Subjective Versus Objective Measures of Social Class: How Well Do Objective Measures of Social Class Align with College Students’ Subjective Perceptions of Their Identity?

This study examined the concordance between subjective social class identity and two commonly used objective measures—parental education and income—among 325 students attending a private liberal arts college. The results indicated that objective measures are useful for identifying social class but differ in their effectiveness of identifying specific classes.