The role of familial habitus in shaping children's views of their future employment

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the ESRC for funding the research upon which this article is based. Many thanks also to Sarah Holloway, Johanna Waters, Gavin Brown and Tracey Skelton for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper and to the children who took part in this research.

Notes

In this paper, I use the terms ‘hopes’ and ‘aspiration’ interchangeably in relation to children's views of their future occupational position. Their responses were ascertained by asking (if they expressed a desire to work), the type of job they would ‘like to do’ in the future. I believe these are distinct to the job they ‘expect’ or ‘plan’ to do (Nilsen 1999; see Brown (this issue) for a fuller distinction between ‘aspiration’ and ‘expectation’).

‘EM’ denotes a child with an employed mother; ‘NEM’ a non-employed mother. ‘EF’ indicates an employed father/father-figure, ‘NEF’ a non-employed father/father-figure. Where the employment status of a parent is not indicated, the child did not identify that parent to be involved in their life.