Long-term effects of parents' education on children's educational and occupational success: mediation by family interactions, child aggression, and teenage aspirations.(Report)

Parental educational level is an important predictor of children's educational and behavioral outcomes (Davis-Kean, 2005; Dearing, McCartney, & Taylor, 2001; Duncan, Brooks-Gunn, & Klebanov, 1994; Haveman & Wolfe, 1995; Nagin & Tremblay, 2001; Smith, Brooks-Gunn, & Klebanov, 1997). The majority of research on the ways in which parental education shapes child outcomes has been conducted through cross-sectional correlational analyses or short-term longitudinal designs in which parents and children are tracked through the child's adolescent years. Our main goals in the current study were to examine long-term effects on children's educational and occupational success of their parents' educational level while controlling for other indices of family socioeconomic status (SES) and the children's own intelligence and to examine possible mediators of the effects of parents' education on children's educational and occupational outcomes. Following theory and research on family process models (e.g., Conger et al., 2002; McLoyd, 1989), we expected that indices of family SES, including parent education, would predict the quality of family interactions and child behavior. Next, based on social-cognitive-ecological models (e.g., Guerra & Huesmann, 2004; Huesmann, 1998; Huesmann, Eron, & Yarmel, 1987), we expected that parental education, the quality of family interactions, and child behavior would shape, by late adolescence, educational achievement and aspirations for future educational and occupational success. Finally, following Eccles's expectancy-value model (Eccles, 1993; Frome & Eccles, 1998), we predicted that late adolescent aspirations for future success would affect actual educational and occupational success in adulthood. We use data from the Columbia County Longitudinal Study (CCLS), a 40-year developmental study initiated in 1960 with data collected most recently in 2000 (Eron, Walder, & Lefkowitz, 1971; Lefkowitz, Eron, Walder, & Huesmann, 1977; Huesmann, Dubow, Eron, Boxer, Slegers, & Miller, 2002; Huesmann, Eron, Lefkowitz, & Walder, 1984).

Family Contextual Influences during Middle Childhood

In terms of SES factors, the positive link between SES and children's achievement is well established (Sirin, 2005; White, 1982). McLoyd's (1989, 1998) seminal literature reviews also have documented well the relation of poverty and low SES to a range of negative child outcomes, including low IQ, educational attainment and achievement, and social-emotional problems. Parental education is an important index of SES, and as noted it predicts children's educational and behavioral outcomes. However, McLoyd has pointed out the value of distinguishing among various indices of family SES, including parental education, persistent versus transitory poverty, income, and parental occupational status, because studies have found that income level and poverty might be stronger predictors of children's cognitive outcomes compared to other SES indices (e.g., Duncan et al., 1994; Stipek, 1998). Thus, in the present study we control for other indices of SES when considering the effects of parental education.

In fact, research suggests that parental education is indeed an important and significant unique predictor of child achievement. For example, in an analysis of data from several large-scale developmental studies, Duncan and Brooks-Gunn (1997) concluded that maternal education was linked significantly to children's intellectual outcomes even after controlling for a variety of other SES indicators such as household income. Davis-Kean (2005) found direct effects of parental education, but not income, on European American children's standardized achievement scores; both parental education and income exerted indirect effects on parents' achievement-fostering behaviors, and subsequently children's achievement, through their effects on parents' educational expectations.

Thus far we have focused on the literature on family SES correlates of children's academic and behavioral adjustment. However, along with those contemporaneous links between SES and children's outcomes, longitudinal research dating back to groundbreaking status attainment models (e.g, Blau & Duncan, 1967; Duncan, Featherman, & Duncan, 1972) indicates clearly that family of origin SES accounts meaningfully for educational and occupational attainment during late adolescence and into adulthood (e.g., Caspi, Wright, Moffitt, & Silva, 1998; Johnson et al., 1983; Sobolewski & Amato, 2005; for a review, see Whitson & Keller, 2004). For example, Caspi et al. (1998) reported that lower parental occupational status of children ages 3-5 and 7-9 predicted a higher risk of the child having periods of unemployment when making the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Johnson et al. (1983) found that mothers' and fathers' educational level and fathers' occupational status were related positively to their children's adulthood occupational status. Few studies, however, are prospective in nature and span such a long period of time (i.e., a 40-year period from childhood to middle adulthood). Also, few studies include a wide range of contextual and personal predictor variables from childhood and potential mediators of the effects of those variables from adolescence.

Potential Mediators of the Effects of Family Contextual Influences during Childhood on Adolescent and Adult Outcomes

Family process models (e.g., Conger et al., 2002; McLoyd, 1989; Mistry, Vanderwater, Huston, & McLoyd, 2002) have proposed that the effects of socioeconomic stress (e.g., financial strain, unstable employment) on child outcomes are mediated through parenting stress and family interaction patterns (e.g., parental depressed mood; lower levels of warmth, nurturance, and monitoring of children). That is, family structural variables such as parental education and income affect the level of actual interactions within the family and concomitantly the child's behavior. It is well established within broader social learning models (e.g., Huesmann, 1998) that parents exert substantial influence on their children's behavior. For example, children exposed to more rejecting and aggressive parenting contexts as well as interparental conflict display greater aggression (Cummings & Davies, 1994; Eron et al., 1971; Huesmann et al., 1984; Lefkowitz et al., 1977), and the effects between negative parenting and child aggression are bidirectional (Patterson, 1982). Presumably, children learn aggressive problem-solving styles as a result of repeated exposure to such models, and in turn parents use more power assertive techniques to manage their children's behavior.