The role of family characteristics in shaping educational mobility: mediators or moderators of class and race?

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

This study examines the relationship between ascribed characteristics such as socioeconomic status and race, family practices, and educational mobility. I analyze data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY79) to investigate the relationship between cultural and human capital, parent-child interaction styles, family togetherness, and the educational attainment of youth whose parents never attended college. Prior research suggests that family structure and certain key family practices are positively related to college attendance. I include a broader set of family practices to investigate whether they mitigate the relative influence of socioeconomic status and race on college attendance or whether they interact with socioeconomic status and race to produce differential effects. I show that family practices and socioeconomic status are related to college enrollment and selectivity of postsecondary institution. Additionally, I find that family context moderates the relative power of social and cultural capital in providing access to upward educational mobility.