THE DISTRIBUTION OF SOCIAL CAPITAL IN CHILE: AN

EXAMINATION OF THE UNEQUAL CREATION AND

RETURNS OF SOCIAL RESOURCES IN CHILEAN ADULTS

A dissertation submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree

of MSc in Social Research Methods and Statistics in the Faculty of
Humanities

2015

VALENTINA ULLOA

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

List of Contents

Title .1
List of Contents2
List of Tables.4
List of Figures5
Abstract6
Declaration ...7
Copyright Statement..8
Acknowledgments ..9
Chapter 1. Introduction ...10
Chapter 2. Theoretical background..13
2.1. Social capital: The resources embedded in relationships.13
2.1.1. Theories and definitions of social capital13
2.1.2. The mechanisms of operation of social resources..15
2.1.3. The sources of social capital: Inequalities in the creation of social
resources16
2.1.4. Returns of social capital: The importance of social resources for
labour market outcomes..17
2.2. Socio-economic attainment: The unequal distribution of life chances..19
Chapter 3. Contextual background: The Chilean scene.21
3.1. Social stratification in Chilean society21
3.2. How is social capital distributed amongst and used by Chileans? ...........22
3.3. Aims and hypotheses.24
Chapter 4. Methodology26
4.1. Sample and data collection...26
4.3. Measurement and description of variables..27
4.2.1. Social Capital..27
4.2.2. Respondents Socioeconomic Position (ISEIR)28
4.2.3. Covariates.30
4.3. Statistical analysis: Mixture modelling.....32
4.3.1. The measurement component: Latent Class Analysis..33
4.3.2. The structural component: The BCH method.34
2

Chapter 5. Descriptive results38

5.1. Description of the sample..38
5.1.1. Socio-demographic characteristics.38
5.1.2. Association between ISEIR and covariates39
5.2. Social capital characterisation.40
Chapter 6. Modelling Results.44
6.1. Measurement Component: The social capital patterns..44
6.1.1. Resources shared by PG occupations.44
6.1.2. Searching for the best social capital indicator.45
6.1.3. The meaning of the five-class measurement component...47
6.2. Structural Component: The relation of social capital with ascribed and
attained positions..49
6.2.1. The returns of social resources and other forms of capital..49
6.2.2. The acquisition of social capital...54
Chapter 7. Discussion and Conclusion...56
References..64
Appendix..74
Mplus Syntax....81

Final Word Count: 14.983 words

List of Tables

Table 1.

Distribution of parental variables..30

Table 2.

Distribution of respondent variables38

Table 3.

Association between Occupational Status and covariates40

Table 4.

Access to occupations through social ties41

Table 5.

Zero order correlations among key variables42

Table 6.

Mean ISEI score of respondents for accessed occupations.43

Table7.

Model fit indices of LC models.45

Table 8.

Probability of item endorsement conditional on class membership.47

Table 9.

Model fit indices of LC mixture regression models49

Table 10.

Unstandardised estimates of association of ISEIR and independent

variables50

Table 11.

Walds test of mean ISEI differences across classes, and effect size of
difference52

Table 12.

Walds test of overall effect of covariates on social capital.54

Table 13.

Multinomial logistic regression coefficients (in logits) of covariates on

social capital classes with the Isolated and Rich networks as reference
class.55

Appendix.
Table A1.

Position Generator of the Chilean Social Stratification Survey.74

Table A2.

Average latent class probabilities for most likely latent class

membership (row) by latent class (column)..75

Table A3.

Class size of LCA and BCH models based on estimated posterior

probabilities..75

List of Figures

Figure 1.

Flow chart of analysis procedure32

Figure 2.

The three steps of the bias adjusted three-step approaches

(Bakk & Vermunt, 2015)35

Figure 3.

Hypothesised model of social capital..37

Figure 4.

Histogram of respondents (right) and household (left)

occupational status in ISEI scores.....39

Figure 5

Occupation endorsement probabilities by class, five class model46

Figure 6.

Full-model of social capital (BCH4)51

Figure 7.

Distribution of estimated ISEIR score by social capital classes, and

confidence interval..53

Appendix
Figure A1.

Distribution of Upper Reachability; Heterogeneity and Extensity

measures.76

Figure A2.

Equation of latent class model.77

Figure A3.

Box plot with distribution of respondent and household

occupational status.77

Figure A4.

Dendogram of resources shared by occupations78

Figure A5.

Occupation endorsement probabilities by class, three-class model.79

Figure A6.

Occupation endorsement probabilities by class, seven class model.79

Figure A7.

Estimated mean ISEIR scores across SC classes, model without

confounders..80

Figure A8.

Scatter plot of correlation of Education and ISEIR by Age group.80

Abstract

Background: It has been theorised and evidenced that social contacts and resources
are unevenly distributed amongst individuals; therefore individuals gain different
returns in terms of labour market outcomes. Aims: To explore the patterns of accessed
social capital in Chilean society and to determine how these patterns are associated
with the socioeconomic position of individuals and predicted by ascribed and achieved
conditions. Methodology: A quantitative secondary data analysis was carried out,
using data from the cross-sectional Social Stratification Survey administered in Chile in
2009. The sample used for the study consisted of 2583 employed adults ranging from
25 to 64 years old. An LCA was used to examine the patterns of network resources,
and to construct a social capital latent variable, whereas a Mixture Regression Analysis
using the BHC method was conducted to analyse how the social capital measurement
component predicts occupational status, and how network resources are also
predicted by ascribed and achieved conditions. Results: Findings indicated that, above
the spectrum of volume of contacts on which the social capital structure lays, it is
possible to subtype network resources in five distinct groups, whose acquisition is
influenced by parental status and educational level. These classes were also found to
be significantly associated with socioeconomic position; a higher volume of network
resources predicted a higher attained status, but especially when these were high
status contacts. Discussion: The study supports and expands on previous results on
social capital, and contributes to the scarce Latin-American literature on the role of
social resources in socio-economic inequalities. It reinforces the importance of
including the notion of social capital and networking in interventions for overcoming
poverty. In addition, this study encourages other researchers to explore patterns of
social capital using the Position Generator.

Declaration

I declare that no portion of the work referred to in the dissertation has been
submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this
or any other university or other institute of learning.

Copyright Statement
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Aknowledgements

Este trabajo utiliz informacin de la Encuesta nacional de Estratificacin Social 2009

(ENES) del Proyecto Desigualdades (Proyecto anillos SOC12-CONICYT). El autor
agradece al Proyecto el acceso a la informacin. Todos los resultados del presente
anlisis son de responsabilidad del autor y no comprometen al Proyecto
Desigualdades.

This study employed information of the national Social Stratification Survey

2009 (SSS) of Desigualdades [Inequalities] Project (Project Anillos SOC12-CONICYT).
The author thanks the Project the access to the information. The author is responsible
for all the findings of the present analysis, which do not involve Desigualdades Project.

I also would like to thank my supervisors Nissa Finney and Nick Shryane. I am
especially thankful for Nicks support and guidance in the last period of my dissertation
process.

I want to thank my partner David for joining me in this journey and being next
to me every day, cheering me up and looking after me. I want to thank the support of
my parents and family, who have always believed in me and provided me
unconditional support, and I want to thank my beloved friends from Concepcin,
Santiago and Manchester who have provided me joy and beautiful experiences, and
who worry about me and encourage me even in the distance.

Finally, thanks to CONICYT for funding and supporting my studies and staying
in the UK through Becas Chile scholarship.

Chapter 1. Introduction

The thesis of industrialism (Grusky, 1983) states that conditions of birth such
as social class should not determine subsequent productive roles within industrialised
societies; instead, the occupational sphere should recruit employees on the basis of
efficiency considerations. Nevertheless, studies on social stratification have shown
that income deficits, employment disparities and inequalities in promotion and
authority are, in part, due to segregation and discrimination, and/or social closure
processes (Roscigno, Garcia and Bobbitt-Zeher, 2007). Thus, in contexts where
bureaucratisation is weak or in which elites have great power, the effects of merit,
qualification and ability on the patterns of status attainment can be obscured by the
position in which an individual was born or the networks to which she/he is related. In
fact, an important proportion of people use personal contacts with which to acquire
their occupations (De Graaf and Flap, 1988).

With regards to the latter, theoretically all people with whom actors are
connected (kin, friends, acquaintances) can influence the outcomes of individual
actions. Social networks thus constitute the foundation of many processes through
which individuals gain access to diverse forms of resources which can open additional
opportunities for improved life conditions (Van der Gaag, 2005). These types of
resources have been named social capital, or the resources embedded in social
relationships which can be instrumentally employed in order to gain benefits and to
improve or maintain a social position (e.g. Bourdieu, 1986; Lin, 2001). Empirical
evidence has shown that access to social capital, however, is not evenly distributed
amongst individuals, and that these inequalities are also related to differential returns.
Most of the studies have centred on the role of social networks in job and occupational
attainment (see Lin, 1999a for a review), but some researchers have also focused on
how networks can be affected by ascribed (position assigned at birth) and achieved
status (position acquired by merit) (e.g. Volker and Flap, 2008).

Furthermore, a current study developed in several countries within Europe

demonstrated that social capital in almost every form is socially stratified
everywhere (Pichler and Wallace, 2009, p.330). These authors found that social
10

capital differences vary across countries, whereas countries with greater social
inequalities show greater class differences relating to the construct. Nonetheless,
literature regarding social capital has been mainly developed in Europe, the US and
China. In Latin America, social capital research is scarce and mainly related to
alternative conceptualisations of the construct or to other aims. Specifically, Chile has
the highest human development index and one of the highest GDPs of Latin America,
and also forms part of the OECD. Nevertheless it displays high indices of socioeconomic inequalities relative to other countries in the region as well as Europe
(CEPAL, 2012). Therefore, it becomes interesting to study how social resources are
distributed in this nation, and if the possession of social capital is related to inequalities
in the socio-economic position of individuals.

Previous qualitative studies conducted in Chile, have provided some evidence

on the utilisation of social capital. For example, for the middle-class there is the
exchange of favours, which is an informal way of reciprocity between same-class
individuals, and is indispensable for them to obtain a job (Barozet, 2006). In contrast,
and in spite of considering labour conditions as the principal cause of their poverty,
poor families dont have the view of articulation with community or social networks
to overcome this condition. Therefore, they present smaller networks with kin or
neighbourhood ties which put them in disadvantaged positions when trying to find
jobs (Bivort, 2005; Espinoza, 1995).

Given the rise of interest in the role of social capital in shaping inequalities, and
the lack of research conducted under this framework within Latin America, the
following questions are proposed for this study.

1. What are the social capital patterns of Chilean employed adults?

2. How is social capital associated with the socioeconomic position of employed
Chilean adults?
3. To what extent is the acquisition of social capital explained by attained and
ascribed status?

11

The following sections of this report present; firstly a theoretical framework

around the concepts of social capital and socioeconomic stratification, and secondly
the contextual background regarding the application of those concepts in the Chilean
sphere. This will be followed by the aims and hypotheses of the study. Afterwards, a
chapter on the methodological design is presented, including sample, data,
measurement of variables and statistical analysis, followed by two chapters regarding
the descriptive and modelling results of the study. The latter includes the use of a
Latent Class Analysis to answer the first research question and Mixture Regression
Models for the remaining others. The last chapter discusses the results in light of the
aims and previous literature regarding social capital and social stratification.

12

Chapter 2: Theoretical Background

2.1. Social Capital: The resources embedded in social relationships

2.1.1. Theories and definitions of social capital

Social capital is a concept which has been given extensive attention from the
late twentieth century onwards by sociologists, economists and policy makers. In spite
of the wide development of the concept within research, theoretical and policy making
fields, currently there is no consensus about the definition of the construct.

In general, it is possible to find two main approaches to social capital. The

associative perspective focuses on the internal ties within collectives, whilst the
instrumental version focuses on the bridging interactions. The latter view states that
the actions of individuals and groups can be greatly facilitated by their direct and
indirect links to other actors and the collection of resources they own (Adler and Kwon,
2002; Espinoza, 2001; Van der Gaag, 2005). This understanding of the construct fits
better to the study on how social networks and their embedded resources play a role
in the stratification process, given its focus on the differential returns that this form of
capital can get for different individuals.

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu was one of the first contemporary
exponents of this view of social capital. He developed this concept within his theory of
social structure, posing that the social world is a multi-dimensional space that can be
constructed by discovering the different forms of capital: economic, cultural, social
and symbolic (Bourdieu, 1986; 1987). For Bourdieu, the differences that distinguish
social classes derive from the volume, composition and trajectory of the first three
types of capital. Specifically, he defined social capital as the aggregate of the actual
or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or
less institutionalised relationship of mutual acquaintance and recognition (Bourdieu
1986, p. 248). It is a resource that is connected with group membership and social
networks, and depends on the size of the network connections and the volume of
capital possessed by them (Bourdieu, 1986). Individuals would invest in relationships
13

that are usable to improve the social position of the actors, acquire material or
symbolic profits, cultural capital or power of influence (Siisinen, 2000). For Bourdieu
(1986), most of the capital is concentrated in the dominant classes, and the ulterior
purpose of each agent is to reproduce the limits of the group they belong to. Thus, this
perspective of infinite perpetuating inequalities leaves limited space for the use of
social capital by the middle or lower social classes and the notion of social mobility.

