Intergenerational Resemblance in Field of Study in the Netherlands

Abstract

Level of education has always been the focus of attention in studies on the intergenerational transmission of education. Consequently, we do not know whether field of study is a relevant new boundary. We expect field of study to be important, because it indicates the type of resources that students acquire. We tested hypotheses about parental effects on the field on study of respondents to the Dutch Family Surveys of 1992 and 1998 (N=2949). In the Dutch educational system the choice of a specific educational programme is made at various educational levels. The association between the educational fields of father and child appeared to be particularly strong in general, teacher/educational, and agricultural fields, and was hardly affected by other family characteristics. Interestingly, children from lower‐class backgrounds were over‐represented in fields of study with favourable labour‐market opportunities, and children from the economic and cultural élite selected fields where they could reproduce their family capital.

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