Why are Youth from Lower-income Families Less Likely to Attend University? Evidence from Academic Abilities, Parental Influences, and Financial Constraints
by Marc Frenette
Business and Labour Market Analysis Division
Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series, No. 295
Context
It is well known that economically disadvantaged students in Canada are less likely to pursue a university education than students from well-to-do families. Among high school graduates, slightly more than one-half (50.2%) of youth from families in the top quartile of the income distribution attend university by age 19, compared to less than a third of youth from families in the bottom quartile (31.0%). Even youth from families in the third income quartile have a considerable advantage in attending university (43.4%) over youth from the bottom income quartile. Youth in the second quartile are only slightly more likely to attend university than youth in the bottom quartile. These large gaps in university attendance have raised concerns among student groups, parents, policy analysts and education planners since they potentially have negative implications for the intergenerational transmission of earnings.
Objective(s)
This study by using new Canadian data containing detailed information on academic abilities, parental influences, financial constraints, and other socio-economic background characteristics of youth, attempts to explain the large gap in university attendance across the income distribution.
Findings
The study finds that 96% of the total gap in university attendance between youth from the top and bottom income quartiles can be accounted for by differences in observable characteristics. Differences in long-term factors such as standardized test scores in reading obtained at age 15, school marks reported at age 15, parental influences, and high-school quality account for 84% of the gap. In contrast, only 12% of the gap is related to financial constraints. Similar results hold across different income quartiles and when one uses standardized test scores in mathematics and science. However, reading scores account for a larger proportion of the gap than other test scores.
Data source(s)
The data for the study are drawn from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), Cohort A, which was collected in conjunction with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a project of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
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