Trends in Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Canada

Abstract

Using data from the General Social Survey (2011), this study examines trends in the intergenerational persistence in education in Canada for the birth cohorts 1940 through 1989. The study estimates a correlation coefficient between children's and fathers' number of years of education attained. The study finds that, over the period of study, the correlation coefficient increased slightly for sons while it decreased for daughters. Decomposition of the correlation coefficient shows that sons with less educated fathers are still very likely to be less educated. However, for daughters, there is less persistence at the lower end of fathers' education distribution.

Mothers, sons and daughters: intergenerational transmission of education in Canada

“…A significant finding of this study is that educational mobility has increased for the daughters while it declined for the sons. This result conforms with the findings from Latif (2019), who investigated the correlation between fathers' education and children's education. The finding that daughters' educational mobility has increased is also consistent with Turcotte (2011) and Torul and Oztunali (2017).…”

“…The result of the study is that the parental education has a substantial impact on children's education conforms with other Canadian studies on this issue (Latif, 2019;Turcotte, 2011;Sen and Clemente, 2010;McKintosh, 2010;Drolet, 2005;Finnie et al, 2005). This result is also consistent with the findings from other countries (Hertz et al, 2008;Heineck and Riphahn, 2009;Daouli et al, 2010;Azam and Bhatt, 2015;Checchi et al, 2013;Ranashinghe, 2015;Schneebaum et al, 2016;Torul and Oztunali, 2017;Sharif et al, 2016;Torres et al, 2018;Dong et al, 2019).…”

“…However, the methodology of this study requires years of schooling to represent education variables. For this reason, this study follows Latif (2017Latif ( , 2019 to convert categorical education level to years of schooling. Accordingly, this study adopted the following years of schooling corresponding to different educational categories: doctorate/master's/bachelor was equivalent to 19 years; diploma certificate from community college was equivalent to 15 years; some university/community college was equivalent to 14 years; high school diploma was equivalent to 12 years; some elementary/secondary school/no schooling was equivalent to 10 years.…”

“…The study also found that women played a significant role in narrowing the overall gap between people whose parents were university graduates and other people. Latif (2019) used data from the GSS (Family: 2011) to examine the trends in the intergenerational persistence in education in Canada for the birth cohorts 1940 through 1989. The study estimated a correlation coefficient between children's and fathers' number of years of education attained.…”

“…The objective of this study is to extend the work of Latif ( 2019) by focusing on the relationship between mothers' education and children's education. In his research, Latif (2019) analyzed the correlation between children's and fathers' number of years of education attained. In recent years, the education level of females surpassed that of males in Canada, and female labor force participation and employment rate also increased substantially.…”