The analysis uses new data matching parents and their young adult children
to study the impact of family background on young people's educational atta
inments. The data is derived from the first seven years (1991-97) of the Br
itish Household Panel Study. Parents' educational attainments are found to
be very strongly associated with their children's educational attainments.
and for an important part of the population these associations can be given
a causal interpretation. In addition, young adults who experience single p
arenthood as children and those who come from families in the bottom income
quartile have significantly lower educational attainments.