Introduction
is important to recognise that children themselves are a key part of the process of
transmission. In economic terminology the educational attainment that may be
considered to be an outcome at say, age 6, becomes an input when one is investigating
the determinants of attainment at age 10.
This dynamic element to the process is extremely important as it reflects the ways in
which children internalise contexts and processes and the ways in which inter-
generational educational immobility asserts itself. This is also the process of
maturation. Through childhood and as children become adults they start to choose
contexts and influence interactions more and more strongly. Even in infancy,
proximal processes are dynamic and trans-personal but this element of individual
autonomy becomes stronger with maturation and this is reflected in more
sophisticated versions of the model we adopt.
1.5.7 The importance of social class
The attainment gap discussed above is generally considered in terms of a social class
difference in attainment. Yet here we focus on the role of education and other specific
distal and proximal factors. We do and do not address class explicitly as a single distal
(or proximal) factor.
Social class is a complex notion. It is not equal to education or to income or socio-
economic status (SES). Elements of social class may include income, education,
occupation and cultural capital, but even together these factors do not sum to social
class. Social class is in some ways a relational and positional measure. It exists in the
distribution of assets and advantages across society and not at the level of the
individual. It varies in different societies in its rigidity and effect and in the extent to
which it is mediated by income or the other factors mentioned.
Most empirical results suggest that the association between socio-economic status - a
proxy measurement for social class - remains significant after controlling for
education and income. Replication of results has been consistent in measuring the
positive relationship between class and children’s educational attainments. The
mediating factors in the relationship between class and developmental outcomes over
the life course are still subject to analysis. Feinstein and Symons (1999) found that
parental interest in their children’s education explains the variance on attainment
otherwise explained by social class, parental education or family size. Sacker et al.
(2002) stated that at age seven and age eleven parental social class is mediated by
material deprivation, but by age sixteen the effect of class is mainly mediated by the
school context. Sullivan (2001) found independent effects of social class on children’s
GCSE attainment even when cultural capital of parents and the child is included in the
analysis. The role of class then may be mediated by characteristics of context such as
values and aspirations (see section 4.2).
Because of the complexity in the notion of class we choose not to reduce it to a single
factor. The factors such as income, education and occupation that we do address
might be seen in combination to create or underpin social class. In this sense, the
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