The long road to secondary school: background, home learning environment, and transition difficulties in Scotland

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores the association between children’s difficulty in moving to secondary school and their family background. School transition difficulty is associated with a range of poor outcomes in young people, but studies have rarely taken a fully longitudinal perspective or looked in detail at inequalities in transition processes. This perspective can unpack the long-term processes behind any inequalities in such difficulties. We use longitudinal data from the Growing Up in Scotland survey to model school transition difficulty at age 12 using ordinary least squares regression models. We adopt a multidimensional approach to social background, taking account of social class, parental education, and household income. All three dimensions, especially income, are associated with school transition difficulty. This social gradient is not explained by differences in the home learning environment, school engagement at primary level or cognitive development in early to middle childhood. Results show the limits of agency-based measures, like school engagement and home learning, in explaining inequality and children’s disadvantage in school. Results also show the importance of adopting a multidimensional approach to family background when analysing inequality in education, regardless of the outcome.