Journal Article

Unequal Advantages: The Intergenerational Effects of Parental Educational Mobility

Lawrence, Matthew

2016

Overview

Researchers and policymakers argue that expanding college access is one way to increase opportunities for students who would become the first in their families to enroll in a postsecondary institution. This article uses measures of educational attainment in the previous two generations to consider whether parents' own histories of educational mobility and reproduction explain inequalities in how students prepare for college. Results suggest differences across generational categories in the types of colleges to which students apply and in the effects of parent-student discussions about topics related to college planning. These differences are explained by distinguishing the resources some families acquire through upward mobility from the resources that accumulate in families where educational privileges have been previously reproduced.

• Publisher: SAGE Publications,American Educational Research Association
• Subject: Academic grades / Access to Education / Advantaged / College Applicants / College choice / College Planning / College Preparation / College students / Colleges / Educational Attainment / Educational Mobility / Effects / Family (Sociological Unit) / Family Financial Resources / Fathers / First Generation College Students / Generational differences / Grandparents / Higher Education / Institutional Characteristics / Parent Background / Parent Child Relationship / Parents / Parents & parenting / Social Mobility / Statistical Analysis / Two year colleges / Upward mobility