Family and Schooling Effects on Educational Attainment: Great Britain and the United States Compared

In modern societies, education is a key resource for social mobility, andknowledge about the educational attainment process is critical to understandinginequality. In this dissertation, I study how key family characteristics and earlyeducational accomplishments affect educational attainment as youths mature into middleadulthood. Using data from the National Child Development Study for Britain and theHigh School and Beyond survey for the United States, I study how family characteristics,parental work patterns, and unique educational systems affect educational attainment inthe two societies. I use OLS regression for cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.I focus on four key independent variables: family size; parental work hours andfamily structure; school track; and family social capital. I find that societal context isimportant to the process of educational attainment. I confirm the negative effect offamily size on attainment in both countries. However, in Britain, growing up with moresiblings results in lower test scores in secondary school that subsequently affect level ofeducation attained. In the United States, greater numbers of siblings directly affect testscores and years of schooling in early and middle adulthood.Part time workers in Britain have more job protection and benefits such health care that are not tied work, compared to the United States. This societal support has advantages for children's attainment that are not present in the United States. In Britain, children in two parent families in which the father works full time and the mother works part time score higher in reading and math than those in most other family forms. That is not the case in the United States.The effects of educational tracking are more enduring in the United States than in Britain. In Britain, early tracking results in higher test scores which then predict higher attainment. In the United States, tracking has direct effects on every level of attainment. This comparison of educational attainment processes enhances our understandingof the ways in which parental work and family choices affect children's lives, and clarifies which effects are due to decisions within families and which are influenced by societal context.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor dc:publisher

The Ohio State University

Year dc:date

1999

Author dc:creator

• Powell, Mary Ann

Contributors dc:contributor

• Parcel, Toby

• Sociology

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1364298770

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:osu1364298770