Parental Social Class and Filial School Level Educational Outcomes in Contemporary Britain: Analysis of Understanding Society and Administrative Data

1 October 2018 - 1 July 2021

Research partners: Dr Roxanne Connelly (University of Edinburgh, PI) Prof Vernon Gayle (University of Edinburgh, CI)

Funding awarded: £ 43,852

Sponsor(s): ESRC

About the research

Despite changes in the education system, children from less advantaged social classes (for example those with parents in routine, semi-routine and manual occupations) still have far less favourable educational outcomes.

This research project will build on existing research to develop the sociological understanding of the relationship between parent's social class and their children's school level educational attainment through a secondary analysis of Understanding Society (the UK Household Longitudinal Study) and administrative educational data.

In the proposed project we will:

1. Extend the range of occupation based social class variables from the existing data collected in Understanding Society.

2. Capitalise on the detailed occupational information provided by Understanding Society to construct a microclass measure.

3. Use the rich range of variables collected by Understanding Society on individuals and households to construct an original set of capital and resources based social class measures.

4. Undertake analyses of contemporary school educational outcomes using a range of alternative measures of social class, and compare and evaluate the relative merits of standard occupation based social class measures, microclass measures and capital and resources based social class measures.

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