Education and Social Background

Tabulations of school years completed by family type, family head's education and occupation, and number of siblings were obtained for five-year birth cohorts of adult native males from a 1962 survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. No more than three-tenths of the variance in attainment can be attributed to the four family factors, although each has an independent effect on schooling. Stability in the relations among the family factors and their respective effects on schooling is pronounced over cohorts, and intercohort differences in family circumstances do not account for the variable gains in mean attainment recorded between successive cohorst.