Effects Of Social Origin Research Articles

Primary and secondary effects of social origins on educational attainment: New findings for England.

We aim to bring together two current strands of research into inequalities in individuals' educational attainment that are associated with their social origins: that concerned with the "primary" and "secondary" effects of social origins in creating inequalities, and that concerned with the relation between these inequalities and different components of social origins, taken to represent different forms of parental resources. Our main findings are the following. The secondary effects of social origins-their effects via the educational choices that young people make given their prior academic performance-are clearly operative across five key educational transitions within the English educational system. More specifically, we estimate that 35% of the total effect of social origins is secondary in the earliest transition that we consider, and from 15% to 20% in the subsequent four. Furthermore, mediation analyses reveal that secondary effects are most strongly associated with parental education and then, to a lesser degree with parental status, while little association exists with parental class and none at all with parental income. Primary effects are also at all transitions most strongly associated with parental education and status but in this case both parental class and parental income do retain some importance. We suggest an explanation for our empirical findings as resulting largely from the concern of highly educated, professional parents, and their children to avoid the occurrence of downward intergenerational mobility, especially in terms of education and status.

Equalizing or Stratifying? Intergenerational Persistence across College Degrees

ABSTRACT The literature has shown inconsistent support for the equalization thesis, that is, the idea that a college degree erases the effect of social origin on socioeconomic destination, and suggested higher intergenerational persistence among advanced degree holders compared to those with bachelor’s degrees. The present study sheds light on the origin-destination link by investigating the intergenerational association between parents’ education and offspring’s earnings, paying attention to parents’ education relative to their children’s. Drawing on large samples and multiple waves of data from the National Survey of College Graduates, this study also makes an empirical contribution by analyzing intergenerational persistence across degree types. For women, I find highest intergenerational persistence at the bachelor level, but little evidence of intergenerational association for any advanced degrees. For men, results show intergenerational persistence across educational groups. Differences across respondents holding different types of degree support a theory of intergenerational relative education advantage, in which the effect of parents’ education on offspring’s attainment varies depending on offspring’s education relative to their parents. Educational and labor market-related factors do not change the overall picture.

Grading in Secondary Schools in Germany – The Impact of Social Origin and Gender

In the German school system, grades are the essential means of performance feedback and assignment. However, little research has been conducted on the factors that determine grades in addition to competencies, and existing findings are poorly replicated. Using data from the representative IQB Trends in Student Performance 2015 survey, our analysis combined a variety of personal and structural characteristics to examine and replicate grade-determining factors in German. In data analysis, we paid particular attention to the data generation processes. The results are interpreted based on Bourdieu's considerations of habitus and status maintenance and Boudon's primary and secondary effects of social origin. The results tie in with the reproduction-theoretical considerations of Bourdieu and Boudon and illustrate the dependence of grades on students' background characteristics.

Social origin and educational attainment in China: a historical analysis of 70 birth cohorts

The impact of social origin on educational attainment is conditioned on the social context in which people live. In recent decades, with changes in the Chinese society, how has the impact of social origin on educational inequality changed? Based on an analysis of 70 birth cohorts, this study details the effect of social origin on educational inequality and its trends over the past 70 years. The results of this study also indicate that the historical stages hypothesis (HSH) and model-shift hypothesis (MSH) emphasized in previous studies cannot fully describe the historical changes in educational inequality. In addition to macrosocial processes, there may exist other structural factors that also affect educational inequality but are neglected. The social context and its transformation, which shaped the relationship between social origin and educational inequality, need to be examined in more detail.

Origen social y paro: ¿importa la ocupación de los padres para evitar el desempleo?

Este artículo plantea tres objetivos. El primero, saber si el origen social influye en la probabilidad de estar parado y, en segundo lugar, en caso de que se sea así, averiguar si esa influencia se mantiene incluso comparando a individuos con el mismo nivel educativo. El tercer objetivo es determinar si el efecto del origen social en el paro varía en cada nivel de estudios. Para ello se han manejado 49 encuestas del CIS llevadas a cabo entre 2013 y 2017, y se ha aplicado un modelo de probabilidad lineal. Los resultados muestran que hay un efecto claro del origen social sobre el paro y que este efecto se produce sobre todo indirectamente, a través del nivel educativo. No obstante, el origen social sigue teniendo un efecto incluso controlando por la educación entre los licenciados o graduados universitarios (no ingenieros) y los que tienen la secundaria inicial o menos.

Like parents, like children. Does the stratification of education systems moderate the direct effect of origins on destinations?

