Educational inequalities in general health: Does the curricular tracking system matter?

Abstract

Educational tracking amplifies social inequalities in a wide range of outcomes. From an institutional perspective, the current study examines whether this holds for educational disparities in general health. To investigate this question, we use information from the European Social Survey (Rounds 1–8: 2002–2016) for individuals between the ages of 18 and 45 years ( N = 99,771) in 22 European countries. The estimated three-level hierarchical models indicate that tracking is indeed associated with larger educational inequalities in overall health. Individuals who have attained vocational education fare worse in terms of general health than do individuals who have pursued academic qualifications. However, the strength of association is much higher in countries with highly tracked systems (e.g. Germany and Czech Republic) than it is in countries with more comprehensive systems (e.g. the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries). This result suggests that health inequalities between educational groups can be reduced by reorganizing secondary educational systems.