Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital Across Three Generations Using Latent Class Associations Within Families

Abstract

There is a large volume of research on the persistence of advantage and disadvantage across generations. Intergenerational studies typically address family resources as independent factors, which ignores how risks cluster together and accumulate over time. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children and latent class methods, we used grandparent and parent characteristics to identify risk circumstances of grandchildren and then examined the association between risk circumstances and grandchild educational outcomes. Five qualitatively and quantitatively distinct latent classes of grandparent characteristics and four latent classes of parent characteristics were identified. Of these, Low Grandparent Education Capital, Parent Financial Hardship, and Multiple Parent Risks latent classes were associated with lower grandchild literacy and numeracy scores in Year 3. Disadvantages were concentrated within three-generation family units; grandparent latent classes were associated with parent latent classes, and grandparent and parent latent classes were associated with the grandchild’s educational achievement.

Keywords: intergenerational disadvantage, educational achievement, latent class analysis