Table 1.

Means of Precollege Covariates, NLSY79 (N = 3,208)

Variables	Men		Women
	No College	College	No College	College
Race
Black (0/1)	.13	.09**	.15	.10***
Hispanic (0/1)	.05	.04	.05	.04**
Family background
Father’s education (years)	11.93	13.97***	11.60	13.79***
Mother’s education (years)	11.73	13.21***	11.51	13.09***
Parents’ income (1979 dollars)	$20,255	$27,628***	$20,996	$25,668***
Both parents age 14 (0/1)	.77	.85***	.75	.81*
Number of siblings	3.04	2.52***	3.30	2.68***
Rural residence age 14 (0/1)	.25	.20*	.23	.20
Southern residence age 14 (0/1)	.29	.27	.31	.34
Catholic (0/1)	.32	.33	.33	.35
Jewish (0/1)	.01	.03*	.00	.04***
Early achievement
Cognitive ability (−1.84–2.59)	0.27	0.86***	0.02	0.51***
College preparatory (0/1)	.30	.65***	.26	.56***
Social-psychological
Parents’ encouragement (0/1)	.65	.89***	.70	.87***
Friends’ plans (years schooling)	13.90	15.35***	14.03	15.25***
Weighted proportiona	.72	.28	.65	.35
Unweighted n	1,176	398	1,134	500

Note. College attendance by age 19. Missing values are imputed on parents’ income and college-preparatory program. “Both parents,” “Rural residence,” and “Southern residence age 14” = living with both parents, in a rural area, or in the South when the young man or woman was age 14.

Cognitive ability is measured with a scale of standardized residuals of the ASVAB. All means are weighted by NLSY79 panel weights; n values are unweighted.

^aGender difference in college attendance is statistically significant at p < .001.

^†p < .10.

^*p < .05.

^**p < .01.

^***p < .001. (two-tailed tests of college vs. no college attendance)