Open Access
Social origins and socioeconomic outcomes : a combined twin and adoption study
Loading...
Files
Social_origins_2025.pdf (967.27 KB)
Full-text in Open Access, Published version
License
Attribution 4.0 International
Cadmus Permanent Link
Full-text via DOI
ISBN
ISSN
0266-7215; 1468-2672
Issue Date
Type of Publication
Keyword(s)
LC Subject Heading
Other Topic(s)
EUI Research Cluster(s)
Initial version
Published version
Succeeding version
Preceding version
Published version part
Earlier different version
Initial format
Citation
European sociological review, 2025, Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 793-807
Cite
VAN HOOTEGEM, Arno, FARNER ROGNE, Adrian, CROS, Caroline Tveter, RØGEBERG, Ole, HOVDE LYNGSTAD, Torkild, Social origins and socioeconomic outcomes : a combined twin and adoption study, European sociological review, 2025, Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 793-807 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/93756
Abstract
Parents and children tend to have similar socioeconomic status (SES). Sociological theory has often emphasized the role of social mechanisms in intergenerational transmission, including the influence of the broader rearing environment as well as parental investments and aid, but often not allotted an important role to genetics. Accumulating evidence suggests that genetics play an important role in the transmission of SES from parents to children. Yet, estimates differ substantially across data sets, measures and methods. Using two research designs that account for potential genetic confounding, and high-quality data from Norway, we estimate the strength of the intergenerational social transmission of a range of SES indicators. By triangulating data and designs, we obtain estimates that are more robust to idiosyncratic modelling assumptions. Measures of Norwegian parents’ socioeconomic position predict their children’s socioeconomic outcomes, but purely social mechanisms only account for a fifth of the total explained variance in intergenerational transmission.
Table of Contents
Additional Information
Published online: 12 June 2025
External Links
Publisher
Version
Research Projects
European Commission, 818420
Sponsorship and Funder Information
This research was supported by the project OPENFLUX: 'Societal openness, normative flux, and the social modification of heritability' financed by the European Research Council under the grant agreement 818420.