Actual and perceived parental social status: effects on adolescent self-concept

This paper proposes a model in which parental social status (PSS) and perceived parental social status (PEPSS) affect adolescent self-concept in distinct ways: PSS affects school achievement and consequently self-concept in the academic domain, whereas PEPSS affects self-concept in the social domain. Two studies of Israeli high school students (N = 569), one on kibbutz and one on urban youth, were carried out. PSS was measured by father's education and occupation, and PEPSS by a new scale. Academic and social self-concepts were tapped by Marsh's SDQ II in the urban sample, and by a combination of the latter and Harter's SPPA in the kibbutz sample. The findings supported the model with one exception: in the urban setting, PSS was not related to academic self-concept. The findings rejected a model underlying the theory of Rosenberg and Pearlin, in which perceived parental social status mediates the effect of parental social status on adolescent self-concept.