On the other hand, Chinese sociologist Nan Lin (2001) has centred his work on
researching and developing a theory about this form of capital. He focuses on the
returns that social capital can have at the individual level, and stresses that access to,
and the use of better social capital leads to more successful action (the social capital
proposition). He defines the construct as the resources embedded in social networks
accessed and used by actors for actions such as getting a job, or a better job (Lin,
2001, p. 40). This concept has two components: 1) resources embedded in
relationships, and 2) access and use of such resources. Regarding the former, through
social relations individuals may borrow or capture their actors resources (e.g. wealth,
power or reputation), and this capital can generate returns for individuals. This
conceptualisation, thus focuses on the resources rather than individuals, further
understanding that what is useful for individuals is the capital that contacts have, and
not only to have several weak ties (acquaintances) or to be located in a strategic place
within a network (see Burt, 1997; Granovetter, 1984).

An important point here is that even if Ego does not use these resources, they
have substantial symbolic utility as they protect and promote an individuals standing
in the social structure. Thus, the second component of the definition reflects the idea
of evoking, or not evoking these particular resources. Accessed social capital or
network resources regards the resources possessed in an individuals network,
whereas mobilised social capital or contact resources refer to the use or activation of
a social contact and the resources provided by them (Lin, 2001).

Individuals, in general, would invest in interpersonal relationships in order to

use or convert the different forms of capital with the purposes of either: a) ensuring
the reproduction of capital and social position (expressive actions) by interacting with
14

individuals of similar levels (homophilous interactions), or b) gaining valued resources

through instrumental actions by interacting with actors with other characteristics or in
other positions (Bourdieu, 1986; Lin, 2001). Heterophilous interactions nonetheless,
have better returns if the partner occupies a higher, not lower, hierarchical position
relative to the individual (Lin, 2001).

2.1.2. The mechanisms of operation of social resources

Some of the ways through which social capital operates in order to enhance
the outcomes of actions are: a) it facilitates the flow and diversity of information (e.g.
job opportunities); b) social ties may exert influence on the agents due to their
strategic locations, positions and tenancy of valued resources; c) social relations are
expected to reinforce identity and recognition; d) it can increase the cultural repertoire
of people, therefore becoming more equipped to get better jobs; e) connections
provide confidence and control to employers or recruiters (Lin, 1999b; Bourdieu, 1986;
Erickson, 1996).

Some of the features a network must have to make these mechanism work
include: a) having access to influential others in ones social network, given that high
status Alters control rich resources and have more influence and strategic information
(operationalised as upper reachability or the best resource accessed through ties in
Lins framework). b) Having a larger volume of available resources offers an individual
more opportunity for resource substitution and thus more opportunity for the
attainment of personal goals (Lin, 2001; Van der Gaag, 2005). Nevertheless, given that
volume does not imply diversity of resources, the most often employed notion of
better social capital is c) having access to a diversely composed collection of social ties
and therefore resources (operationalised by extensity or number of positions accessed
in a network and heterogeneity or the range resources reachable in a structural
hierarchy). Lin stresses that these three measures of upper reachability, heterogeneity
and extensity are the criteria for better access to social capital, and that generally,
correlations between them are high. Nevertheless they might also vary across
societies, therefore identifying the locally meaningful measures of social capital for a
given society is an empirical task (Lin, 2001, p.63).
15

Furthermore, it is not only the others who are the ones with the resources;
they are also embedded in social positions. Lin (2001) poses that the social structure
consists of a set of positions that are rank ordered according to certain valued
resources such as class, authority and status, and that the structure has a pyramidal
shape in terms of accessibility to control and to resources. In this regard, Lins strength
of position proposition stresses that the better the position of origin, the more likely
the actor will be able to access and use better social capital. Hence, origin conditions
lead to an unequal distribution of social capital over the population, which for
individuals leads to specific access to certain outcomes (Van der Gaag, 2005), carrying
positive and negative effects.

2.1.3. The sources of social capital: Inequalities in the creation of social resources

There are several socio-demographic characteristics that shape networks by

influencing the opportunity structure for contacts (McPherson, Smith-Lovin and Cook,
2001). Inequality of social capital would occur when groups cluster at relatively
disadvantaged positions, and individuals tend to build networks with those with
homogenous socioeconomic characteristics (Lin, 2000).

Regarding gender, Lin (2000), in his review article, presents that compared to
women, males have larger networks, are affiliated with larger organisations and are
therefore exposed to more contacts, more access to information about jobs,
opportunities and professional achievement. Regarding socioeconomic position,
education and occupation have been found to be highly homophilous (McPherson
Smith-Lovin and Cook, 2001). The edge categories of extremely high and low education
would present the biggest tendencies to homogeneity; individuals with higher
educational levels have also been shown to have more diverse networks. Thus,
through education people can acquire fundamental values for group identity and
social capital, whereas knowledge can help by bridging access to certain social groups.
In consequence this can bring power and social advantage (Barozet, 2006; Nunn, et
al., 2007).

16

Other studies have also confirmed the strength of position proposition. Lin and
Dumin (1986), for example, found that the lower the parental occupational status, the
fewer the variety of occupations accessed, whereas higher original positions led to
high-prestige job ties but also to lower occupations. Volker and Flap (1999) also
showed that a persons social capital depended on their status of origin directly, but
also indirectly through education. Lai, Lin and Leung (1998) supported some of these
findings by concluding that parental resources significantly impacted on contact
resources, but not the accessed social resources. Education however, had a significant
effect on both types of social capital.

Hence, either social class, status of origin or social connections developed at

work can affect the type of networks which an individual creates (Bian, 2008;
MacPherson Smith-Lovin and Cook, 2001). Working class communities, for example,
tend to possess social capital that might operate against social mobility, such as strong
geographically and occupationally based social networks (Nunn et al., 2007).
Regarding the middle class, on the other hand, it has been found that they tend to
possess much more diverse social networks, with extensive weak ties which offer
linkages to a wider range of more advantageous networks which enables them to be
upwardly mobile, and protects them against downward mobility. Contrarily, studies
have also shown that they tend to have high levels of bonding social capital, in contrast
to bridging (Nun et al., 2007). On the other hand, high-status groups have been shown
to have more heterogeneous networks. They are more often members of a broader
range of organisations and have contact with a broader circle of people (Pichler and
Wallace, 2009).

2.1.4. Returns of social capital: The importance of social resources for labour market
outcomes

Although social class or occupation can affect the volume or quality of social
resources, social capital theories have centred on the surplus value generated by the
investment in social relations (Lin and Erickson, 2008), in other words in the returns of
social networks. For example, there has been consistent evidence about how social
networks can shape the labour market. It has been found that people are more likely
17

to get a job and earlier when they count on weak ties that bridge disconnected groups,
or when they have links to employed agents, and wide and diverse networks with high
status contacts (Burt, 2001; Calv-Armengol and Jackson, 2004; Calv-Armengol and
Zeneou, 2005; Granovetter, 1983; Sprengers, Tazelaar, and Flap, 1988).

Social capital has also been associated with higher income. It has been found
that size, complexity and ethnoreligious diversity, education and prestige of the
networks, as well as having an influential contact with hiring authority or being
member of clubs and organisations are positively correlated with individual or family
income (Boxman, De Graaf and Flap, 1991; Campbell, Marsden and Hurlbert, 1986;
Green, Tigges and Browne 1995; Montgomery, 1991).

Regarding occupational attainment, several studies have found that contact

and network resources present a significant association with the status of the job that
a person attains. It has been shown that the prestige of a contact used to get a job has
a positive association with an individuals occupational prestige or job status, and that
when the original position of the ego was low, weak ties tend to lead to higher social
resources. However when the initial position was high, using strong ties has almost the
same benefit as weak ties (Barbieri, 1996 in Lin, 1999a; Bian and Ang, 1997; De Graaf
and Flap, 1988; Lin, Ensel and Vaughn, 1981; Marsden and Hulbert, 1988; Volker and
Flap, 1999). These relations were positive after accounting for parental status,
education, first or previous job status which also showed a significant relation with
attained status.

In continuation with the research regarding network resources or accessed

social capital, which is the focus of this dissertation, Volker and Flap (2008) found that
the extensity of the network, as well as the access to high status positions affect
individuals income, whereas extensity enlarges the chance of becoming a supervisor.
Additionally, Flap and Volker (2008) showed that cultural and economic resources
have an effect on cultural and economic status of people. More complex models have
found that attained and ascribed resources work through direct and indirect paths. Lai,
Lin and Leung (1998), for example, found that part of the effect of personal resources,
e.g. education or first job status, on current occupational status was explained either
18

by the status of the social contact used in a job search or by the accessed social capital.
Also social capital depended, to a considerable degree, on the status of origin directly
or indirectly through education, and parental status showed a direct and indirect effect
on current status through social capital. Although Volker and Flap (2008) found a direct
effect of two of the indicators of accessed social capital on income (upper reachability
and extensity), Lai, Lin and Leung (1998) showed that the effect of this capital works
indirectly through the prestige of the contacts used.

In spite of most of the literature published about network theories on social

capital confirming the idea that well-connected workers get good jobs, there have also
been some researchers that have not found enough evidence to support these results.
They have shown that either contact or network resources do not have an effect on
wage, occupational prestige or unemployment duration (Flap and Boxman in Lin,
1999a; Mouw, 2003; Requena, 1991; Sprengers, Tazelaar and Flap, 1988). These
inconsistencies vary across countries, making the international study of the topic more
interesting.

2.2. Socio-economic attainment: the unequal distribution of life chances

The chances of occupational achievement are, in general, limited by the status

and resources an individual has inherited and achieved. Although the focus of this
study is on the social resources that constrain or boost the status attainment of agents,
it is necessary to take into account other important characteristics which also influence
inequalities within societies. For example, regarding race, gender and age inequalities,
studies have found that for all of them, discrimination impacts access and conditions
of employment. Some of the mechanisms of discrimination found include harassment,
differential promotion and hiring influenced by stereotypes or expulsion from ones
job (Roscigno, Garca and Bobbit-Zeher, 2007; Roscigno et al., 2007).

Social mobility and status attainment are, nonetheless, complex and multifaceted concepts, and the factors that influence them are complexly related as they
work in overlapping ways and in different combinations for different individuals and
societies (Nun et al., 2007). Most of the studies on social mobility centre on the links
19

of achievement and ascription. One of the pioneers in researching the processes of

occupational attainment dynamically was Blau and Duncan in the 1960s. They
attempted to explain part of the dynamic of the stratification system in the US by
testing a structural equation model in which the educational attainment of men was
determined by the fathers education attainment and occupational status. At the same
time the status of the first job was determined by the two fathers features plus
education, and the current occupational status which was determined by all the
variables (Blau and Duncan, 1967). They confirmed this model, and also concluded that
ascriptive characteristics have much more influence on occupational achievements
than merit.

The industrialism theses pose that modernisation should lead employers who
are not taking into consideration ascriptive characteristics or other resources that are
potentially associated with social background when hiring or promoting workers
(Treiman, 1970 in Triventi 2013). Thus the effect of education is expected to be greater
than the effect of social origin in modern societies. This is given that formal education
is the primary mechanism by which people acquire the skills and the credentials
necessary to perform specific jobs. Nevertheless, several studies which have followed
Duncan and Blaus steps, replicating the model with different populations and with
different degrees of complexity have found that both ascription (fathers occupation)
and achievement (years of education) have an impact on occupational status.
Nevertheless the effects vary across countries (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 2007;
Carmichael, 2000; Di Pietro and Urwin, 2003; Krymkovski, 1991; Lin and Yauger, 1975;
Triventi, 2013). Achievement effects have been found to be stronger than ascription
in more developed nations compared to less developed countries. Given these
differences, the next section focuses on previous literature regarding the specific case
of Chile.

20

Chapter 3. Contextual background: The Chilean scene

In this section a brief discussion about the Chilean stratification context is

introduced, followed by empirical evidence regarding the availability and use of social
capital by different social classes.

3.1. Social stratification in Chilean society

Chile is the country with the highest level of human development in LatinAmerica and one of the few countries of the region which participates in the OECD.
Nevertheless, it shows the highest inequality rate within that organisation and
occupies 8th place in the inequality ranking of Latin-America (CEPAL, 2012). After the
arrival of democracy in 1990, subsequent governments have been unable to reduce
the deep socio-economic inequality established in the time of the dictatorship
(between 1973 and 1990), when economic capital began to concentrate mainly within
the private sector. The economic growth and social policies of the 90s and 2000s have
resulted in a reduction of poverty and the working class (given the increase in services
and commerce), but also in an isolation of farm workers and a decline of syndicalism
and the work conditions of some salaried positions. Furthermore, the diversification
of the production system and rise of the opportunities of education have entailed an
increase and heterogenisation of the middle class. But, the perpetuation of the
neoliberal system and low state regulation has implied a reproduction of the financial
elite with the wealthiest 10% earning 35.6 times more than the poorest 10% of the
Chilean population (Ministerio de Desarrollo Social, Chile, 2013).

