PARENTS EXTRAFAMILIAL RESOURCES AND CHILDRENS SCHOOL ATTAINMENT

The study presented in this article examined the contribution of paren ts' extrafamilial resources in childhood to children's completed years of schooling in young adulthood, controlling for human and financial resources. The sample consisted of 901 black and white children observ ed in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics at ages 11-16 and again at ag e 22. The findings indicated that human and financial resources of the family are strongly associated with children's schooling and that par ents' access to time or money help from friends is significantly assoc iated with the years of schooling completed by children from high-inco me (but not low-income) families. Help from friends affects college at tendance but not high school completion and is not uniform across the socioeconomic spectrum of families. Some residential mobility appears to increase the college attendance of children from high-income famili es, but it is detrimental to the college attendance of children from l ow-income families.