Affiliation:
1. Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands
2. Department of Youth & Family Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands
Abstract
AbstractIntroductionExposure to family risk factors increases adolescents' chances of attaining a lower educational level. However, some adolescents attain a high educational level despite being exposed to family risk factors such as a lower parental socioeconomic status (SES) or receiving less family support.MethodUsing data from the Dutch TRAILS cohort study (NT1 = 2175; Mage = 11.1, SD = 0.55, 50.8% female), we investigated if higher levels of effortful control and peer support can buffer against the negative effects of a lower parental SES and less family support on educational level. Two multinomial logistic regressions were performed (from early to mid‐adolescence and from mid‐adolescence to young adulthood) with post hoc tests to contrast four ordinal educational levels: practical vocational, theoretical vocational, higher general, and (pre‐)university.ResultsAdolescents with a higher parental SES were consistently more likely to end up at a higher educational level, but family support was hardly associated with educational level. Neither effortful control nor peer support buffered the associations of parental SES and family support with educational level. Effortful control did have a positive direct (compensatory) effect on the educational level.ConclusionWe conclude that other individual competencies or more structural changes may be more helpful buffers for reducing socioeconomic inequalities in educational attainment.