A Correlation Analysis On Habitus And Occupational Attainment

The overall goal of this paper is to investigate the key factors affecting individuals’ occupational attainment in Qingdao from a sociolinguistic perspective. Based on the previous literature and theoretical framework on cultural capital, field and habitus, particular attention is paid to occupational attainment. This study is devoted to dealing with the relationship between cultural capital and occupational attainment, the impact of family backgrounds on occupational attainment, the role habitus plays and whether there are other important factors influencing individuals’occupational attainment.In the present study, cultural capital is decomposed into institutionalized cultural capital and embodied cultural capital while habitus is reflected by individuals’discourse. An analytic and objective measurement of occupational attainment-monthly income is adopted. As to family backgrounds, fathers’ occupation and parents’educational levels are taken into consideration. Data for the study were obtained utilizing both quantitative approach-questionnaire surveys and qualitative approach—in-depth interviews. Findings of the quantitative analyses show that firstly, cultural capital correlates with occupational attainment. The correlation between institutionalized cultural capital and occupational attainment is slight while the correlation between embodied cultural capital and occupational attainment is strong. Secondly, binary logistic regression analysis suggests that when it comes to fathers’ occupation, individuals in different groups have different chances to better occupational attainment, yet only one group (no jobs) reaches the significant level. One-way ANOVA demonstrates except that there is a significant difference between individuals whose parents’ educational level is middle school and below and those whose parents’ educational level is undergraduate or postgraduate and above, there is no significant difference between other groups. The frequency analyses on certain items such as self-evaluation about the career goal, views on the gap between dream and reality lay a solid foundation for the in-depth interviews. The findings of qualitative analyses provide further support for the quantitative analyses, which indicate there are factors that can exceed the influence of habitus and guide individuals to occupational attainment: motivations are the inner driving force of occupational attainment; clear goals and unremitting efforts are the guarantee for occupational attainment and reasonable expectations are the hopes of occupational attainment. Limitations and the perspective for future research are given at the end of this paper.