The inertia of inequality can be mainly attributed to the unequal returns of

education (increase of wage for individuals with tertiary education since the 80s), as
well as to the increase in the employers income and its consequent patrimonial
concentration (Larraaga and Valenzuela, 2011; Pizarro, 2005). The effects of
hierarchy, plus the weak social protection networks and redistribution policies have
led to marked barriers between social classes (Espinoza and Barozet, 2013). Duncans
status attainment model was replicated with a Chilean sample in 2001, and contrary
to what one would expect from this nation (inserted in a developing region) the effects
21

of the parental occupational status on the respondents status were weaker than the
effects of education. This indicated that ascription has a lower weight than
achievement in the Chilean stratification system (Torche and Wormald, 2004).
Nonetheless, the study concluded that compared to the US, Chile has a much higher
intergenerational reproduction of inequality. Thus class heritage still plays a role in
Chile, especially for the high service class, manual workers and independent workers.

In addition to the role that merit, ascription and structural inequalities play in
status attainment, some studies (mainly qualitative) in Chile have suggested that social
capital can also be an important factor in the status acquisition process.

3.2. How is social capital distributed among and used by Chileans?

Espinoza (2006), for example, found that the contacts of less qualified workers
dont allow them access to better positions in comparison with their counterparts.
Some qualitative studies around poor families have also shown that their social
networks are small and closed and mainly have ties with relatives or friends from the
same neighbourhood (Bivort, 2005; Espinoza, 1995). They present an idea of individual
and familiar progress which is not articulated with the community or with social
networks. Furthermore, their entry into the labour market mainly depends on the
contact with their parents friends or direct relatives (Espinoza and Canteros, 2001).
Given this homogeneity, their job opportunities are poor. Later on their social circles
remain redundant further restricting their opportunity of ascendant mobility,
especially for individuals without qualifications.

On the other hand, the middle class in Chile was created with the support of
favour exchange` (Barozet, 2006). Family circles were not enough to cover the
benefits that this class needed, so they started to strategically develop an extensive
and informal network located in public or private positions on which they depended
to get resources and overcome bureaucratic procedures. In this class, contacts are
created in the early stages within the family, scholar and university life. These are then
maintained by meetings, emails, calls, recreative associations and by informing
themselves of the position of others. These ties form a network in which they can
22

exchange strategic favours. Barozet (2006) stresses, that networks of the middle class
although dense, are transitive (where there is contact from A to B and also from B to
C, there is also contact from A to C), which gives them the opportunity to reach more
contacts. Furthermore, Espinoza and Canteros (2001) found that given their higher
education and the fact that they get more stable and formal jobs, they have the
opportunity to make contacts with lecturers or classmates, in addition with a variety
of occupations and positions, which helps them with job promotions or changes.

With regards to the elite class, some qualitative work undertaken around their
practices have shown that they have closed networks with kin or business ties from
the same status (isolating people from other classes) (Giesen, 2010; Castillo, 2013).
They place importance on maintaining their status and social recognition amongst
generations by transmitting their cultural and social capital to their children (e.g.
sending children to best schools; socialising with parental ties). Heritage of job
positions is a frequent practice which promotes the perpetuity of the families in power
positions. They remark that access to high positions in organisations is mainly related
to ties and lineage. Nevertheless, when they have to widen their business networks
they integrate other groups as immigrants or people from middle classes with
economic resources.

Lastly, it is worth noting that although favour exchange` is not objectified, all
interviewees of the aforementioned studies have used contacts to enter into a job,
which remarks that recruitment in Chile is not only based on the merit and
competence of the candidates. With this in mind, the next section presents the aims
and hypotheses of the study.

23

3.3. Aims (A) and hypotheses (H)

A1. To explore the patterns of network resources of employed Chilean adults in 2009.

Social capital has been operationalised in different ways. Lin (2001), one of the main
authors within this field proposes that social capital is based on the correlated notions
of heterogeneity, upper reachability and the extensity of networks. Nevertheless, this
unidimensional vision of the construct does not open the possibility to distinguish
groups by types of social capital accessed. Chilean literature on social classes has
shown that there are individuals which fit networks with a high upper reachability and
also a low heterogeneity. This supports the idea that social capital might not be
properly represented by a continuous measure.

H1: There are subtypes of accessed social capital which are distinguished by
both the extensity of networks and differential access to high, medium and low
status occupations.

A2. To determine the association between the patterns of network resources of

employed Chilean adults in 2009 and their current occupational status.

The theoretical interest of this study is in the effect of accessed social capital (versus
mobilised) in occupational attainment. Literature has shown that although network
resources do not necessarily correspond to contacts who are used to getting jobs, the
resources they have can help individuals gain benefits (Lin, 2001; Bourdieu, 1986).
However, in order to extract causal conclusions from observational data, it would be
necessary to prove that social capital precedes occupational status in time (Kline,
1998). Although the data employed by this study supports that contacts were, in
average, met at least one year before respondents accessed their jobs1, and that the
effect of possible confounders is taken into account, these are cross-sectional,
therefore it is not possible to discard that occupational experience also affected social

According to a one-sample t-test of the mean of the difference between length of time (in months)
since contacts were met and length of time spent in current job, compared to 12 months
(t(2158=19.314; p<0.001).

24

capital in some cases. It is not possible to prove that changes in social capital explain
changes in attained status, therefore it is fundamental to take into account the
potentially confounding relationship between network resources and status outcome.

H2. A higher volume, diversity and/or status of networks is associated with a

higher occupational status, over and above the effects of parental status,
educational level, sex and age.

A3. To determine the extent in which status of origin and education predict differences
in the network resources of employed Chilean adults in 2009.

The section on the inequalities of social resources points out that the position of
individuals e.g. parental or educational status will affect the access and use of social
capital (Lin, 2001). Furthermore, time can increase the likelihood of meeting contacts,
whereas, studies have found that women are more likely to have less social capital
(Lin, 2000).

H3. Increased parental status and educational levels are associated with more
extensive, diverse and/ or higher status networks, controlling for sex and age.

Finally, although previous studies have tested mediation hypotheses e.g. the effect of
parental status on current status through their influence on schooling or social
contacts. Indirect paths are out of the scope of the present study, given that statistical
tools which impede the calculation of these effects are employed, and because the
focus is on taking a closer look at social capital in Chile.

25

Chapter 4. Methodology

4.1. Sample and data collection

A quantitative secondary data analysis was carried out to address the research
questions. Data came from the Social Stratification Survey [SSS] (Desigualdades, 2009),
a nationally representative cross-sectional survey administered in Chile in 2009. The
survey gathered information about social networks, political participation, values and
religion, social and territorial identity, as well as other demographics like occupation,
social mobility, education and income.

The original sample consisted of 6153 individuals, representative of the Chilean

population over 18 years (of a universe of 12,180,403 people), which corresponded to
3365 households. To select the sample, a multistage random sampling was carried out,
stratifying first by region (15) and zone which corresponded to 42 strata, and then
randomising by block, households and then individuals. Within every house a
maximum of three individuals over 18 years old were interviewed face to face. The
estimated sample error at the individual level is 1.3%, reaching a 3.6% for the capital
city and 5.7% on average for the rest of the regions.

For the purpose of the study, only employed individuals were selected because
of the availability of their occupational status information. The analysis was also
centred on individuals between 25 to 64 years old to reduce the effects of the
variability observed in the beginning and end of their work life. The subsample
corresponded to 2583 cases, which excluded retired, permanently ill, homemakers,
students, and others inactive from the analyses.

26

3.2. Measurement and description of variables

3.2.1. Social capital (SC)

A position generator (PG) was used given that it is a widely employed and
thorough technique for measuring access to social resources. It was initially proposed
by Lin and Dumin (1986) and created to measure the morphological characteristics of
network resources represented by positions in the occupational structure. The PG
examines: 1) The extent to which individuals have access to various occupational
positions through social ties; 2) The availability of those social resources given by the
nature of the social tie: acquaintance, friend or relative (strength of tie). In order to
construct the instrument a list of occupations, which approximately represent the
range and salience of those in a specific country must be selected.

SSS authors selected a list of 12 occupations (see table A1 in Appendix2). The

variable used in this study are the binary items regarding if the person knows someone
with that occupation or not. The strength of the tie was not considered given that the
focus is on the resources and not the structure of the network. To indicate the social
resources associated with each occupation, the International Socioeconomic Index
(Ganzeboom, de Graaf and Treiman, 1992) was assigned to these 12 occupations. This
type of measure refers to the human resources and economic rewards (Van der Gaag,
2005). Additionally, a hierarchical cluster analysis was carried out to explore how
occupations group together, and therefore infer types of resources from them.

Van der Gaag (2005) argues that there are two ways in which indicators can be
constructed with the Position Generator. Firstly, in a deductive way, which uses
theoretical ideas about the beneficial morphology of social capital as a basis. This
approach has been applied in a largely standardised way since it was created. The
three most used measures are upper reachability (highest prestige accessed),
heterogeneity (range in accessed prestige scores) and extensity (total number of
different positions accessed). Some of the limitations of these measures include (Van

Tables and figures preceded by an A are located in Appendix

27

der Gaag, 2005): that the first two usually show negatively skewed distributions, which
reduce their usefulness for the expression of linear relations between variables. In the
SSS, all the variables showed a non-normal distribution (figure A1). Also in predictive
analysis all three measures cannot be used together given that it can cause
multicollinearity problems. Nevertheless, using a single measure also implies
measurement error, therefore some authors have used Exploratory or Confirmatory
Factor Analysis to construct a single unidimensional social capital indicator (e.g. Lai,
Lin and Leung, 1998; Safr, 2008; Son, 2013). However, when correlations between the
Position Generator measures are very high little information is added by the measures
i.e. heterogeneity and extensity indicate a similar phenomenon (network diversity). In
this case, their correlation was r=0.917. Furthermore, a unidimensional latent factor
does not have the ability to capture phenomena such as a person who has high scores
in upper reachability but low scores in extensity and heterogeneity. In fact, the use of
a latent factor with these data implied models with poor model fit.

Against these limitations, Van der Gaag (2005) recommends to construct

indicators from the PG by adopting an inductive approach, which is the path followed
by this present study. As an indicator of network resources, a Latent Class Variable was
constructed using the 12 binary items of the Position Generator (explained in the next
section). The idea of this measure is to explore and characterise the patterns of social
capital that can be found in the respondents networks, and to describe in an inductive
way how standard indicators are observed in the latent classes and how they are
associated with occupational status and covariates.

4.2.2. Respondents socioeconomic position (ISEIR)

There are numerous ways to operationalise the concept of social stratification.

Regarding socioeconomic stratification, occupation has constituted one of the most
commonly used variables and it has been found to be reliable as a single indicator of a
persons relative standing on class, status and power dimensions (Haug, 1977). One
limitation of using this construct is that it excludes individuals to whom it was not
possible to assign an occupation. Occupation can be measured as a categorical or a
continuous variable. In this study the latter approach was employed, which refers to
28

the actual resources (educational credentials, wealth) and the status (relative position
in a socially ranked hierarchy in relation to access to consumption of goods, services
and knowledge) an occupation has (Krieger, Williams and Moss, 1997). Although the
use of continuous measures implies a loss of information (e.g. relations of production),
they allow for an unlimited number of graded distinctions between occupational
groups. It is also assumed that differences between occupational groups can be
captured in one dimension and therefore represented in statistical models by a single
parameter (Ganzebom, De Graaf and Treiman, 1992). Furthermore, continuous scales
can be divided into prestige rankings and socio-economic status scores.
Socioeconomic scales rely upon concurrent validity with education and income which
are considered to objectively and validly allocate persons to differential life-styles and
power positions (Haug, 1977). One of the representatives of this approach is the
Socioeconomic Index (SEI) first developed by Otis Dudley Duncan (1961). Later on
Ganzeboom, De Graaf and Treiman (1992) carried out the international
systematisation of this measure and created the International Socioeconomic Index
(ISEI).

In the SSS respondents were asked What is your current occupation? Describe
your main tasks and functions in your current positions. This open question was coded
according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO- 88,
International Labour Organization, 1988) and then assigned a score according to the
ISEI of Ganzeboom and Treiman (1996). These authors constructed a measure using
data sets from 16 nations ranging from undeveloped countries to the most developed.
SEI was regarded as an intermediate position that converts education into income. The
authors used the International Standard Classification of Occupations 1968 (ISCO-68)
(afterwards the ISCO-88) and constructed an ISEI score for 271 detailed occupational
categories that range between scores of 10 (Cooks helper or Agricultural worker) and
90 (Judges) (Ganzeboomet, De Graaf and Treiman, 1992; Ganzeboom and Treiman,
1996). They concluded that the measure compares favourably with competing crossnational valid scales (SIOPS and EGP) and that the ISEI is superior in explaining
educational and occupational attainment, and in measuring the intergenerational
occupational status transmission.

29

In summary, the ISEI was selected because: a) it captures the rank order of, or
the hierarchy of the occupational structure; b) it does not involve a subjective basis
like prestige scales; c) it decreases the complexity of statistical analysis and allows for
the use of less parameters, which are already increased by the use of a latent class
variable.

