Antecedents of educational attainment: parental involvement, genetics, and non-cognitive skills

Thesis

Education-driven social inequalities are increasing in the advanced countries. Educational attainment is to large extent driven by one’s early social circumstances and then in turn has a significant impact on one’s later life chances. Sociologists have been successful at documenting many processes relating to educational attainment. However, one important antecedent has not been fully integrated into the sociological toolbox of mechanisms - genetic transmission of educational propensity. My thesis aims to use the methodological advances from the field of social science genetics, namely the educational attainment polygenic score, to better understand how disparities in genetic predispositions, through their interplay with social environments, contribute to the divergence of educational and occupational outcomes.

Over the course of three empirical chapters, I explore the dynamic influence of genetic propensity to education over the life course: from adolescence to early and, eventually, late adulthood. Using the Add Health dataset, I investigate the relationship between parental involvement and child’s genetic potential and how it shapes educational outcomes. The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study helps me to look under the hood of the educational attainment polygenic score by allowing me to investigate the mediating role of non-cognitive skills. I also look into how the complex interconnection of social background, genetics, and education influences occupational attainment.

This thesis makes several contributions to the existing body of research in the fields of social stratification and social science genetics. First of all, I embed the genetic mechanism in the broader sociological framework of attainment. My hypotheses and the construction of variables are theorydriven. I qualify my general findings by exploring their heterogeneity by gender and socio-economic status. Second, I open up the black box of the educational attainment polygenic score, which is widely used in the literature but whose true meaning remains elusive. I study the mediating mechanisms in the form of non-cognitive skills which can help one realise their genetic potential. Third, I show that genetic propensity to education dynamically interacts with social environments and spans the whole life course.

Authors: Gerciene, D

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Subjects: Educational sociology; Sociology; Sociogenomics