Does parents’ economic, cultural, and social capital explain the social class effect on educational attainment in the Scandinavian mobility regime?

• Published in: Social science research Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 719 - 744
• Main Authors: Jæger, Mads Meier, Holm, Anders
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego Elsevier Inc 01.06.2007; Academic Press
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Bourdieu; Class; Concomitant variables; Confirmatory factor analysis; Cultural Capital; Denmark; Education; Educational Attainment; Factor analysis; Intergenerational educational mobility; Mixed logit model; Mobility regimes; Parental Influence; Parents & parenting; Scandinavia; Secondary Education; Social capital; Social class; Social classes; Social Mobility; Socioeconomic Status; Sociology; Denmark; Concomitant variables; Mixed logit model; Bourdieu; Intergenerational educational mobility; Denmark; Confirmatory factor analysis; Mobility regimes; Social class
• ISSN: 0049-089X; 1096-0317
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2006.11.003

This paper analyzes how much of the effect of social class on children’s choice of secondary education in Denmark can be decomposed into the influence of parental economic, cultural, and social capital. Following mobility regime theory, we propose that in the Scandinavian mobility regime to which Denmark belongs, the effect of social class on educational attainment should be explained primarily by non-economic forms of capital. We use an extremely rich Danish longitudinal survey to construct empirical measures of economic, cultural, and social capital and an extended random effect framework for the statistical analysis. Our results are, first, that controlling for the three types of capital we explain a considerable part of the social class effect on educational attainment, and, second, that cultural and social capital are the key predictors of educational attainment.