4.2.3. Covariates

(1) Socioeconomic position of origin (ISEIH): it was operationalised as household or

parental occupational status. Respondents were asked What was the main
occupation of your father or carer when you were 14? Describe his main tasks and
functions. In the case of the mother, the same question was asked about the mother
or fathers partner. The occupations were also assigned to ISCO-88 scores and then
coded according to the ISEI measure. To construct the household status, the fathers
occupation was used when values were present whilst the mothers occupation was
imputed when the fathers occupation was missing. Most of the studies use the
fathers status, nonetheless it showed 22% missingness. Therefore instead of using the
missing-value imputation, the mothers status, an actual value, was used.

Table 1. Distribution of parental variables.

Continuous Variable

Min-Max

Mean (SD)

16-88
16-90
16-88

30.95 (12.70)
33.34 (17.16)
30.75 (13.90)

Category

Frequency (%)

ISEI Father
ISEI Mother
ISEI House
Categorical Variable
Head of house at 14
years old

Father
Mother
Other

85.9
1.9
12.3

% of
missingness
22.2
72.2
9.7
% of
missingness
23.0

30

The missingness for the household occupational status reduced to 9.7%, which is
considered acceptable for statistical purposes3. The occupational status of the head of
the house was not employed given that no occupation was asked when this figure was
neither the father nor the mother (see table 1).

(2). Educational level: Respondents were asked What is your formal educational
level? and was originally coded as (1) without studies; (2) primary incomplete; (3)
primary complete; (4) secondary incomplete; 5) secondary complete; (6) technical
secondary incomplete; (7) technical secondary complete; (8) technical-professional
incomplete; 9) technical-professional complete; 10) university incomplete; (11)
university complete. To use the variable as ordinal it was recoded into nine categories
by merging secondary level with technical secondary. This measure can be considered
as representing a step forward in the attainment of a subsequent course of study or
degree.

(3) Sex: Coded as (0) female or (1) male.

(4) Age: Continuous variable coded in years. The quadratic term was also used to
inquire into the possibility of a curvilinear association of age with occupational status.

Missing values were not significantly related to ISEIR, and were almost evenly distributed among
educational level, zone, and sex, so it is possible to assume that the Household status variable is
missing at random and therefore representative of the population, except individuals whose fathers
worked in the Army (12.4%). The open answer Army without a military rank did not allow the
assignation of an ISEI score, therefore this population is underrepresented by this sample.

31

4.3. Statistical analysis: Mixture modelling

The latent variable mixture modelling technique was adopted to evaluate the
relationship between variables, and Mplus software, version 7.3 was used to estimate
parameters in the equation. The analysis procedure conducted is presented in the
following sections and summarised in figure 1.

Mixture modelling refers to modelling with categorical latent variables that

represent subpopulations where population membership is not known but is inferred
from the data (Muthn and Muthn, 1998-2012). It allows researchers to study
questions about patterns of data and to determine the extent to which those patterns
relate to important variables (Berlin, Williams and Parra, 2013). According to Muthn
and Muthn (1998-2012) a general mixture model has two parts: a measurement and
a structural component. The former is a multivariate regression model that describes
the relationships between a set of observed dependent variables and a set of
categorical latent variables. The observed dependent variables are referred to as
latent class indicators and the relationships are described by a set of logistic
regressions for binary latent class indicators. The structural model describes the
relationships amongst the categorical latent variables, the relationships amongst
observed variables and the relationships between categorical latent variables and
observed variables that are not latent class indicators.

Figure 1. Flow chart of analysis procedure.

32

4.3.1. The measurement component: Latent Class Analysis (LCA)

The first step of the analysis procedure implies the exploration of the patterns
of social resources embedded in the samples networks (Aim 1) by using a Latent Class
Analysis. This method was chosen over an IRT given that this would only provide
unidimensional information about the volume of occupations accessed, regardless of
the status. Whereas an LCA can provide information from which it is possible to infer
the notions of: extensity of the network (probability of endorsing items regardless of
their status), heterogeneity (probability of endorsing high status and low status items)
and upper reachability (probability of endorsing high status occupations).

LCA is a method by which individuals are classified into homogenous and

mutually exclusive latent classes represented by a categorical latent variable, based
on similar patterns of observed data (Berlin, Williams and Parra, 2013), in this case the
accessibility to the 12 occupations of the Position Generator. The method relies on the
assumption that the variables are not independent of one another, but their
relationship is attributable to a common factor (social capital) (McCutcheon, 1987). At
each level of the social capital latent variable, the observed indicators are
hypothesised to be independent of one another (local independence).

There are two types of parameters (see equation in figure A2): 1) the latent
class probabilities or the probability of a randomly selected case being at level t of the
latent variable S. This describes the distribution of classes of the latent variable
(McCutcheon, 1987). There are two important aspects: a) The number of classes (T),
and b) the relative sizes of the T classes which can be thought of as prevalence, and
indicates whether the population is relatively evenly distributed amongst the classes
or not. On the other hand, 2) the conditional probabilities or occupation endorsement
probabilities (OEP) are comparable to the factor loadings in factor analysis, but
measured in logits. These parameters represent the probabilities of an individual in
class t of the latent variable being at a particular level of the observed variables (e.g.
endorsing the item Doctor conditional on being in class t). These probabilities allow

33

the characterising of the nature of the types defined by each of the latent classes, and
hence the nature of the latent variable.

For the purposes of this study an exploratory approach was adopted, in which
the estimation of the optimal number of classes of the latent variable is given by both
theoretical and statistical support. Currently, researchers use a combination of criteria
including statistical information criteria like the Akaikes Information Criterion (AIC),
the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) and sample size adjusted BIC (aBIC), which are
based on loglikelihood estimates (fit of the model) but also contain a penalty
component that increases with the number of estimated parameters (parsimony)
(Nylund, Asparouhov and Muthn, 2007). The lowest value of a given IC indicates the
best fitting model. Other indicators include likelihood based indexes such as the
Bootstrap Likelihood Ratio Test (BLRT) or the Lo-Mendel Ratio Test (LMR) which
compare the improvement in fit between neighbouring class models and provide a p
value that can be used to determine whether the k-1 class model is rejected in favour
of the k class model. A simulation study performed by Nylund, Asparouhov and
Muthn (2007) concluded that the BICs and the BLRT tend to work better than the rest
as indicators for class enumeration, followed by the aBIC. Another tool which aids in
model selection is the entropy value. It assesses the accuracy with which models
classify individuals into their most likely class. Its value ranges between 0 and 1, and
the larger it is the more clear the latent class identification or separation (Asparouhov
and Muthn, 2014a).

4.3.2. The structural component: The BCH method

To analyse the relationship of the measurement component with auxiliary

variables, the standard way would be to, simultaneously, combine the latent class
model and the secondary model into one joint model. Nevertheless, this one-step
approach may lead to the secondary model affecting the latent class formation and
meaning (Asparouhouv and Muthn, 2013). Also the procedure does not fit with the
logic of introducing covariates as a step that comes after the classification model has
been built (Vermunt, 2010). Some alternatives to these methods have been developed
to address these problems: the pseudo-class method, the three-step or stepwise
34

procedures, amongst others. Bias adjusted three-step methods proceeds as follows:

1) A LC model X is built based on the categorical response variables Y (figure 2.1); 2)
Individuals are assigned to latent classes W based on their posterior class membership
probabilities (figure 2.2); 3) Association between the Z (outcome variable) and X is
estimated using the assigned class membership W, and taking into account that these
contain classification error (figure 2.3) (Bakk and Vermunt, 2015). These methods
allow covariates to be tested as predictors or outcomes of latent classes whilst
maintaining the probabilistic nature of the latent class variable.

Figure 2. The three steps of the bias adjusted three-steps approaches (Bakk &
Vermunt, 2015).

Within this approach, the ML three-step approach, developed by Vermunt

(2010), is estimated using maximum likelihood estimation. Simulation studies have
found that this method outperforms other procedures in terms of bias, mean squared
errors and/or confidence intervals, when normality assumptions hold and when the
error variance is correctly assumed to be equal across classes (Asparouhouv and
Muthn, 2013; Bakk, Tekle and Vermunt, 2103; Vermunt, 2010). Nevertheless, an
important drawback of the method is that it does not guarantee that the covariates
will not influence the latent class formation (Asparouhov and Muthn, 2014b).

On the other hand, the modified BCH method (Vermunt, 2010), a novel version
of the three-step approach, recreates the true latent classification by weighting the
assigned class membership in step two with the inverse of the classification errors. The
structural model is then estimated using these weights (saved in an expanded data
set), so class shift is not possible. For the estimation of this model, maximum likelihood

35

parameter estimates (MLR) with standard errors robust to non-normality and nonindependence of observations are used (in this case, corrects for nestedness of data
and non-normal auxiliary variables) (Yuan and Bentler, 2000). The MLR standard errors
are computed using a sandwich estimator which corrects for all kind of
misspecifications. Simulation studies have shown that the most important advantages
of this method over the ML approach are that: it avoids shifts in the latent classes in
the final stage, equal error variances can be assumed, and it is more robust when the
distal outcome is not normally distributed (as in this study) (Asparouhov and Muthn,
2014b; Bakk and Vermunt, 2015; Vermunt, 2010).

One drawback of the use of latent mixture regression analysis, is that it

impedes the estimation of some of the paths that would allow analysing a mediating
model like Blau and Duncan (1967) or Lai, Lin and Leung (1998), e.g. direct path from
status of origin to education. Furthermore, the estimation of indirect paths with
nominal mediators (SC) cannot be calculated by the product of the two direct effects
as with continuous variables; the procedure has only been specified under the causal
inference framework, i.e. the counterfactual theory of causation, which is not adopted
within this study given the observational character of data (Muthn and Aparouhov,
2015). Therefore, and given that the focus of this study is on social capital, and not the
status acquisition model, indirect effects are not explored within this study.

In summary, the BCH method was employed for the analysis to explore the
social capital latent variable as (figure 3):

a) A predictor of occupational status (the distal outcome), controlling for the effects
of the covariates (Aim 2). A Wald test estimates the equality of class-specific mean
differences of ISEI across the latent classes. The parameters for the auxiliary variables,
including parental status, educational level, sex, age and an interaction of education
and age given the expansion of private education after the 1980s are linear regression
coefficients.

b) An outcome of the covariates (Aim 3). These parameters are multinomial logistic
regression coefficients of the social capital latent classes.
36

Figure 3. Hypothesised model of social capital.

37

Chapter 5. Descriptive results

5.1. Description of the sample

5.1.1. Socio-demographic characteristics

The total sample size of the survey was 6153, nevertheless for the study only
employed individuals (50.4%), ranging from 25 to 64 years old (83.3%) were selected.
The total sample was reduced to 2583 cases (41.9% of the sample), from which 1141
were women (44.2%) and 1442 men (55.8%). The mean age was 43.25 (SD=10.7). Table
1 and 2 show the percentages of missingness. For all the key variables (excepting for
ISEIH, see footnote 1), the percentages of missing values did not exceed a 0.2% of the
sample (5 cases).

Table 2. Distribution of respondent variables (n=2583).

Continuous Variable
ISEI Respondent

Min-Max
16-88

Educational Level

1-9

Age

25-64

Categorical Variable
Sex

Category
Female

Educational Level

Male
1 No studies
2 Primary Incomplete
3 Primary Complete
4 Secondary Incomplete
5 Secondary Complete
6 Technical Incomplete
7 Technical Complete
8 University Incomplete
9 University Complete

Mean (SD)
35.11
(14.72)
4.85
(2.08)
43.25
(10.69)

% missing
0.2

Frequency
(valid %)
44.2

% missing

55.8
1.0
12.5
12.6
17.9
32.8
2.1
6.2
4.2
10.7

0.1
0.0

0.0
0.1

Regarding socioeconomic status, the majority of the individuals had complete

secondary educational level (either scientific-humanistic or technical) (32.8%); this
category was followed by incomplete secondary education (17.8%), complete, and
incomplete primary (see table 2). Only 1% of the sample showed no education and a
38

10% had complete university studies. In terms of occupational level, the mean score
of the International Socioeconomic Index was 35.11, whereas the median was 33.00.
Ninety percent of the sample presented a score of 53 or lower, whereas the first decile
corresponded to the lowest ISEI score, 16. This information shows that individuals
concentrated in medium to low occupational status with secondary or lower levels of
education.

Furthermore, the mean household score respondents were 14 years old was
30.75 (SD= 13.90) and the median 29.37. The lowest quartile for the parents
corresponded to 16, whilst percentile 95 was 56 compared to a score of 66 for the
respondents. This information suggests an average upward mobility of the
respondents, which is illustrated by the distribution of the ISEI scores in figure 4. Both
show a significant non-normal distribution with positive skewness and some outliers
concentrated in the high socioeconomic positions (see also figure A3).

Figure 4. Histogram of respondents (right) and household (left) occupational status

in ISEI scores.

5.1.2. Association between ISEIR and covariates

The zero order correlations show that the respondents ISEI score has a positive
and significant association with the Household ISEI score, but only of moderate size
(rho=0.33)4. Table 3 also shows a small negative significant correlation of ISEIR with
4

Spearmans rho correlations were calculated given the non-normality of the ISEI and Education
variables.