ABSTRACT This article aims to identify the moderating effect of the stratification of education systems (especially the extent to which the first selection is based on student ability) on the association between social origins and destinations, while holding the effect of education constant. Two hypotheses are formulated. The first hypothesis expects a negative moderating effect of the stratification of education systems on the direct effect of origins on destinations, while the null hypothesis argues for no moderating effect. Individual-level data from the European Social Survey (round 1–5) are complemented with new contextual indicators measuring various education system characteristics. Apart from employing these new indicators, another contribution of this article is the use of a more comprehensive measurement of social origins, simultaneously accounting for social class and parental education. Findings show that the direct effect of social origins on occupational attainment is not moderated by the extent to which the first selection is based on student ability. The null effect holds against several robustness checks employing different measurements, sample selections and model specifications.

The Social-Origins Gap in Labour Market Outcomes: Compensatory and Boosting Advantages Using a Micro-Class Approach

AbstractRecent studies document a social-origins gap or direct effect of social origin (DESO) on labour market outcomes over and above respondents’ education, challenging the idea that post-industrial societies are education-based meritocracies. Yet, the literature offers insufficient explanations on DESO heterogeneity across education and different labour market outcomes. Little is also known about underlying mechanisms. We contribute by answering two questions: (i) How does DESO vary when comparing college-degree holders with non-holders? (ii) For which specific parental and children’s occupations is the largest DESO observed? We focus on Spain, using a large new dataset (n = 144,286). Firstly, we find a larger DESO on socioeconomic status among non-degree holders, and on income among degree holders. We propose the notions of compensatory advantage in occupational attainment and boosting advantage in income for high social-origin individuals to explain these opposite patterns, drawing from ‘downward mobility avoidance’ and ‘effectively maintained inequality’ theories. Secondly, we map origin and destination micro-classes where DESO is largest. High-grade managerial and professional parental occupations, characterized by social closure and influence in large organizations, are the origin micro-classes exerting the largest DESO. We also find that compensatory advantage for low-educated children from advantaged origins is related to their higher chances of accessing managerial occupations, while boosting advantage on income among college graduates is observed for high-grade managers and liberal professionals, suggesting that micro-class reproduction may partially account for boosting advantage. We conclude by discussing the generalizability of our findings to other countries and their implications for research on DESO, meritocracy and social mobility.

What shape great expectations? Gender and social-origin effects on expectation of university graduation

Female educational attainment has progressively caught up with male educational attainment in many OECD countries. Expectations of university graduation have correspondingly been found higher among female adolescents than among male ones. Resorting to individual-level data drawn from PISA 2003, we study the extent to which female advantage diverges across levels of parental education. We find evidence that female advantage in terms of expectations of university graduation is higher for children of lower social origin. Merging individual-level data (PISA 2003) with data on systems of education, gender egalitarianism and gender labour-market equality drawn from different sources, and applying both a two-step approach and three-level random intercept multilevel modelling to the resulting dataset, we then explore if these country-level factors explain the positive effect of gender at lower levels of parental education. We do not find that the system of education plays any role in this respect, but there is some evidence that gender labour-market inequality stimulates higher educational expectations among daughters of lowly educated fathers (compensatory effect).

Higher education expansion, system transformation, and social inequality. Social origin effects on tertiary education attainment in Poland for birth cohorts 1960 to 1988

This paper analyzes the development of social inequality in the Polish higher education system during its expansion after 1990 using data from the Polish General Social Survey. Focusing on the special case of a former socialist society, where higher education expansion has been very rapid and achieved mainly through marketization, this paper highlights the micro-level mechanisms that underlie the inequality dynamic. It shows how actor preferences embedded in the specific historical context shape educational behavior, producing moments of equalization and de-equalization. Class inequality regarding access to tertiary education decreased in the early 1990s and then increased again, as participation in the working classes stagnated at a low level in the later phases of the expansion. In contrast, no equalization has been observed between children of different educational origins. The analysis shows a persistent intergenerational reproduction of educational disadvantage in spite of the expansion. Lastly, consistent with the Effectively Maintained Inequality thesis, this paper provides evidence for underprivileged strata being diverted into second-tier, lower-prestige educational opportunities in the private sector.

Social origin and compensation patterns over the occupational career in Italy

This paper studies dynamically the direct effect of social origin on occupational destinations among men in Italy over the career. It aims at investigating the existence, the pattern over time and the heterogeneity of differences in occupational achievement related to social origins, net of education (DESO) and occupational allocation at first job. It also analyses if the change of the DESO over the career is related to the effect of specific job change episodes (voluntary job change, involuntary job change, internal career move). Results based on growth curve models show the relevance of first job in shaping the DESO, which also slightly increases over the career. The DESO is stronger among highly educated individuals, confirming a boosting pattern primarily driven by a better allocation at first job. The (smaller) DESO among the low-educated, increasing over the career, depends from the higher probabilities to benefit from voluntary and internal career job changes for the children of the service class. The (stronger) DESO among the highly educated is driven by the higher probabilities of experiencing internal career mobility for the children of the service class as well as by their ability to benefit also from an involuntary job change (e.g. dismissal).

