Social Background and School Continuation Decisions

Logistic response models of the effects of parental socioeconomic characteristics and family structure on the probability of making selected school transitions for white American males are estimated by maximum likelihood using the 1973 Occupational Changes in a Generation Survey data. As a consequence of differential attrition patterns, parental socioeconomic effects decline sharply from the earliest school transitions to the latest. Estimated effects of parental income on grade progression decline by more than 50 percent between elementary school and college.