39

age (rho=-0.15), indicating that the older the individual the lower their occupational
status, and a large positive significant correlation with education (rho=0.54). These
figures suggest that education, an achieved status, has a higher association than
ascription, not controlling for other variables. Furthermore, ISEIH shows a moderate
correlation with the educational level of the respondent (rho=0.411), suggesting that
parental status could have a higher influence on attainment at younger ages, while
other variables influence the present occupational status. Education was also
negatively and moderately related to age, so older individuals would show lower levels
of education. Additionally, a t-test suggests that there are no significant differences in
the mean of the ISEI scores of women and men (t=0.994; p=0.320).

Table 3. Association between Occupational Status and covariates.

Continuous
Variables

ISEI Respondent

ISEI Household

Age

Correlations
ISEI Household
Age
Education
Categorical
Variable
Sex

0.329**
-0.153**
0.543**

0.411**

Categories
Male
Female

t-test
35.36
34.78

-0.277***

Note: Spearmans rho coefficients are used for continuous variables, and Students t test for
categorical variable.
*Association is significant at the 0.05 level; ** at the 0.01 level; *** at the 0.001 level.

5.2. Social capital characterisation

In table 4 the distribution of the Position Generator (PG) items is shown. Eighty
seven percent of the respondents said they knew at least one Alter through any of the
relationships (356 did not know anyone). The most popular items (accessed by 40%
and more) were secondary teachers, civil servants, construction labourers and police
officers, occupations which range from low to high ISEI scores. The least accessed
occupations were occupations with medium and low ISEI scores such as: real estate
agents, office cleaners, cook and shop salespersons. This data suggests that the
socioeconomic status of an occupation is probably not related to the popularity of

40

occupations. Furthermore, real estate agents have a very low access, which deviates
almost 10% from the lowest occupation (office cleaner with 28%). This could suggest
that it is not very representative of the Chilean occupational structure.

Table 4. Access to occupations through social ties.

Position (ISEI score)
Doctor (88)
Engineer (69)
Secondary Teacher (69)
Real Estate Agent (59)
Civil Servant (56)
Police Officer (50)
Nurse (43)
Agriculturalist (43)
Salesperson (40)
Cook (30)
Construction labourer (29)
Office Cleaner (23)
Total
Average

Respondent
Accessing in %
35.2
37.8
52.3
19.0
44.4
42.3
38.4
36.5
33.5
31.3
44.3
27.8
87.0
36.9

For comparative purposes, table 5 shows correlations of standard social capital

measures. The respondents occupational status was positively and significantly
correlated with the three standard measures, except for lower reachability. The higher
the reach in the network and the wider and more diverse the network, the higher the
respondents ISEI. Nevertheless, the strength of the relationships were medium to low.
ISEIR was more strongly related to upper reachability and extensity (rho=0.32 and
0.31, respectively) than to heterogeneity (rho=0.29). This indicated that having more
contacts of a higher status is more associated with current occupational status, than
diversity of the network. Furthermore, it can be seen that the three measures are
highly correlated with each other (rho over 0.8), which suggests that they do not
provide different information. On the other hand, educational level showed the
highest correlations with them (around 0.4), whereas status of origin showed
significant but low correlations (around 0.2). This indicates that achieved status might
be more associated with social networks than background status. Again heterogeneity
showed the lowest correlations with both. Age presented the weakest negative
correlations with the social capital indicators (under 0.1), and only the relation with
range and extensity were significant; the older the individual the less diverse and
41

extensive their networks. No significant differences were observed between females

and males in terms of their social capital.

Table 5. Zero order correlations among key variables.

ISEI
Upper
Respondent Reachability Heterogeneity Extensity
Upper
Reachability
Heterogeneity
Extensity
ISEI House
Age
Education

0.320**
0.294**
0.310**
0.329**
-0.153**
0.543**

0.873**
0.803**
0.282**
-0.022
0.428**

0.917**
0.239**
-0.062**
0.406**

0.257**
-0.087**
0.426**

Note: Spearmans rho coefficients.

*Association is significant at the 0.05 level; ** at the 0.01 level; *** at the 0.001 level.

Finally, the mean ISEI of positions accessed (43.63) was higher than the mean
ISEI score of the respondents current jobs (35.11) indicating that, in general, the
sample reaches Alters with a higher socioeconomic status. Additionally, from table 6
it is possible to see that the occupations with high ISEI scores (e.g. Doctors or
Engineers) are accessed, on average, by the occupants with the highest occupational
status, whilst individuals who have access to low SE occupations such as construction
labourers or agriculturalists5 present the lowest ISEI scores. This data supports, to
some extent, the homophilous principle, where subjects with the highest statuses
relate to other subjects higher up in the social hierarchy, and vice versa. However, the
mean ISEIR of individuals acceding to the remaining occupations is intermediate with
no rank order, which suggests that individuals with medium occupational status have
heterophilous relationships with alters of low socioeconomic status as well as with
professional occupations.

Although agriculturalists have a medium ISEI score, farmers have one of the lowest ISEI scores and
the wording of the former can include or be confused with the word farmer which is a manual type of
occupation related to low economic and human capital.

42

Table 6. Mean ISEI score of respondents for accessed occupations.

Occupations Accessed
Doctor (88)
Civil Engineer (69)
Secondary Teacher (69)
Real Estate Agent (59)
Public Administrator (56)
Police Officer (50)
Nurse (43)
Agriculturalist (43)
Shop sales man (40)
Cook (30)
Construction labourer (29)
Office Cleaner (23)

Mean ISEIR
40.65
41.03
38.61
42.09
39.78
37.06
38.64
35.52
39.17
37.72
35.28
39.06

43

Chapter 6. Modelling Results

6.1. Measurement Component: The social capital patterns

6.1.1 Resources shared by PG occupations

Before presenting latent class findings, occupations were ordered according to

the resources they share with other positions, instead of using the single ISEI score
assigned, in order to facilitate the description of latent classes. This information was
explored with a Hierarchical Cluster Analysis6 which suggested three clusters of items
of the PG (figure A4):

1) Cluster 1 (high level of resources): included occupations with the highest ISEI scores
Doctor, Engineer, Teacher, Civil Servant, Nurses, and Police Officers. This group
represents professional occupations, the majority of which have a service character,
require high educational levels, and represent influential positions in a hierarchy.

2) Cluster 2 (medium level): included Real Estate Agent, Shop Salesperson, Cook and
Office Cleaner, occupations which require medium to low levels of education, and
have a medium to low level of prestige and economic, human and cultural resources.

3) Cluster 3 (low level): included Agriculturalists and/or Farmers and Construction

Labourers, network contacts with the lowest human, cultural, symbolic and economic
capital.

An exploratory data analysis tool used for organising observed data into meaningful subgroups or
clusters based on a combination of independent variables, which maximises the similarity of cases
within each cluster while maximising the dissimilarity between groups (Burns and Burns, 2008). It can
also cluster variables together, similar to factor analysis, and can handle nominal, ordinal and scale
data.

44

6.1.2. Searching for the best Social Capital indicator

This section presents results of the Latent Class Analysis carried out to explore
the patterns of social resources embedded in the samples networks. Six models were
fitted starting from a two-class model to a seven-class one7. Most of the solutions
yielded hierarchically ordered classes which mainly differed in their likelihood to
access all occupations, regardless of their status or in terms of their extensity.
Nevertheless, from the five-class solution and above, classes showed distinctive
probabilities of endorsing groups of occupations with high and low resources. This is
in addition to their hierarchical differentiation by general probability of access to all
occupations, which opened the possibility of having subtypes of social networks
distinguished by differential levels of upper reachability and heterogeneity.

Table 7. Model fit indices of LC models.

Model

AIC

BIC

aBIC

Entropy

BLRT

Two-class

34492.221

34638.639

34559.207 0.845

-19935.581

p
value
0.000

Three-class

33809.407

34031.962

33911.226 0.766

-17221.111

0.000

Four-class

33619.381

33918.073

33756.032 0.683

-16866.704

0.000

Five-class

33510.177

33885.006

33681.660 0.701

-16758.690

0.000

Six-class

33425.535

33876.502

33631.851 0.698

-16691.088

0.000

Seven-class

33399.222

33926.326

33640.371 0.706

-16635.768

0.000

Note: AIC= Akaikes Information Criterion; BIC= Bayesian Information Criterion; aBIC= Sample Size
Adjusted Bayesian Information Criteria; BLRT= Bootstrap Likelihood Ratio Test.

Model fit indices are displayed in table 7. The two-class model showed the
highest entropy or class separation, nevertheless it presented the worst model fit. The
three-class model showed adequate entropy and a better fit according to the BIC and
BLRT. Nevertheless, substantively the classes did not provide innovative information
(figure A5), but rather a pattern of increasing likelihood of endorsing positions with
each successive class, without a distinction of status. Furthermore, although a fourclass model showed a better model fit indices, the entropy also decreased when
compared to the previous model and the interpretation of classes was more similar
than the previous one.

It was assumed that the PG indicators are locally independent.

45

The five-class solution showed a better model fit and class separation when
compared to the previous solution, according to the BIC and BLRT, and provided
original information about the social capital patterns (figure 5). Moreover, a six-class
model slightly reduced the BIC, but also its entropy and was therefore discarded.
Whereas a seven-class model augmented its entropy, but decreased its balance of
model fit and parsimony, according to the BIC. Additionally, this seven-class model
provided more similar information than the five-class solution, in addition to a class
with low practical interpretation (see class 5 in figure A6). Taking this into account and
the fact that adding more classes would have resulted in very complex models with
several parameters and no substantive meaning, no more models were tested (in spite
of the suggestion from the BLRT). The five-class model was selected because of its
adequate model fit when compared to previous solutions, given its adequate level of
parsimony compared to model seven, and because of its intermediate-high level of
class identification. Additionally, average latent class probabilities for the most likely
latent class membership were above 0.7 for all latent classes which confirmed the class
separation quality (table A2).

Figure 5. Occupation endorsement probabilities by class, five class model. PG

occupations are ordered by resource clusters (from cluster 1 to 3) and ISEI scores.

46

6.1.3. The meaning of the five-class measurement component

Figure 5 and table 8 display the class membership probabilities along with the
occupation endorsement probability (OEP). OEPs reflect the likelihood that an
individual will know a particular occupation, given their membership to one class. Real
estate agent showed the lowest network audience, as predicted by the descriptive
statistics. Class prevalence estimates ranged from 13.2% to 27%, which show a
relatively even distribution.

Table 8. Probability of item endorsement conditional on class membership. N= class

percentages based on estimated posterior probabilities.
Level of
resources of
occupations
High

Doctor (88)
Nurse (43)
Civil Engineer (69)
Secondary Teacher (69)
Civil Servant (56)
Police Officer (50)

Class
1
20.3%
0.015
0.015
0.056
0.026
0.000
0.068

Class
2
20.6%
0.083
0.176
0.230
0.331
0.272
0.320

Class
3
18.5%
0.244
0.252
0.251
0.465
0.322
0.333

Class
4
27.4%
0.636
0.656
0.616
0.866
0.753
0.619

Class
5
13.2%
0.885
0.898
0.786
0.958
0.925
0.848

Medium

Real Estate Agent (59)

Sales person (40)
Cook (30)
Office Cleaner (23)

0.000
0.009
0.005
0.019

0.062
0.293
0.261
0.290

0.096
0.117
0.184
0.015

0.305
0.477
0.425
0.338

0.575
0.912
0.817
0.902

Low

Agriculturalist (43)
Construction labourer
(29)

0.161
0.137

0.358
0.779

0.217
0.000

0.431
0.484

0.761
0.925

Occupation accessed

Note: darker shading represent higher probabilities of endorsement within the class.

Class 1, the isolated network: is composed of individuals with very low OEPs across
all the items, not exceeding 0.16. The items with the greatest endorsement
probabilities were the two occupations comprising of the low-resources group. Results
suggest a group of people whose networks have the lowest levels of extensity
(probability of accessing occupations), heterogeneity (probability of accessing
occupations with different socioeconomic resources) and upper reachability
(probability of accessing the highest prestige occupations), and therefore the lowest
levels of social capital.
47

In Class 2, the working-class network: shows medium-low OEPS (around 0.3) with a
higher likelihood of accessing occupations out of the three groups than the previous
one. In addition, occupations from the low resource group received the highest OEPS.
The probability of endorsing a construction labourer was the second highest of all the
latent classes, whereas OEP for doctor is the second lowest. Moreover, access to
engineers, nurses and civil servants was rather unlikely (around 0.2). This information
suggests a group with medium-low extensity, relatively homogenous around low
status occupations, and with low upper reachability.

