Natural history of male psychological health. XI: Escape from the underclass.

A long-term prospective study of 456 inner-city men tested the hypothesis that extreme poverty and chaotic family life produce a self-perpetuating underclass. Men from chronically dependent and multiproblem families were on average indistinguishable by midlife from the children of more stable working-class families in terms of mean income, years of employment, criminality, and mental health. Although attained social class was somewhat lower for the disadvantaged, given the opportunity for steady employment and occupational mobility, the children from multiproblem welfare families did not inevitably perpetuate their initial disadvantages.