Educational Inequality: More Than Social Origin
Research on inequality of educational opportunity (IEO) typically focuses on social origin, often measured through parental occupational status. However, according to Tomáš Katrňák, this approach captures only part of the picture.
The study therefore emphasizes so-called family origin factors, which reflect the broader family context—such as parental educational pairing, parental divorce, or growing up in a non-intact family. While these factors have long been recognized in demographic and family research, they are often overlooked in studies of educational inequality.
Family Context as a Key to Educational Trajectories
Particular attention is given to parental educational pairing—that is, whether parents share a similar level of education (homogamy) or differ in their educational attainment (hypogamy or hypergamy). These differences can shape not only the economic and cultural resources available within the household, but also children’s educational aspirations.
The study shows that these aspects of family background have a direct impact on children’s chances of attaining tertiary education—even when traditional indicators of social origin are taken into account.
Data from European Countries
The analysis is based on data from the first wave of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS-I), conducted in 12 European countries as part of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP).
The findings reveal that three family origin factors have a statistically significant positive effect on the likelihood of achieving tertiary education. Importantly, these effects remain robust even after controlling for social origin, suggesting that family background shapes educational trajectories independently of parents’ socioeconomic status.
Family and Social Origin as Complementary Dimensions
The results indicate that family origin factors play a role comparable to that of traditional social origin indicators in explaining educational stratification. Ignoring these aspects may therefore lead to an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms driving inequality in education.
Incorporating a broader family context allows for more nuanced analyses and opens new perspectives on educational inequalities in European societies.
The research was conducted as part of the project “On Our Own: Opportunities and Risks in the Individualization of Society (PRINS),” co-financed by the European Union. Tomáš Katrňák is affiliated with the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University.