Class 3, the closed medium-resourced network: also presents low to medium OEPs
for all occupations, nevertheless when opposite to class 2, it shows significantly higher
odds of accessing occupations from the high resource cluster (0.24 to 0.46) and lower
odds of endorsing items from the medium (0.02 to 0.18) and low resource groups. In
fact, knowing a cleaner or a construction labourer, occupations with the lowest ISEI, is
not likely for this group (OEP of 0.02 and 0.00, respectively), whereas the items with
the

greatest

endorsement

probabilities

included

intermediate-high

status

occupations, i.e. teacher and government worker. Hence, this class represents a
network which has a higher extensity than the previous one, but largely lower than
the following, and that is homogenous around intermediate-high status occupations,
but also has a low probability of including rural workers (0.22).

Class 4, elite-like network: is the largest class and included individuals with mediumhigh probabilities (0.62 to 0.87) of accessing occupations from the high resource
group, but only medium probabilities (from 0.31 to 0.48) of having medium or low
resource contacts. Therefore it can be characterised as a group with high upper
reachability and homogeneity. It shares similar properties with the previous one, but
its probabilities of accessing all occupations are vastly higher, indicating that it is more
likely to find individuals with more extensive networks.

Class 5, the richly-resourced network: is the smallest class. OEPs for all the items
exceeded 0.76, except for real estate agent. The highest probabilities (over 0.9) are for
occupations of the three groups of resources, therefore it can be concluded that it is a
48

class with high extensity and heterogeneity, which also implies high upper reachability,
or what could be nominated as the group with the highest level of social capital.

6.2. Structural Component: the relation of social capital with ascribed and attained
positions.

Firstly, the one-step, ML three-step and BCH approaches were tested and
compared. However, as the literature stressed, the first two approaches did change
the meanings of the latent classes in the third step, including the class size and the
OEPs. Additionally, the full BCH model (BCH3) presented the best model fit, according
to the BICs (see table 9), therefore this procedure was carried out to analyse both; the
extent to which the social capital latent variable is associated with occupational status
controlling for confounders, and if it is, at the same time, predicted by these same
covariates. Given the missing values of auxiliary variables, the valid sample size was
reduced to 2326 cases (see the new class sizes in table A3).

Table 9. Model fit indices of LC mixture regression models.

Model
Five classes LCA
One-step model
ML three-step model
BCH1
BCH2
BCH3
BCH4
BCH5

AIC
33510.177
47850.059
24805.687
28.965.579
25458.803
25451.454
24584.264
24644.055

BIC
33885.006
48373.678
24984.063
29024.127
25545.082
25537.733
24762.573
24776.349

aBIC
33681.660
48084.553
24885.569
28.992.354
25497.424
25490.075
24664.080
24703.273

Entropy
0.701
0.730
0.583
1.1428
1.143
1.143
1.143
1.143

Note: BCH 1= SC on ISEIR; BCH2= ISEIR on covariates without interaction; BCH3=ISEIR on covariates
with interaction, without age square; BCH4= full-model; BCH5= full-model without age and sex as
predictors of SC.

6.2.1. The returns of social resources and other forms of capital

Firstly, occupational status was solely included as a distal outcome of the latent
social capital variable (BCH1). A Wald test of equality of means indicated that there
are significant overall differences of ISEI across classes (figure A7). Model fit indices

Entropy glitch given use of weights instead of probabilities in second step of BCH.

49

are displayed in table 9 and coefficients of variables in table 10. Social capital
accounted for 14% of the variance of occupational status. Afterwards parental status,
education, sex and age and age square were included as predictors of ISEI; only both
age terms showed insignificant effects (BCH2). The inclusion of these covariates
increased the percentage of variance explained by ISEIR to 36.12%. It also increased
the model fit according to the BICs (BLRT was not utilised here because of its focus on
the number of latent classes). Subsequently, the interaction between education and
age was included (the quadratic term was removed because of its insignificant effect),
which showed a significant relation with ISEI, whereas age also became significant as
a function of education (BCH3).

Table 10. Unstandardised estimates of association of ISEIR and independent

variables (standardised estimates). N=2326
Model
BCH1

BCH2

Variables
Social capital

B (Beta)

Residual Variance
R-square

185.489
0.146

Social Capital
ISEIH
Education
Sex
Age
Age Square
Residual Variance
R-square

BCH4

Social Capital
ISEIH
Education
Sex
Age
Educ*Age
Residual Variance
R-square

0.122 (0.115)
3.358 (0.473)
1.039 (0.035)
-0.357 (-0.260)
0.004 (0.256)

SE

Wald
309.065

p value
0.000

0.024
0.177
0.522
0.186
0.002

26.960
5.046
19.002
1.990
-1.921
1.800

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.047
0.055
0.072

0.024
0.565
0.522
0.058
0.012

24.984
4.987
8.619
2.095
2.420
-2.854

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.036
0.016
0.004

138.796
0.361

0.120 (0.113)
4.868 (0.686)
1.094 (0.037)
0.140 (0.102)
-0.034 (-0.050)

138.354
0.363

Note: *** significant at 0.001 level, * significant at 0.05 level

50

Finally, the four covariates were entered as predictors of social capital.

Although age and sex, presented some significant single logit coefficients, they showed
an overall insignificant effect on social capital. Nevertheless, excluding them worsened
the model fit (BCH5) therefore, and given their theoretical importance they were kept
in the full-model (figure 6). Comparing the coefficient of determination this model with
the one of a model without social capital (R2 = 0.363 versus R2= 0.352, respectively),
indicated that the proportion of explained variance of attained status by social
resources is very small, i.e. 1.1%.

Figure 6. Full-model of social capital (BCH4). Full arrows represent significant paths,
dashed arrows represent insignificant paths.
Estimates from the full model indicated that there is an overall significant
association between social capital (t(4)=26.10, p<.001) and occupational status with
all the other effects being held. All of the mean differences of ISEI scores across social
capital classes were resulted as significant, except for two cases (see table 11 and
figure 7). Thus, in general, a higher level of social resources, expressed by the
increasing probabilities of accessing occupations, is associated with a higher
occupational status.

51

Table 11. Walds test of mean ISEI differences across classes, and effect size of
difference.
Class comparison

Wald (1df)

p value

Rich- elite
Rich-medium
Rich-working
Rich-isolated
Elite-medium
Medium-working
Medium-isolated
Working-isolated

0.005
25.887
62.669
64.000
27.622
6.015
6.593
0.040

0.942
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.014
0.010
0.841

All (4 df)

26.100

0.000

Effect
Size
0.033
0.525
0.787
0.859
0.558
0.262
0.335
0.073

Note: comparisons not included here presented significant differences.

Specifically, people within the elite network showed higher ISEI scores than
individuals from the rich network, nevertheless the differences were not significant.
Therefore, having high-status and more homogeneous networks does not make a
difference in terms of socioeconomic position in comparison with having a high
probability of access to both high and low status occupations. Nevertheless,
individuals from the medium, low and isolated networks are expected to have
significantly lower occupational status than the ones with elite or rich networks. This
means that the lower the extensity or probability of accessing occupations, and
consequently the probability of reaching high status occupations, the lower the ISEI.
Additionally, having less access to low-status positions (medium network) increases
the occupational status of individuals versus a high access (working-class). The second
insignificant difference in terms of attained status was between the low and isolated
network. Having higher probabilities of accessing occupations but of a lower status, in
comparison with having almost no access to social resources does not make a
difference to a persons socioeconomic status.

52

50
45

41,921

41,437

40
33,691

Mean ISEI score

35
30

29,832

28,76

Low

Isolated

25
20

15
10
5
0
Elite

Rich

Medium

Social Capital Category

Figure 7. Distribution of estimated ISEIR score by social capital classes, and
confidence intervals.
Regarding confounders (BCH4 in table 10), status of origin also presented a
positive effect on current status, controlling for other variables. Consistent with zero
order correlations, the effect of education was the highest (Beta=0.69), followed by
parental status (Beta=0.11). The significant interaction effect indicated that education
and age have significant effects, but as a function of the other one. Hence, for
individuals who are 25 years old, one level increase in education would imply having,
in average, 4.87 more units of ISEI, whereas for respondents with no studies, an
increase in age of a year implies a score 0.14 higher. The negative estimate for the
interaction, in addition to a scatter plot of the partial relation of ISEIR and education
separated by age groups (see figure A8), however, suggests that older individuals
present lower effects of education (over 51 years old), which coincides with the
expansion of education in the 80s. On the other hand, the effect of age is also
decreased with higher levels of education. Finally, males are expected to have 1.09
ISEI scores higher, on average, than females, holding for other effects.

53

6.2.2. The acquisition of social capital

Regarding the multinomial logistic regressions of the social capital latent

variable on its predictors, a Wald test which explores if all coefficients associated to a
given variable are equal to zero indicated that social resources of individuals are
significantly influenced by status of origin and educational level (table 12). The higher
the level of education achieved by an individual, the better their social capital. An
increase of one level of education implies a higher likelihood of belonging to the
working-class network versus the isolated class, and even higher likelihoods of
belonging to the medium, elite or rich classes (increasingly) (table 13). Education levels
only do not make a significant difference in terms of belonging either to the elite or
rich network groups. Thus schooling does has an impact on the extensity and status
reachability of networks. Nevertheless an increase in one level of education provides
comparable opportunities of having either a high-status homogenous network or a
highly heterogeneous network.

Table 12. Walds test of overall effect of covariates on social capital.

ISEIH
Education
Sex
Age

Wald
16.921
66.841
1.539
2.461

df
1
1
1
1

p value
0.000
0.000
0.215
0.117

On the other hand, a higher status of origin significantly predicts having a

network with more social resources. For example, an increase in one unit of ISEIH
increases the odds of being in the medium network versus the isolated network, and
even more so the likelihood of being in the rich or the elite networks. This higher unit
also decreases the odds of being in the isolated or low networks in comparison with
the rich one. Nonetheless, household status does not make a difference regarding the
likelihood of belonging to the adjoining categories of the extremes. Namely, an
increase in the ISEI scores of parents would not increase the likelihood of having a rich
network versus an elite or medium network, or of having a low-resource network
instead of an isolated one. Hence, status of origin seems to influence the likelihood of
accessing more contacts and especially higher status Alters versus only low status

54

contacts or no contact at all, but not the likelihood of having a more heterogeneous
or homogenous network.

Table 13. Multinomial logistic regression coefficients (in logits) of covariates on Social
capital classes with the Isolated and Rich networks as reference class
Reference:
Isolated 3
ISEIH
Education
Sex
Age

Reference:
Rich
ISEIH
Education
Sex
Age

Workingclass 2
0.004
(0.010)
0.280***
(0.078)
0.238
(0.183)
-0.015
(0.009)
Isolated
-0.032***
(0.009)
-0.923***
(0.082)
-0.069
(0.201)
-0.017
(0.010)

Mediumresourced 4
0.026**
(0.010)
0.664***
(0.089)
-0.652**
(0.211)
0.010
(0.011)
Workingclass
-0.028**
(0.028)
-0.643***
(0.066)
0.169
(0.199)
-0.031**
(0.009)

Elite-like 5

Rich 1

0.044***
(0.008)
0.896***
(0.082)
-0.305
(0.182)
0.016
(0.009)

0.032***
(0.009)
0.923***
(0.082)
0.069
(0.201)
0.017
(0.010)

Mediumresourced
-0.006
(0.007)
-0.259***
(0.052)
-0.721***
(0.193)
-0.007
(0.009)

Elite-like
0.012
(0.006)
-0.027
(0.050)
-0.374
(0.192)
-0.001
(0.009)

Note: Standard errors in parenthesis. *** Significant at 0.001 level; ** significant at 0.01 level; *
significant at 0.05 level.

Moreover, age and sex did not result in being overly significant predictors of
social capital (table 12). Some exceptions can be found in single coefficients (table 13);
an increase of one year in age increases the likelihood of having rich, elite or medium
networks as opposed to working-class networks. Furthermore, being male decreases
the likelihood of having a middle class network versus a rich and isolated one, thus
women would be more likely to have medium social capital and males would have
extreme social capital, either high or low.

55

Chapter 7. Discussion and Conclusion

The present study investigated the patterns of accessed social capital of Chilean
employed adults and how these patterns are associated with socioeconomic positions
of individuals and predicted by ascribed and achieved conditions. Accessed social
capital refers to the resources embedded in individuals networks; theory and
evidence suggests that individuals or social groups do not acquire social capital
uniformly and that access to better social capital leads to better returns (Lin, 2001).
Findings from this study both support and extend the prior research.

