Transmission Of Educational Advantage Research Articles

Cultural Capital, Gender and Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Post-Communist Space

Post-communist transition in Eastern Europe has affected social stratification and mobility. There is an argument that transition undermined the role of parental cultural capital and increased the importance of parental economic capital in determining the educational mobility of children. In this paper, we examine whether the parental cultural capital has played a role in educational mobility of cohorts born in 1970–1984 and what has been the contribution of the different states of cultural capital. We also consider the gender heterogeneity in the transmission of educational advantage. The study focuses on one country of Eastern Europe—Lithuania, which underwent the transition to a radical neo-liberal form of capitalism. Using data from the Families and Inequalities Survey of 2019, we apply the descriptive and ordinal regression analysis. The results indicate intergenerational educational upward mobility for women. All states of parental cultural capital (objectified, embodied, institutionalized) are relevant for the educational attainment of the transitional cohort. The effects are more pronounced for women, at least in relation to some states of parental cultural capital. On a more general level, the findings imply that the intergenerational reproduction of educational attainment was not substantially altered by the transition, at least during its initial decades.

The Transmission of Educational Advantage across Three Generations: Grandparent Effects and Spousal Mediation in the Second Generation

The publication of research examining three-generational mobility processes has accelerated during the past half-decade, due in part to new and expanded data that now include large sample sizes of families with more than two generations. However, this area of inquiry is relatively new and little is known about the mechanisms of intergenerational effects beyond parent-child ties. In this article, we draw upon theory and research on intergenerational mobility, maternal education, educational homogamy, and status exchange to propose a new potential mechanism of the transmission of educational attainment from grandparents to grandchildren in the United States: second generation spousal mediation. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find evidence that grandparent’s educational attainment positively effects their child’s spouse’s educational attainment net of child’s educational attainment. This pathway then mediates the effect of grandparent’s educational attainment on grandchild’s educational attainment. Further analysis suggests no gender differences in the spousal mediation effect. Overall, this research suggests that grandparent’s educational attainment matters to grandchildren, but is partially mediated through child’s spouse’s educational attainment. We suggest that three-generational transmission of educational advantage is a complex topic in need of further, careful examination of original mechanisms.

Education in 3G: Heterogeneity of Intergenerational Educational Mobility in the U. S.

Following Mare’s (2010) presidential address to the Population Association of America, a great deal of research has been conducted on the dynamics of intergenerational mobility and socioeconomic inequality. Due to this relatively short time span, however, comparatively little is known about the when, where, how, and why of intergenerational effects beyond parent-child ties. In this article, we examine educational attainment across three generations using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We find evidence that grandparental education is associated with grandchild education net of parental education, but that association is greatly reduced once spousal education is accounted for – suggesting spousal mediation as a key mechanism of the intergenerational transmission of educational advantage. We also find tentative evidence in favor of the augmentation hypothesis that grandparent and parent educational attainment interactively influence grandchild education. However, the augmentation hypothesis is not supported in spousal mediation models nor in cousin fixed effects models, suggesting that these results may be spurious. Contrary to prior work outside the U.S., we find no evidence of stronger grandparent effects when grandparents were still alive when the grandchild reached age 6. Supporting the claim that genetic transmission may partially explain these relationships, we find weak evidence that grandparent effects are stronger for biological grandparents than non-biological ones. Overall, this research suggests that grandparent’s educational attainment matters, but is mostly mediated through child’s spouse’s educational attainment. We suggest that three-generational transmission of educational advantage is a complex topic in need of further, careful study.

Does Parenting Style Matter? Concerted Cultivation, Educational Expectations, and the Transmission of Educational Advantage

Recent work on the transmission of educational advantage has shifted empirical attention toward the active role of parents and their parenting style. Drawing from cultural capital theory and using longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) ( N = 512), this study examines how a specific style of parenting, concerted cultivation, and educational expectations relate to adolescents’ academic achievement. Results from a recursive structural equation model (SEM) confirm a direct relationship between educational expectations and achievement, but not for concerted cultivation. However, subsequent analyses indicate that educational expectations also mediate the relationship between a child’s social background and academic achievement. These results provide insights into the family’s role in the transmission of educational advantage and contribute to the larger public and scholarly debate regarding explanations for the stratification of educational outcomes.