Sources of change in the primary and secondary effects of social class origin on educational decisions: evidence from Denmark, 2002–2016

Although research on the primary and secondary effects of social origin aims at understanding the relative importance of performance and choice in educational decision making processes, it tends to downplay that primary effects are a function of two separate components: (a) the level of social inequality in academic performance and (b) the effect of academic performance on educational decisions. Examining trends in educational inequalities in Denmark from 2002 through 2016, I demonstrate that separately considering these two components leads to new interpretations of why social class inequalities in educational decisions change over time. I find that although both primary and secondary effects of social origin are declining in Denmark over the period, the decline in primary effects occurs in spite of increasing social class gaps in academic performance. In contrast, the decline results from decreasing educational returns to academic performance. My findings suggest that conventional comparisons of primary and secondary effects of social origin across contexts such as countries or time periods may mask the pathways through which social class differentials in educational decisions arise.

Race, Class and Income Inequality in Brazil: A Social Trajectory Analysis

ABSTRACT The article deals with the relationship between race, class and income in Brazil, with the main objective of investigating the determinants of racial inequality in the country’s labour market. By making use of structural equation models, it analyses the process of setting income differentials between whites and blacks, from their social origin to the definition of wages, through schooling and occupational allocation. The analysis, based on data from the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey, collected in 2014, allows us to compare direct, indirect and total effects of race and social origin on income from work. Results show that, although the total effects of social origin are larger than racial effects, the former cannot explain most disadvantages suffered by blacks nowadays in Brazil, which occur mainly indirectly – through education and occupation. Thus, the study brings new, updated and more detailed evidence to a long-standing debate.

Navigating Institutions: Parents’ Knowledge of the Educational System and Students’ Success in Education

AbstractThis study investigates whether families navigate educational institutions more successfully if they have a higher knowledge of the pathways in the educational system that are available to their children. We also study whether this kind of knowledge mediates secondary effects of social origin, i.e. differences in educational pathways once achievement differences between children are accounted for. The role of parents’ knowledge is consistent with various sociological theories concerning educational inequality. Knowledge can affect families’ ability to make rational choices for education but it can also be understood as a form of cultural capital. We use longitudinal student cohort data from the Netherlands combined with individual-level register data on educational attainment to study the importance of knowledge for short-term outcomes (up- and downward transitions in secondary education as well as track placement) and final educational attainment. Our results show that parents’ knowledge is a significant predictor of educational success net of parents’ education, socio-demographic characteristics, and demonstrated ability. If we apply a stricter test to the measure, however, we can see that knowledge matters for downward transitions and obtaining a tertiary degree but that the effect is negligible for upward transitions and track placement if other mechanisms such as cultural capital and aspirations are considered. Further, we conclude that knowledge matters especially for transitions in the educational system that require a move to a new and unknown school environment such as post-secondary or tertiary education. The study shows that knowledge is one useful avenue to investigate when we are confronted with the question why social disparities in educational decision-making arise.

The Institutional Dimension of Class-based Educational Decision-making: Evidence from Regional Variation in Switzerland

Abstract This article examines to what extent the specific institutional arrangement of an education system moderates the influence of social background on students’ track allocation, and whether this happens via primary or secondary effects of social origin. I tackle the problem of omitted-variable bias by analyzing subnational education systems in Switzerland, a country with a variety of cantonal school systems but otherwise homogeneous institutions. The results show a complex picture. First, even though the absolute transition probability to the highest track is higher in education systems with low stratification for students of higher social background, this does not translate into a relative advantage as in most cantons the odds of transitioning do not differ between high and low social background students. Second, in line with previous research, I observe that the secondary effect of social origin prevails in more stratified education systems. Third, it is not possible to conclude with certainty that specific features of the education system enable high social background parents to disproportionately influence their children’s transition probabilities because the results are not robust.

Social origin, field of study and graduates' career progression: does social inequality vary across fields?

Research on stratification and mobility has consistently shown that in the UK there is a direct impact of social origin on occupational destination net of educational attainment even for degree‐holders. However, only a few studies applied a longitudinal and dynamic perspective on how intergenerational mobility shapes graduates’ working careers. Using multilevel growth curve modelling and data from the 1970 British cohort study (BCS70), we contribute to this research by looking at the emergence of social inequalities during the first ten years since labour market entry. We further distinguish between graduates of different fields of study as we expect social disparities to develop differently due to differences in initial occupational placement and upward mobility processes. We find that parental class does not affect occupational prestige over and above prior achievement. Separate analyses by the field of study show that initial differences in occupational prestige and career progression do not differ between graduates from different classes of origin in STEM fields, and arts and humanities. It is only in the social sciences that working‐class graduates start with lower occupational prestige but soon catch up with their peers from higher classes. Overall, our results indicate no direct effect of social origin on occupational attainment for degree‐holders once we broaden our focus to a dynamic life course perspective.

