Universal family background effects on education across and within societies

Grätz, Michael; Barclay, Kieron J.; Wiborg, Øyvind; Lyngstad, Torkild Hovde; Karhula, Aleksi; Erola, Jani; Präg, Patrick; Laidley, Thomas; Conley, Dalton

doi:10.4054/mpidr-wp-2019-007

Cited by 9 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(74 reference statements)

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“…In contrast to studies using intergenerational correlations of union dissolution, relatively little research exists regarding sibling correlations in union dissolution, leaving important descriptive research questions unattended. Future research may, for example, apply this approach comparatively (Grätz et al, 2019) Family 192,794 103,259 106,835 192,516 195976 99,458 102,994 186,011 Individual 218,040 107,113 110,927 200,129 209526 102,910 106,616 192,745…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Origin and Parental and Offspring Union Dissolution: Cues from Sibling Correlations

Andersson¹

2020

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This paper estimates the size of the effect of parental union dissolution on offspring union dissolution, as a share of the sum of all social origin factors. A large literature has documented a positive correlation between divorce and separation among parents and their children. Parental union dissolution is one out of several aspects of social origin that is associated with union dissolution. It is difficult to contrast the relative impact of parental union dissolution to other aspects of social origin because many apects of social origin are unobservable. Swedish administrative data for the 1960 to 1965 birth cohorts that cover the individuals’ life events until 2018 is used to estimate sibling correlations in divorce and childbearing union dissolution, adjusting for parental union dissolution. The variance in union dissolution attributable to factors shared by siblings ranged from 6% to 13%. Parental union dissolution and factors associated with parental union dissolution explained between 15% and 28% of this variance. Sister correlations are greater than brother correlations, and sibling correlations of childbearing union dissolution are higher than sibling correlations of divorce. It is pertinent to estimate the total effect of all social background factors on offspring union dissolution. It is likewise of interest to specify the share of all social background effects that are constituted by factors caused by or correlated specifically with parental union dissolution. Sibling correlations can be a useful tool for quantifying these relationships.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Origin and Parental and Offspring Union Dissolution: Cues from Sibling Correlations

Andersson¹

2020

Preprint

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“…Finding no cross-country differences would indicate that sibling similarity stems solely from family-level mechanisms not influenced by contextual differences. Previous research has found institutional and cross-country variation in educational inequalities, although studies do not agree on the rankings of countries in this respect (e.g., Bar Haim and Shavit, 2013;Breen et al, 2010Breen et al, , 2009Grätz et al 2019;Pfeffer, 2008;Pöyliö et al, 2018; Van de Werfhorst and Mijs, 2010).…”

Section: Aimsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Few previous studies have addressed cross-country differences in sibling similarities in education. Some previous studies have analyzed sibling similarities in education across several countries, finding few cross-country differences (Björklund and Salvanes, 2011;Grätz et al 2019;Sieben et al, 2001;Sieben and Graaf, 2003). Results concerning temporal trends in sibling correlations in education are inconclusive.…”

Section: Sibling Correlations In Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, it reflects not only the measurable, but also the unmeasurable aspects of family background, such as family values and norms, shared genetic endowment, along with other shared factors such as neighborhood characteristics. An increasing number of studies have applied sibling correlations to measure the contribution of family background on educational attainment (Björklund and Jäntti, 2012;Grätz et al 2019;Jencks et al 1972;Marks and Mooi-Reci, 2016;Sieben et al, 2001;Sieben and Graaf, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The pattern of educational inequality - The contribution of family background on levels of education over time and across four countries

Sirniö¹,

Lehti²,

Grätz³

et al. 2020

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This article analyses the pattern of inequality across levels of education and its evolution over time from a cross-national comparative perspective. We employ a previously disregarded approach of sibling correlations to measure how the contribution of the total family background differs across achieved levels of education. We compare successive birth cohorts in Finland, Sweden, Germany, and the U.S. between 1990 and 2015. We further analyze the extent to which the total contribution of parental background is accounted for by observed parental education. Our results indicate a pattern in which sibling similarity is strongest in the lowest and the highest levels of education in all studied countries. Changes over time were more pronounced in the Nordics and in educational levels other than the lowest. Observed parental education played a less notable role than expected, indicating that using only parental education ignores a substantial portion of the total influence of family background.

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“…Traditionally, the country has been considered as a society with a high level of equality of opportunity, meaning that parental socioeconomic status determines children's adult socioeconomic outcomes relatively weakly. This has been found out to be true for various socioeconomic outcomes-including education, occupational status, and income (Björklund and Jäntti, 2000;Jäntti et al, 2006;Pfeffer, 2008;Erola, 2009;Grätz et al, 2019). The reasons for openness are subject to debate, but often cited explanations which include high-quality early childcare (Karhula et al, 2017;Hiilamo et al, 2018), high-quality and a free of charge educational system (Pekkarinen et al, 2006;OECD, 2008) and strong public support for the egalitarian welfare state (Forma, 2012).…”

Section: Institutional Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic background and gene-environment interplay in social stratification across the early life course

Erola¹,

Lehti²,

Baier³

et al. 2020

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To what extent are genetic effects on children’s education, occupational standing, and income shaped by their parents’ socioeconomic characteristics? Does the impact vary over their children’s early life course, and are there differences across the social strata? We studied these research questions with Finnish register-based data on 6,542 pairs of twins born from 1975 to 1986. We applied the classical twin design to estimate the relative importance of genes. As outcomes, we compared education, occupation, and income in early adulthood. We found that shared environment influences were negligible in all cases. Notably, the proportion of genetic effects explained by parental characteristics mattered most for education and for occupation only because they were associated with their children’s education—but not for income. We did not find any variation across their early life course; however, we found that genetic influences were stronger among the advantaged families for income and education. Thus, gene-environment interactions (GxE) operate differently for different status-related characteristics. For the unique environment, the pattern was consistent across outcomes as the effect was greater among the advantaged families. Stratification scholars should therefore emphasize the importance of the unique environment as one of the drivers of the intergenerational transmission of social inequalities.

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Universal family background effects on education across and within societies

Cited by 9 publications

References 41 publications

Social Origin and Parental and Offspring Union Dissolution: Cues from Sibling Correlations

Social Origin and Parental and Offspring Union Dissolution: Cues from Sibling Correlations

The pattern of educational inequality - The contribution of family background on levels of education over time and across four countries

Socioeconomic background and gene-environment interplay in social stratification across the early life course

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