Table 1.
Descriptive Statistics of Precollege Characteristics and Wage Outcome
| Non–College Graduates |
College Graduates |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | S.D. | Mean | S.D. | |
|
| ||||
| Sociodemographic factors | ||||
| Male (binary 0/1) | .497 | — | .504 | — |
| Black (binary 0/1) | .160 | — | .069 | — |
| Hispanic (binary 0/1) | .066 | — | .026 | — |
| Southern residence at age 14 (binary 0/1) | .325 | — | .029 | — |
| Rural residence at age 14 (binary 0/1) | .239 | — | .186 | — |
| Family background factors | ||||
| Parents’ household income ($100s) (continuous 0 to 75) | 190.959 | 110.173 | 286.006 | 150.934 |
| Fathers’ highest education (0 to 20) | 11.389 | 3.114 | 14.234 | 3.240 |
| Mothers’ highest education (0 to 20) | 11.345 | 2.412 | 13.317 | 2.437 |
| Father upper-white-collar occupation (0/1) | .175 | — | .507 | — |
| Two-parent family at age 14 (binary 0/1) | .712 | — | .847 | — |
| Sibship size (continuous 0 to 19) | 3.296 | 2.262 | 2.534 | 1.641 |
| Cognitive and psychosocial factors | ||||
| Cognitive ability ASVAB (continuous −3 to 3) | −.125 | .673 | .606 | .553 |
| High school college-preparatory program (0/1) | .236 | — | .485 | — |
| Rotter locus of control scale (continuous 4 to 16) | 9.031 | 2.259 | 8.124 | 2.139 |
| Juvenile delinquency activity scale (0 to 1) | .815 | .389 | .714 | .452 |
| Educational expectations (binary 0/1) | .309 | — | .825 | — |
| Educational aspirations (binary 0/1) | .434 | — | .879 | — |
| Friends’ educational aspirations (binary 0/1) | .358 | — | .740 | — |
| School factors | ||||
| School disadvantage scale (0 to 99) | 21.684 | 17.859 | 12.742 | 12.638 |
| Family formation factors | ||||
| Marital status at age 18 (binary 0/1) | .068 | — | .003 | — |
| Had a child by age 18 (binary 0/1) | .061 | — | .002 | — |
| Wage outcome | ||||
| Proportion of time in low-wage work | .398 | .363 | .207 | .246 |
| Weighted sample proportion | .81 | .19 | ||
| n | 3,531 | 851 | ||
Note: Data are from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979 cohort. The sample is restricted to individuals who were 14 to 17 years old at the baseline survey in 1979 (n = 5,582), who had completed at least the 12th grade (n = 4,548), and who had no missing data on the outcome (n = 4,382). College completion is measured as a 4-year degree completed by age 25. All descriptive statistics are weighted by the NLSY sample weight. ASVAB = Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.