Father’s Side or Mother’s Side? Lineage-Based Differences in the Impact of Grandparental Resources on Grandchildren’s Education in Japan

This study examines the mechanisms through which grandparental resources and advantages increase the opportunities of grandchildren to access college, using longitudinal data from Japan. It also focuses on the heterogeneity in the transmission of grandparental advantages by lineage and gender. Although recent studies of social mobility have increasingly recognized the accumulation of inequality across multiple generations, relatively few studies have identified the underlying mechanisms or explored the roles of extended family structures in shaping multigenerational mobility. To advance this line of inquiry, we investigate how grandparental resources and contact are associated with grandchildren’s college enrollment in Japan—a context characterized by strong intergenerational ties and mutual support. We draw on two key mechanisms to explain multigenerational social mobility: the contact-based and noncontact-based mechanisms. In addition, we examine variation by grandparents’ lineage and gender. Our findings show that contact with paternal grandparents and grandfathers on both sides facilitates the transmission of their advantages to grandchildren, whereas no such pattern is observed for maternal grandmothers. These results underscore the importance of contact with grandfathers and patrilineal lineages in shaping multigenerational mobility in Japan. This contrasts with studies based on U.S. data, which emphasize the role of grandmothers. To deepen our understanding of multigenerational mobility, future research should shed light on how grandparental contact and resources operate across diverse family and societal settings.