Social mobility orientation and nuclear family integration as perceived by married college students

This thesis explores the subject of social mobility orientation and the possible dysfunctional consequences it might have on nuclear family integration when spouses are not in agreement regarding their social mobility aspirations. It serves to introduce a dichotomy between external family events and internal family events in that it uses for its subjects students who have not already undergone some modicum of either upward or downward social mobility. If we speak of upward or downward mobility in family terms, we must now consider the influence of the dyadic marital relationship between the husband and wife prior to and after the actual achievement of mobility, in addition to the impact which the new social environment has on the family's integration. This thesis does not support the previous research finding that when spouses had similar mobility orientations, nuclear family integration would be better than when they differed in their mobility orientations. Instead, it was found that nuclear family integration was perceived to be just as good when both spouses had unequal social mobility orientations as when their orientations were equal. This finding was explained by the presence of the sociocultural variables of male instrumental-type leadership and female expressive-type leadership which were not present in previous research, but which is apparently functional to American nuclear family integration.