University of North Carolina's Institute for Research in Social Science (IRSS) attempted to contact the sample with mailback questionnaires. There were 2,077 usable responses. The sophomore sample approximated a representative national sample of its age cohort, with the following exceptions: (1) students attending predominantly non-white institutions were excluded, (2) private schools were excluded, (3) large-city schools tended to be under-represented, and (4) low-ability students and school dropouts tended to be under-represented. The mailed questionnaires included items concerning personal data and activities, high school and college experience (e.g., reasons for dropping out of high school, motivating factors for attending college, and number of high school friends who attended college), work experience (e.g., job history, hours worked, types of occupations, and work attitudes), family background and marriage (e.g., ethnicity, religion reared in, and highest level of education attained by immediate family members), and finances (e.g., financial obligations, income, and assets), as well as a wide range of questions on attitude and esteem (e.g., current feelings about hometown, present community, high school, and college). Women were asked additional questions concerning contraception, pregnancy, family size, and attitudes toward women's roles and work.