Protocol - Occupational Prestige
Description
Specific Instructions
None
Availability
Protocol
Employment Questions from the American Community Survey
For employed people, the data refer to the persons job during the previous week. For those who worked two or more jobs, the data refer to the job where the person worked the greatest number of hours. For unemployed people and people who are not currently employed but report having a job within the last five years, the data refer to their last job.
1. What was this persons main occupation?
(For example: 4th grade teacher, entry-level plumber) (Fill-in-the-blank field)
2. Describe this persons most important activities or duties. (For example: instruct and evaluate students and create lesson plans, assemble and install pipe sections and review building plans for work details) (Fill-in-the-blank field)
Prestige Scores from the General Social Survey
In the OCCUPATIONAL CLASSIFICATION DISTRIBUTIONS codebook, the U.S. Census Bureau assigned a three-digit number code to each occupational title. These codes appear under the column headed "Punch, Occupation". Match the user response to the job title. The respective occupational ‘Prestige Score can be found in the same row (e.g. Accountants have a prestige score of 57).
Access to the code book can be found here:
http://gss.norc.org/documents/codebook/GSS_Codebook_AppendixF.pdf
Personnel and Training Required
None
Equipment Needs
Access to a desktop/laptop computer with internet access to download raw data from the U.S. Census Bureaus Explore Census Data website (https://data.census.gov/). Statistical Packages (e.g., SPSS, SAS) for data manipulation.
Requirements
| Requirement Category | Required |
|---|---|
| Major equipment | No |
| Specialized training | No |
| Specialized requirements for biospecimen collection | No |
| Average time of greater than 15 minutes in an unaffected individual | No |
Mode of Administration
Self-Report
Lifestage
Adult, Senior
Participants
Participant is to be 18 years or older
Selection Rationale
The ACS is an ongoing survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the decennial census.
The ACS asks about the work a person was doing and that persons most important duties at that job to produce industry and occupation statistics.
These statistics are used to understand more about the labor force; to plan and measure education, employment, career development and job training programs; and to measure compliance with antidiscrimination policies.
The occupation scores from the General Social Survey were developed using a sample that is representative of the U.S. population and can therefore provide an unbiased prestige estimate.
The Occupational Classification Distributions includes three 5-digit occupational classifications. In the first classification, the first three digits are the 1970 U.S. census occupational codes, and the last two digits are the Hodge-Siegel-Rossi (HSR) prestige scores. In the second classification, the first three digits are the 1980 U.S. census occupational codes, and the last two digits are the NORC/General Social Survey (GSS) prestige scores. The third classification uses 2010 U.S. census occupational codes. The most recent modification was in 2018. This is important to see the changes in the occupation scores over time. This classification is based on the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC), published by the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget. Updated codes, deleted codes and new codes are explained here: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/guidance/industry-occupation/overview2019.pdf
The 2021 GSS occupational prestige study will be used in several ways. First, those occupational titles used in 2012 that were rated in the 1963-1965 and/or 1989 surveys can be used to study changes in the social standing of those specific occupations. Core occupations asked of all respondents would be most suitable for such analysis. Second, an occupational prestige variable (PRESTG10), based on the 2010 census classification of occupations (OCC10), will be created. It will be parallel to GSS variables PRESTIGE, based on the 1970 census codes (OCC70) and the 1963-1965 HSR studies, and PRESTG80, based on the 1980 census codes (OCC80) and 1989 GSS prestige study. Similar occupational prestige variables will be created for the 2010 occupational variables for mother, father, and spouse (MAOCC10, PAOCC10, SPOCC10). Finally, the new occupational prestige variables will be used to create socioeconomic index (SEI) variables for respondents, mothers, fathers, and spouses parallel to the existing SEI variables for earlier occupational codes (SEI, MASEI, PASEI, SPSEI).
Codebook: https://gss.norc.org/Documents/codebook/GSS%202021%20Codebook%20R1.pdf
Prestige and Socioeconomic Scores for the 2010 Census Codes: https://gss.norc.org/Documents/reports/methodological-reports/MR124.pdf
Language
English
Standards
| Standard | Name | ID | Source |
|---|
Derived Variables
None
Process and Review
The Social Determinants of Health-X (SDoH-X) Working Group (WG) reviewed this protocol in May 2022.
Guidance from the SDoH-X WG includes:
• Replaced or Updated protocol
Protocol Name from Source
Not applicable; see source.
Source
U.S. Census Bureau. (1970). Occupational Classification Distributions. Retrieved from http://gss.norc.org/documents/codebook/GSS_Codebook_AppendixF.pdf
U.S. Census Bureau. (2022). American Community Survey (ACS), questions 42e and 42f. Retrieved from https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/methodology/questionnaires/2022/quest22.pdf
U.S. Census Bureau. (2021, November 20). About Occupation. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/topics/employment/industry-occupation/about/occupation.html
General References
Fernandez, C. A., Christ, S. L., LeBlanc, W. G., Arheart, K. L., Dietz, N. A., McCollister, K. E., … Lee, D. J. (2015). Effect of childhood victimization on occupational prestige and income trajectories. PLoS One, 10(2), e0115519.
Frederick, C. (2010). A crosswalk for using pre-2000 occupational status and prestige codes with post-2000 occupation codes (Working Paper No. 2010-03). Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI. PMID: 25506974
Fujishiro, K., Xu, J., & Gong, F. (2010). What does "occupation" represent as an indicator of socioeconomic status? Exploring occupational prestige and health. Social Science & Medicine, 71(12), 2100–2107.
Nakao, K., & Treas, J. (1992). The 1989 socioeconomic index of occupations: Construction from the 1989 occupational prestige scores. GSS Methodological Report, 74.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2022). The American Community Survey. American Community Survey (ACS). Retrieved from https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/methodology/questionnaires/2022/quest22.pdf
U.S. Census Bureau. (2020). U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration. Retrieved from https://census.gov/
Protocol ID
270501
Variables
Export Variables| Variable Name | Variable ID | Variable Description | dbGaP Mapping | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PX270501_Occupational_Prestige_Kind_Work_Doing | ||||
| PX270501010000 | What kind of work was this person doing? more | N/A | ||
| PX270501_Occupational_Prestige_Most_Important_Activities_Describe | ||||
| PX270501020000 | What were this person's most important more | N/A | ||
Measure Name
Occupational Prestige
Release Date
May 11, 2020
Definition
Occupational prestige is a construct that assigns a social status to a specific occupation.
Purpose
This measure describes a person’s relative social class and can be used to calculate a community-level view of careers.
Keywords
American Community Survey, ACS, General Social Survey, GSS, occupational status, SES Measures (income, education, occupation), work characteristics
Measure Protocols
| Protocol ID | Protocol Name |
|---|---|
| 270501 | Occupational Prestige |
Publications
Bart, T. A., et al. (2023) Measurement invariance of commonly used psychosis-screening scales in US Spanish- and English-speaking Hispanic participants. Psychological Assessment. 2023 April; 35(4): 300-310. doi: 10.1037/pas0001207
Pomeroy, A., et al. (2022) Protocol for a Longitudinal Study of the Determinants of Metabolic Syndrome Risk in Young Adults. Translational Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine. 2022 April; 7(2): 8. doi: 10.1249/tjx.0000000000000197