High school socioeconomic composition and college choice: multilevel mediation via organizational habitus, school practices, peer and staff attitudes

Abstract

Qualitative research has identified college choice organizational habitus (CCOH) as an important mediating mechanism through which high school socioeconomic composition influences students’ college choice, perpetuating social reproduction and educational inequity. This study examines the mediation effects of 2 general forms of CCOH: normative structures (i.e., school practices directed towards preparing students for college studies) and the collective postsecondary attitudes of school peers, family, and school staff. The results indicate that socioeconomic composition has a substantial effect on college choice and that slightly more than half of the total effect is mediated by CCOH. Collective attitudes had the largest mediation effect of the 2 general forms of CCOH with peer attitudes being by far the most potent single measure followed by staff attitudes. These findings suggest that socioeconomic segregation of adolescents in schools perpetuates social reproduction and addressing that inequity may require greater socioeconomic integration of schools to alter peer composition.

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