Regarding the first research question, a Latent Class Analysis was used to
examine patterns of network resources of Chileans, and to inductively construct a
social capital latent variable, given the limitations of using standard measures of social
capital together (Lin, 2001), i.e. inappropriate distributions, excessively high
correlations and a questionable unidimensionality of the latent factor. Five patterns of
social resources were identified from the twelve Position Generator occupations.
Findings suggested that social capital, in general, lies on a spectrum of extensity of
contacts (increasing likelihood of accessing occupations regardless of their status with
each successive class). Nevertheless independent classes can be distinguished by their
relative differential access to high and low status occupations; supporting the first
hypothesis. The five classes extracted were the isolated network, which represents
people with almost no social connections or with a low probability to have connections
to low-status others; the working-class network comprises individuals with closed
networks and high access to working-class occupations or farmers; the closed mediumresourced class includes subjects with dense networks of mainly professionals of
intermediate prestige; the elite-like category is a class with higher extensity than the
previous and in which individuals develop links mainly with high status alters, and
finally in the rich-resourced network individuals have extensive and heterogeneous
networks with access to both high and low status occupations. The uncovering of these
distinct patterns questions the use of a unidimensional continuous factor of social
capital for predictive analyses, as Van der Gaag (2005) stated earlier, and also
encourages other researchers in the field to use this technique in order to make crossnational comparisons.
56

Furthermore, according to results from a mixture regression analysis

performed with the BCH method, these classes were found to be significant predictors
of socioeconomic position, holding out for effects of other socio-demographic
conditions. The results support Lins (2001) social capital proposition and previous
international literature confirming the labour market leverage of having access to
better social capital (e.g. Calv-Armengol and Jackson, 2004; Campbel, Marsden and
Hulbert., 1986; Volker and Flap, 1999). All SC classes presented significant differences
in terms of occupational status, except for two cases. Thus, in general, better social
capital operationalised as a higher volume of network resources was associated with
a higher attained status. Nevertheless, the categorical nature of the social capital
variable permitted to expand previous findings and provide further evidence for
Chilean studies. On one hand, the insignificant differences of occupational status
between the rich and elite networks suggested the possibility that having a network
with, mainly, high status contacts (homogenous network) is as relevant as having a
highly heterogeneous network. On the other hand, the unimportant difference
between the isolated and working-class networks indicated that having access to low
status contacts versus not having connections is no more valuable for socio-economic
attainment. Furthermore, individuals from the medium-status network showed
significantly higher ISEI than individuals from the working-class group. Interestingly,
the main difference between those networks was that the latter showed one of the
highest probabilities of accessing low status contacts, whereas the former presented
almost no chance of having those links.

Henceforth, although the rich-network showed a significantly higher status

than the middle, low and isolated networks, confirming that heterogeneity has a role
in status attainment, the previous points question the relative importance of
heterogeneity as an important predictor at least within this field. This was also
evidenced by the low correlations of heterogeneity (constructed within Lins
framework) and ISEI previously in this work. This could imply that, for status
attainment in Chile, having access to actors who have a higher power of influence and
can access more highly valued resources is more important than diversity of the
network. These findings support the results from Volker and Flap (2008) in which both,
57

number of positions accessed (extensity) and upper reachability, contributed

significantly to the variation in income, however range showed no effect. Having more
access to contacts with low cultural, economic or symbolic capital would not be
beneficial for status attainment as Lin (2001) stressed, unless individuals have also
various richly-resourced ties. Furthermore, network extensity also plays an obviously
important role in status inequality, which reinforces Burts findings that dense
networks are associated with substandard performance. Thus people who have more
contacts would have more information flowing in their networks and a higher
probability of having access to either high-status ties or to individuals who can bridge
disconnected social groups and therefore a higher likelihood of obtaining more
desirable jobs (Burt, 2001; Granovetter, 1983; Lin, 1981).

Moreover, comparing findings to the descriptions of Chilean studies, results

showed that the network associated with intermediate occupational scores (the
medium-resourced group) were not as diverse or wide as proposed by studies (e.g.
Espinoza and Canteros, 2001 in Chile; Nun et al., 2007 in the UK). Instead they have
mainly ties to professionals, supporting Barozets (2006) findings about the density of
middle class networks in Chile. This is given the scholar, university and spatial
segregation within the country which tends to homogenise social circles. Furthermore,
associations provide evidence to the homophily principle, whereby contact between
similar people occurs at a higher rate than among dissimilar people (MacPherson,
Smith-Lovin, and Cook, 2001, p. 416). For example, the elite-like network, surprisingly
the largest class, was associated to the highest ISEI scores. Class size may be due to
the inclusion of middle-high status individuals, although actors from this class could
mainly correspond to the Chilean upper-class, whose practices and networks have
been characterised by social closure and isolation from other classes performed in
order to reproduce their social prestige (Castillo, 2013; Guiesen, 2010). Additionally,
people with working-class and isolated networks are associated to the lowest ISEI
scores, which fits to the results of Espinoza (1995) or Bivort (2005) around poor
families networks, who were found to be close and mainly tied to family or same
status alters. On the other hand, the resource-rich network can be the exception to
this principle, but it is also the smallest sized class. It is possible that this network
comprises individuals who came either from middle-class origins and developed ties
58

to higher status contacts or from the upper-class and developed lower status links. In
both cases they opened their collection of resources, each revealing one of the highest
positions in the socio-economic stratification system.

It is worth noting, nevertheless, that the variation of attained status explained

by social capital was very low, which has positive social implications, given that this
construct does not represent the skills of individuals, and is unequally distributed and
acquired. Regarding the influence of covariates on attained status, all of them showed
significant effects. Results showed that the impact of education, as in other developed
countries (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 2007), and as found by Torche and Wormald
(2004) earlier in Chile, had the highest association with occupational status but as a
function of age. This supports the fact that Chile, in part, meets the industrialisation
thesis at least for younger generations, where merit and qualification are more
important for labour market outcomes and life chances (Grusky, 1983). Nonetheless,
this interpretation of meritocracy must be done carefully given that the model only
explained a 35% of status acquisition, and given that education would be also partly
determined by status of origin in Chile according to Torche and Wormald (2004). The
fact that the effect of education was lower for older people, formed before the
educational reforms imposed under the dictatorship, shows that this expansion
benefitted people who can access higher levels of education, who are in general
people with greater resources (Torche and Wormald, 2004). Hence, these points, plus
the significant effects of parental status and social capital on occupational status, in
addition to the unequal structural opportunities, namely the redistribution policies or
unequal wages and returns of education (Espinoza and Barozet, 2013; Larraaga and
Valenzuela, 2011), show that life opportunities are not equally distributed among
Chileans.

Moreover, findings support the third and last hypothesis of the study. Results
from the multinomial regression indicate that, in the exception of some cases, higher
parental status and a higher educational level increase the likelihood of having
increased and better network resources, or of having medium-status, rich or elite
networks (increasingly) versus low-status or isolated networks. This supports the
strength of position proposition that the higher the position of origin, the more likely
59

the occupant will have access to more highly-valued resources (Lin, 2001, p.64).
Hence, positions inherited from parents or achieved by the actor, partly determine the
social capital of individuals, mainly by influencing the volume of alters accessed, but
also by impacting on the differentiated access to high or low status occupations. Thus
parents would either introduce their children to parental contacts or reinforce samekind or same-status interactions, confirming again the principle of homophily
(MacPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Cook, 2001).

Parental occupational status and educational level did not show a significant
difference in the likelihood of being in the elite or rich networks. Additionally, an
increase in household status would also not decrease the odds of being in the mediumclass network compared to the rich one. Thus, higher parental status could be seen
more as a protector factor against having a low-resourced or isolated network, but
it would not make a significant difference between having networks with medium or
high status contacts (more homogenous) or with both high and low status alters.
Hence, higher status parents would transmit, through their habitus (practices), cultural
and symbolic capital and the likelihood to meet contacts from a similar status. These
results support Bourdieus social structure theory (1986), where the dominant classes
would develop relationships with other high status others, which in turn would help
them reproduce or perpetuate their class. Nevertheless the likelihood of having
heterophilous contacts or more extensive networks versus high-status homogenous
networks seems to be more related to personal investment in social relations. On the
other hand, being either isolated or having primarily working class contacts was also
not related with status of origin, but it was influenced more by educational level in
favour of the latter. Therefore schooling seems to have a more important role in
differentiating the amount and types of ties that people make. This supports the
results presented by MacPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Cook. (2001) where higher
education led people to have more diverse networks (i.e. here rich versus others).
Finally, age and sex did not show a significant influence on social capital in the Chilean
context, contrary to what has been theorised and found around the inequalities of
social capital (Lin, 2000). Nevertheless findings regarding those variables have not
been consistent, e.g. see Van der Gaag (2005) or Volker and Flap (2008).

60

One of the principal limitations of this study has to do with model specification.
The decision to use a mixture regression model and social capital as a nominal variable,
in favour of closely exploring the social capital patterns and their relations to other
variables (over using the standard measures as a unidimensional factor), implied
omitting some direct and indirect paths which would have offered a deeper
understanding on the mediator role of social capital and education in the status
acquisition scheme, i.e. if family advantages or disadvantages are actually indirectly
transmitted to their offspring in adulthood via their influence in social networks or in
schooling. Another drawback of the use of this latent class model implied the
impossibility to directly compare results, especially path coefficients with previous
studies (e.g. Lai, Lin and Leung, 1998). Additionally, it is important to mention what
Vermunt (2010) found, in a simulation study, that the BCH method, although much
more efficient than others, yielded slightly underestimated standard errors.
Nevertheless, the same parameters estimated with the ML-three step method were
also significant here. Furthermore, a limitation of the representativeness of the sample
was that results cannot be generalised to individuals with military fathers, given that
these respondents were not completely included because of coding issues. Moreover,
regarding the interpretation of the model, although one of the aims of using path
analysis is to test causal relationships, a number of issues hindered the possibility of
drawing causal conclusions (apart from the fact that the study used observational and
not experimental data), namely, the lack of a longitudinal measure of social capital or
a measure of mobilised social capital to explore if having access to better resources
does imply using them and attaining a better status. These facts rule out the possibility
of a causal and confirmatory reading of results (at least of the effect of social capital
on status attainment, since other covariates meet the time precedence criteria of
causality) in favour of exploratory and associational conclusions.

Along these lines, some suggestions must be made for future studies, including
the administration of panel surveys and the introduction of a question to the PG
regarding the use of ties accessed, in order to avoid employing the name generator,
which can be applied to a much less extent of people given its length. Furthermore,
constructing a new PG for the Chilean population, including more occupations
(between 20 and 30) could lead to new conclusions about the distributions and
61

correlations of the standard measures of SC, which in turn would open the possibility
of comparing results with international findings. It would also allow one to distinguish
occupations either by the type of resources they contribute e.g. cultural or economic
(Flap and Volker, 2008), or by authority (Bian, 2008). Finally, although information
about strength of ties was available in the PG, it was not utilised by this study given
that the structure of networks was not the focus. Nevertheless, further research could
involve the construction of a latent class variable including these indicators to explore
if new patterns of network resources differentially tied to individuals can be extracted
by the inclusion of this information. Finally some tasks left for further studies
encompass: a) the inclusion of unemployed individuals by, for example, assigning them
a proxy of occupational status which would allow one to expand the generalisation of
these results; b) to conduct a multilevel analysis to control for the non-independence
of individuals given by the sampling design, and for the possible effect of geographical
segregation; c) to include other covariates such as the type of education, associative
participation or area-based variables; d) to carry out multi-group analysis to compare
the measurement properties of the social capital variable across females and males,
or old and young categories, and e) to use alternative operationalisations of socioeconomic positions, such as income or a categorical variable of occupation which
includes the relation of production properties.

To conclude, this study contributes to the understanding on the distribution of

social resources in Chilean society and their role in the status acquisition process. On
the one hand, in terms of methodology, although items of the Position Generator have
been used to deductively construct the three standard indicators of social capital,
which have provided interesting results about the construct (see Lin and Erikson,
2008), the use of an LCA in this study allowed further exploration of the patterns
network resources of Chilean adults. Findings indicated that, above the spectrum of
volume of contacts on which the social capital structure lays, it is possible to subtype
network resources in five distinct groups, whose acquisition not only depends on
individuals efforts, but is also influenced by their initial positions.

On the other hand, it is striking that, in spite of the wide use of contacts by
individuals to get a job or a promotion, according to Chilean studies, research in the
62

field of social stratification within the Latin American region has not focused on or
even included the concept of social capital as one of the predictors of status
attainment or other life chances. Although the role that network resources plays in the
explanation of status differences is small, as insinuated by this studys results, it is
important to take into account that the resources borrowed from ties, either close or
distant, could benefit Chilean workers in labour market outcomes, and consequently,
in their life conditions. This enlightens the importance of bureaucratisation in job
recruitment to reduce possible inequalities given by the use of string pulling` or by
social closure and discrimination practices within the hiring process. Moreover, as the
results suggested it is especially helpful to have more high-status contacts (or both
high and low-status), but not only a large network of low-status ties. Hence, the social
implications of these findings are that (leaving aside the validation of the use of power
of influence and credentials because of their obvious role in social inequalities)
connections can actually be a good source of information about jobs, or cultural
capital, knowledge, innovation and creativity in order to become better-equipped
when searching for a job or a promotion. Therefore, practical applications of these
results are mainly related to interventions within poor communities. Given that it has
been found that poor families tend to have a restricted perspective of the role of
networks in overcoming poverty and that bonding social capital serves more to
alleviate than to overcome poverty, (Bebbington, 2005; Bivort, 2005), it is necessary
to disseminate the idea that extensity, heterogeneity and upper reachability of
networks have a role in status attainment. Therefore, interventions with poor families
should include the notion of social capital, the importance of networking, and the ways
in which bridging is formed and maintained in practice, e.g. by creating intercommunal
forums, by generating links between those forums and government institutions
(Bebbington, 2005), by creating spaces to gather secondary or tertiary students from
different origins or by providing networking information and resources to facilitate
transition to the labour market, amongst others.

