Family Educational Background and First-Generation College Students' Achievement

• In Event: 220 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. Family and Education

Abstract

The “college divide,” or the divergence in status attainment and well-being between adults who hold a college degree and those who do not, has been described as a key driver of contemporary economic inequality. Reducing this gap requires that colleges and universities recruit and retain the diverse group of students who would be the first in their families to attend college. We explore variation in the educational backgrounds of parents of first-generation students to assess whether those whose parents had some postsecondary education themselves are more likely to enroll in and finish college compared to students whose parents only finished high school or left without a diploma. We then ask whether variation in family-based economic, personal, and cultural resources explain any observed gain from parents’ postsecondary education that did not culminate in a four-year college degree. Our analysis is based on multigenerational data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1968-2013) and its child-centered supplemental studies (1997-2013).

Authors

• Paula W. Fomby, University of Michigan

• Christina Cross, University of Michigan