Drawing on interviews with upper-middle-class parents in a large North-eastern city, we examine how “predictable stability” informs their assessment of downward mobility risks for their children. In contrast to anxiety and a ‘fear of falling,’ multigenerational achievement allows these parents to assume that their children will realize education and career success and a comfortable standard of living. This analysis extends contemporary theories of parenting and social stratification by illustrating variation among upper-middle-class dispositions and the micro-foundations that underlie quantitative research on the “stickiness” of intergenerational status mobility and the “glass floor” that protects upper-middle-class children from experiencing downward mobility.

根据对东北部大城市中上层阶级父母的采访，我们研究了“可预测的稳定性”如何影响他们对孩子向下流动风险的评估。与焦虑和“害怕跌倒”相反，多代成就让这些父母认为他们的孩子将实现教育和事业上的成功以及舒适的生活水平。该分析通过说明中上层阶级性格之间的差异以及代际地位流动的“粘性”和保护中上层的“玻璃地板”的定量研究的微观基础，扩展了当代育儿和社会分层理论。班级儿童免于向下流动。