Finally, as mentioned previously, it is important to remark that these results

should be interpreted carefully given the use of cross-sectional data and the lack of a
measure of mobilised social capital.

63

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73

Appendix

Table A1. Position Generator of the Chilean Social Stratification Survey, 2009.

Question: Im going to ask you about other acquaintances. An acquaintance is

somebody who you personally know and he/she also knows you. It does not
matter if you are friends or not. Can you indicate me if you personally now
somebody who is? If the respondent knows many people in an occupation, the
interviewer must ask him/er to think about the person who s/he knows for the
longest time

No

Yes

a. How long do b. This person is

you know
him/er
Years Months Acquaintance Close Relative
friend

1. Civil Engineer
2. Real Estate
Agent
3. Secondary
Teacher
4. Police officer
5. Civil Servant
6. (Male) Nurse
7. Cook
8. Agriculturalist
9. Doctor
10. Salesperson
11. Office cleaner
12. Construction
labourer

74

Table A2. Average latent class probabilities for most likely latent class membership
(row) by latent class (column).
Class
1
2
3
4
5

1
0.836
0.071
0.061
0.000
0.000

2
0.057
0.820
0.119
0.068
0.002

3
0.106
0.017
0.730
0.049
0.000

4
0.000
0.090
0.090
0.815
0.141

5
0.000
0.002
0.000
0.068
0.857

Table A3. Class size of LCA and BCH models based on estimated posterior
probabilities.
Latent Class
Isolated
Working-class
Medium-status
Elite-like
Rich

LCA
525.35 (20.34%)
533.01 (20.63%)
476.29 (18.43% )
706.76 (27.36%)
341.59 (13.23%)

BCH
449.43 (19.32%)
496.81 (21.36%)
425.98 (18.31%)
649.49 (27.92%)
304.45 (13.09%)

75

Figure A1. Distribution of Upper Reachability, Heterogeneity and Extensity measures.

76

DESijt= DSit x ESjt x St

Figure A2. Equation of latent class model.

Where D would be the probability of knowing a Doctor and indexed by i=0,1; variable
E would be the probability of knowing an Engineer and indexed by j= 0,1 and S is the
latent Social Capital variable with t classes. DESijt then would be the probability of a
randomly selected case will be located in the i, j, t cell which is the product of DCit ,
the conditional probability that a case in in class t of the latent variable Social Capital
will be located at level i of the item Doctor, times ESjt , the conditional probability of
being at level j of variable Engineer (conditional probabilities), times St, the
probability of a randomly selected case being at level t of the latent variable S (latent
class probabilities).

Figure A3. Box plot with distribution of Respondent and Household occupational
status.

77

Figure A4. Dendogram of resources shared by occupations.

78

Figure A5. Occupation endorsement probabilities by class, three-class model.

Figure A6. Occupation endorsement probabilities by class, seven class model.

79

50
45

41,815

40,963

Mean ISEI score

40
33,707

35

30,163

30

28,561

25
20
15
10
5
0
Elite

Rich

Medium

Low

Isolated

Social Capital Category

Figure A7. Estimated mean ISEIR scores across SC classes, model without
confounders.

Figure A8. Scatter plot of correlation of Education and ISEIR by Age group.

80

Mplus Syntax of Mixture Models

1. First step: Two to seven-class LCA (Classes command is changed to increase

number of classes)
Variable:
Names are Sex Age
Tert ISEIR
BEng BReal BTeach
BSale BClean BCons
TEng TReal TTeach
TSale TClean TCons
Upper
RANGE

AgeSq
Educ3
Primary
Secon
ISEIF
ISEIH
BPoli BPub
BNurse BCook BAgr BDoc
TPoli TPub
NUMBER

TNurse TCook TAgr TDoc

MEAN SUM ;

Usevariable is BEng BReal BTeach BPoli BPub

BNurse
BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean
BCons ;
Categorical are BEng BReal BTeach
BPoli BPub
BNurse BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons;
Missing are all
(-9999);
Classes are SC(2);
Analysis:
Type is mixture;
Starts are 100 40;
Processors 4;
Output:
Tech11 tech14 residual entropy;
PloT:
Type is plot3;
Series is BDoc (1) BEng(2)BTeach (3) BPub (4) BNurse
(5) BPoli (6) BReal (7) BSale
(8) BCook (9) BClean (10) BAgr (11) BCons (12);
2. Second step BCH: Assign individuals to latent classes
Variable:
Names are Sex

Age

AgeSq

Educ ISEIR

ISEIH

BEng BReal BTeach BPoli BPub

BNurse BCook BAgr BDoc
BSale BClean BCons;
Missing are all
(-9999);
Usevariable is BEng BReal BTeach BPoli BPub
BNurse
BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons ;
Categorical are BEng BReal BTeach
BPoli BPub
BNurse BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons;
Classes are SC(5);
Auxiliary are Sex Age AgeSq
Educ ISEIR
ISEIH;
Analysis:
Type is mixture;
Savedata: File= BCH5.dat; Save is bchweights;
81

3. Third step: BCH1 model

Variable:
Names are BEng BReal BTeach
BPoli BPub
BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean
BCons Sex Age
Educ ISEIR
ISEIH W1-W5 MLC;
Usevariable is ISEIR W1-W5;
Missing are *;
Classes are SC(5);
Training = W1-W5(bch);
Analysis:
Type is mixture; Starts=0; Estimator=MLR;

BNurse
AgeSq

Model:
%sc#1%
[ISEIR]
%sc#2%
[ISEIR]
%sc#3%
[ISEIR]
%sc#4%
[ISEIR]
%sc#5%
[ISEIR]

(m1);
(m2);
(m3);
(m4);
(m5);

Model test:
m1=m2;
m1=m3;
m1=m4;
m1=m5;
Output:
standardized sampstat residual modindices tech4;
4. Third step: BCH2 model
Variable:
Names are BEng BReal BTeach
BPoli BPub
BNurse
BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons Sex
Age AgeSq
Educ ISEIR
ISEIH W1-W5 MLC;
Usevariable is ISEIR educ age AgeSq sex iseih W1-W5;
Missing are *;
Classes are SC(5);
Training = W1-W5(bch); Analysis:
Type is mixture; Starts=0; Estimator=MLR;
Model:
%overall%
ISEIR on Educ ISEIH sex Age AgeSq;

82

%sc#1%
[ISEIR]
%sc#2%
[ISEIR]
%sc#3%
[ISEIR]
%sc#4%
[ISEIR]
%sc#5%
[ISEIR]

(m1);
(m2);
(m3);
(m4);
(m5);

Model test:
m1=m2;
m1=m3;
m1=m4;
m1=m5;
Output:
standardized sampstat residual modindices tech4;
5. Third step: BCH3
Variable:
Names are BEng BReal BTeach
BPoli BPub
BNurse
BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons Sex Age AgeSq
Educ ISEIR
ISEIH W1-W5 MLC;
Usevariable is ISEIR educ age sex iseih W1-W5 aed;
Missing are *;
Classes are SC(5);
Training = W1-W5(bch);
Define:
Aed = age * educ;
Analysis:
Type is mixture; Starts=0; Estimator=MLR;
Model:
%overall%
ISEIR on Educ ISEIH sex Age aed;
%sc#1%
[ISEIR]
%sc#2%
[ISEIR]
%sc#3%
[ISEIR]
%sc#4%
[ISEIR]
%sc#5%
[ISEIR]

(m1);
(m2);
(m3);
(m4);
(m5);

Model test:
83

m1=m2;
m1=m3;
m1=m4;
m1=m5;
Output:
standardized sampstat residual modindices tech4;
6. Third step: BCH4
Variable:
Names are BEng BReal BTeach
BPoli BPub
BNurse
BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons Sex Age AgeSq
Educ ISEIR
ISEIH W1-W5 MLC;
Usevariable is ISEIR educ age sex iseih W1-W5 aed;
Missing are *;
Classes are SC(5);
Training = W1-W5(bch);
Define:
Aed = age * educ;
Analysis:
Type is mixture; Starts=0; Estimator=MLR;
Model:
%overall%
ISEIR on Educ ISEIH sex Age aed;
SC on ISEIH educ sex age;
%sc#1%
[ISEIR]
%sc#2%
[ISEIR]
%sc#3%
[ISEIR]
%sc#4%
[ISEIR]
%sc#5%
[ISEIR]

(m1);
(m2);
(m3);
(m4);
(m5);

Model test:
m1=m2;
m1=m3;
m1=m4;
m1=m5;
Output:
standardized sampstat residual modindices tech4;
7. Third step: BCH5

84

Variable:
Names are BEng BReal BTeach
BPoli BPub
BNurse
BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons Sex Age AgeSq
Educ ISEIR
ISEIH W1-W5 MLC;
Usevariable is ISEIR educ age sex iseih W1-W5 aed;
Missing are *;
Classes are SC(5);
Training = W1-W5(bch);
Define:
Aed = age * educ;
Analysis:
Type is mixture; Starts=0; Estimator=MLR;
Model:
%overall%
ISEIR on Educ ISEIH sex Age aed;
SC on ISEIH educ;
%sc#1%
[ISEIR]
%sc#2%
[ISEIR]
%sc#3%
[ISEIR]
%sc#4%
[ISEIR]
%sc#5%
[ISEIR]

(m1);
(m2);
(m3);
(m4);
(m5);

Model test:
m1=m2;
m1=m3;
m1=m4;
m1=m5;
Output:
standardized sampstat residual modindices tech4;
8. One-step method
Variable:
Names are Sex

Age

AgeSq

Educ ISEIR

ISEIH

BEng BReal BTeach BPoli BPub

BNurse BCook BAgr BDoc
BSale BClean BCons;
Usevariable is BEng BReal BTeach BPoli BPub
BNurse
BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons
Sex
Age Educ ISEIR
ISEIH Aed;
Categorical are BEng BReal BTeach
BPoli BPub
BNurse BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons;
Missing are all
(-9999);
Classes are SC(5);
Define:
85

Aed = age * educ;

Analysis:
Type is mixture;
Starts 100 40;
Model:
%overall%
[BEng$1 BReal$1 BTeach$1
BPoli$1 BPub$1 BNurse$1
BCook$1 BAgr$1 BDoc$1 BSale$1 BClean$1
BCons$1 ISEIR];
SC on ISEIH Educ Sex Age;
ISEIR on ISEIH Educ Sex Age Aed;
%sc#1%
[ISEIR] (m1);
%sc#2%
[ISEIR] (m2);
%sc#3%
[ISEIR] (m3);
%sc#4%
[ISEIR] (m4);
%sc#5%
[ISEIR] (m5);
Model test:
m3=m1; m3=m2; m3=m4; m3=m5;
Output:
standardized sampstat modindices residual tech4;
PloT:
Type is plot3;
Series is BDoc (1) BEng(2)BTeach (3) BPub (4) BNurse
(5) BPoli (6) BReal (7) BSale
(8) BCook (9) BClean (10) BAgr (11) BCons (12);
Three-step method: Step one
Variable:
Names are Sex Age AgeSq
Educ ISEIR
ISEIH
BEng BReal BTeach BPoli BPub BNurse BCook BAgr BDoc
BSale BClean BCons;
Usevariable is BEng BReal BTeach BPoli BPub BNurse
BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons;
Categorical are BEng BReal BTeach
BPoli BPub BNurse
BCook BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons;
Missing are all
(-9999);
Classes are SC(5);
Auxiliary are ISEIR ISEIH Sex Educ Age;
Analysis:
86

Type is mixture; Starts = 0;

Savedata: File= Threestep5.dat; Save = Cprob;
Three-step method: Step three
Variable:
Names are BEng BReal BTeach BPoli BPub
BNurse BCook
BAgr BDoc BSale BClean BCons
ISEIR
ISEIH Sex Educ Age p1-p5 n;
Usevariable is ISEIR ISEIH Educ Sex Age n Aed;
Missing are *;
Classes are SC(5);
nominal=n;
Define:
Aed = age * educ;
Analysis:
Type is mixture; Starts is 0;
Model:
%overall%
Sc on ISEIH Educ Sex Age;
ISEIR on ISEIH Educ Sex Age Aed;
%sc#1%
[n#1@3.965901088];
[n#2@3.173367837];
[n#3@0];
[n#4@1.478084038];
[ISEIR] (m1);
%sc#2%
[n#1@2.785902123];
[n#2@3.855779277];
[n#3@2.767438629];
[n#4@2.735059297];
[ISEIR] (m2);
%sc#3%
[n#1@-3.098654788];
[n#2@-0.232239697];
[n#3@0.809461534];
[n#4@-0.855791737];
[ISEIR] (m3);
%sc#4%
[n#1@-1.659913429];
[n#2@0.179504146];
[n#3@0.291116645];
[n#4@1.097004204];
[ISEIR] (m4);
%sc#5%
[n#1@-3.93633092];

87

[n#2@-3.93633092];
[n#3@-1.165431903];
[n#4@-1.131882722];
[ISEIR] (m5);
Model test:
m1=m2;
m1=m3;
m1=m4;
m1=m5;
Output:
standardized sampstat modindices residual tech4;

88