Subtle Paths of Intergenerational Reproduction

In this article, we contribute to research on the reproduction of social inequality by emphasising the relevance of psyche in class-specific socialisation. For this purpose, we utilise the concept of habitus. Using representative survey data from the German National Education Panel Study (NEPS), we empirically address the psychic dimension of habitus formation in adolescents, and examine mechanisms of intergenerational transmission. In particular, we apply multiple correspondence analysis to construct a ‘social space’ of adolescents, including latent indicators of personality types as well as parents’ class fractions. Our analysis shows that parents’ social class is not only relevant for their children’s manifest economic and cultural resources or their cultural practices, knowledge and skills (as research has repeatedly shown) but plays an important part in the development of what psychologists refer to as personality. However, whereas psychological research on intergenerational transmission tends to focus on the transfer of personality types, and most sociological research focuses on economic and cultural assets, habitus perspective emphasises the indirect route of transmission: the material foundation of emerging dispositional structures, and the cultural dimension of emerging material structures.