Colloquium in Nov. 2019
Choi, Seongsoo (Professor, Department of Sociology at Yonsei University)
With ISEAD (International Sibsize and Educational Attainment Database), the data from 26 low-fertility countries of cohorts born in the 1910s through in the 1980s, this study analyzes how the association between sibship size and educational attainment differs by countries and cohorts. The study finds the magnitude of the negative association between sibship size and educational attainment became significantly greater across the cohorts in 16 countries out of the 26. These trends were especially prevalent in East Asian and former USSR countries. On the other hand, the magnitude changes were negligible in Norway and Sweden, suggesting a possibility that their developed welfare policies might alleviate the negative association between sibship size and educational attainment. This is the first cross-national empirical research on the mediating role of sibship size in the inter-generational reproduction of educational attainment, with its finding that parents’ level of education gap in sibship size became bigger in many countries.
