Presenter: Professor MSO - Mads M. Jæger

Affiliation: Århus University

Title:All the Family Tree: The Impact of the Extended Family on Children’s Educational Success

Author:
Jæger, Mads M., School of Education, Aarhus University, Tuborgvej 164, DK-2400 Copenhagen NV

Abstract:
This paper analyzes the contribution of the extended family to the total effect of family background on educational success. I analyze data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study and find that, first, factors in the extended family shared by first cousins account for 12-18 percent of the total variation in educational success, while factors in the immediate family shared by siblings account for 28-37 percent. Second, I find that socioeconomic characteristics of aunts and uncles have a substantial direct effect on children’s educational success, while characteristics of grandparents have no direct effect. Third, I find that the direct effect of extended family members’ characteristics on children’s educational success is stronger in low-SES families than in high-SES families. This result suggests that a compensation effect exists in the sense that immediate family members provide more resources to a child’s immediate family when the family has few resources compared to when the family has many resources.