‘Persistence of the social’: The role of cognitive ability in mediating the effects of social origins on educational attainment in Britain – Reply to Gary Marks

‘Persistence of the social’: The role of cognitive ability in mediating the effects of social origins on educational attainment in Britain – Reply to Gary Marks

Inequality in adult learning and education participation: the effects of social origins and social inequality

ABSTRACTThis comparative study examines patterns of inequality in participation in two different types of adult learning and education (ALE) – job-related formal ALE (JFALE) and job-related non-formal ALE (JNFALE) – as related to social origins at the micro-level and three categories of social inequality at the macro-level at the macro level (economic, education, and skill inequality). Using data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), two methods are used to analyse 19 selected OECD countries: multivariate binary logistic regressions to explore the extent to which individuals’ social origins are associated with ALE participation and two-stage multilevel analysis to examine the relationship between social origins’ advantages in ALE participation and social inequality. Statistically significant advantages in ALE participation of social origins were observed in some countries. Additionally, statistically significant positive relationships between social inequality and social origins’ advantages in JNFALE participation are found, which implies that increases in social inequality strengthen advantages associated with social origins.

‘Persistence of the social’: The role of cognitive ability in mediating the effects of social origins on educational attainment in Britain

In this paper, we address two research questions on the basis of the series of British birth cohort studies. First, how large is the part played by cognitive ability in mediating the association that exists between individuals’ educational attainment and their social origins, and is there evidence of any change in the importance of its mediating role over recent decades? Second, does the importance of its mediating role change over the course of individuals’ educational careers? As regards the first question, we find that only around half of the effects of individuals’ social origins on their educational attainment is mediated via their cognitive ability, as measured in early life. There has been some fluctuation in the mediation percentage over time, but no sustained increase. Moreover, this is the case in whatever way we measure social origins. As regards the second question, we find that the mediating role of cognitive ability changes little in importance as individuals’ educational careers progress, with the possible exception that it declines in the case of an educational threshold relating to upper secondary qualifications. In the light of our results, we call into question the idea that the intergenerational reproduction of educational inequalities is driven overwhelmingly via the intergeneration transmission of cognitive ability; and also claims such as those made by Marks (2014) of ‘the decline of the social’ in the determination of the educational attainment of children from more or less advantaged families. While the relative importance of different forms of parental resources for children’s educational success may be changing somewhat, our findings indicate a strong ‘persistence of the social’.

Alleviating or exacerbating disadvantage: does school attended mediate the association between family background and educational attainment?

ABSTRACTOpportunities for social mobility are generated by education systems designed to alleviate the effects of social origin by providing equality of opportunities and resources. The persistence of the strong association between socioeconomic status (SES) and child’s educational achievement and attainment suggests that social origin continues to play an integral role in the educational outcomes of successive generations of Australians. Sociologists draw on a range of theoretical perspectives to explain this association including Bourdieu’s cultural and social capital theories. Using data collected by the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth 2009 (LSAY09) project, I examine the associations between student SES, school SES and two outcome variables: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) score and university enrolment. The results indicate that low SES students attending high SES schools perform better on PISA tests than low SES students attending low SES schools. After controlling for PISA score, low SES students were less likely than their high SES peers to enrol at university. Furthermore, students attending low SES schools were less likely than their peers attending high SES schools to enrol at university, net of their individual SES and their PISA scores.

The direct effect of social origin on men’s occupational attainment over the early life course: An Italian–Dutch comparison

The article examines the direct effect of social origin on occupational attainment over the early life course of Italian and Dutch men in the period 1946–2005. Based on cross-country and cross-cohort comparisons, we explore the role of the context in favouring the direct transmission of social advantages. Early employment careers are reconstructed using the ‘Italian Longitudinal Household Panel Study’ and the ‘Family Survey Dutch Population’. Multilevel growth curve analyses are used to understand whether the direct effect of social origin at labour market entry increases, decreases or remains stable over the first 10 years of occupational career. Empirical results show that, in both countries, the direct social origin effect is stable over historical and biographical time. Independently of structural and institutional conditions influencing the extent of career mobility, offspring hailing from advantaged social background enjoy a better occupational position at labour market entry, while experiencing similar rates of career progression compared to their counterparts from less-advantaged families. However, when entering the labour market in the same occupational position, offspring from the service class enjoy higher rates of progression compared to their working-class counterparts. Taken together, these pieces of evidence imply that the direct social origin effect would decrease over the early career without the additional role that social background plays beyond the labour market entry.