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oa De Tweede Wereldoorlog en statusverwerving
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Mens & Maatschappij, Volume 86, Issue 4, Dec 2011, p. 372 - 394
Abstract
World War II and occupational status attainment.
In this study we include personal war experiences in Duncan’s path model of status attainment to answer the following research question: To what extent can personal war experiences explain the occupational status of Dutch people who experienced World War II? We expect that personal war experiences have a detrimental effect on the human capital formation, which in turn leads to a lower educational level and a lower occupational status. To test our hypotheses, we use unique individual-level data from the ‘Onderzoek naar Doorsnee Nederlanders in de oorlog’, which was conducted from 2005 to 2010 (N = 346). The results of our path analysis show that people who were forced to work in Germany or the Netherlands during the war obtained a lower educational level and subsequently a lower occupational status. Physical destruction of one’s house also has a negative effect on occupational status through education. In addition, we found some direct effects of personal war experiences on the occupational status.