Parent-child mismatches in educational aspirations: Prevalence, stability, and convergence over time

Abstract

Parent-child mismatches in educational aspirations may negatively affect child development. We examine 1) the prevalence of mismatching aspirations across school grades 3–9 (ages 8–15), 2) their stability over time, and 3) whether mismatching aspirations converge to parents’ or to children’s aspirations. This study uses data from two German National Educational Panel Study cohorts (“kindergarten”: N=4,217, 48.3% female, 18.3% immigrants; “5th grade”: N=3,908, 48.6% female, 16.5% immigrants). Findings indicate that in grade 3, 30% of parent-child dyads have mismatching aspirations; this percentage shrinks however to 14–22% across grades 4–9. Mismatching aspirations are relatively instable. Among younger children, convergence occurs mostly because they adopt their parents’ aspirations. Among older children, aspirations tend to converge in both directions.