status attainment, status-attainment theory An extensive literature investigating how educational achievements and other indicators of skill and ability translate into jobs ranked according to socio-economic status or prestige . The classic studies are those by Peter M. Blau and Otis Dudley Duncan ( The American Occupational Structure , 1967) and David Featherman and Robert Hauser ( Opportunity and Change , 1978).

The status-attainment programme attempts to explain social mobility patterns by identifying those attributes which seem to facilitate the movement of individuals into desirable occupations. To what extent are occupational outcomes shaped by family of origin rather than ...