Sibling Similarity in Education and Employment Trajectories in the UK: Same Same, but Different?

Alina Pelikh , University College London

Young people’s early education and employment trajectories (EET) hold profound implications for perpetuating or alleviating social inequalities across the life course. Considerable evidence indicates that family background, including dimensions like socioeconomic status and ethnicity, plays an instrumental role in shaping these trajectories. However, we have little understanding of how similar or different these trajectories are between siblings and which early adolescent experiences affect individual trajectories, after accounting for parental background. By using unique data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study which allows to follow siblings from adolescent years into their transition to adulthood, this paper explored which early adolescent experiences (10-15) influence differences in education and employment of siblings in late adolescence (16-19). Specifically, this study looks at the role of shared experiences, including parental background and family type, as well as individual experiences, such as personal educational aspirations, mental health, and wellbeing. On average, siblings were more likely to follow a similar trajectory regardless of the type of the trajectory compared to young people from similar parental background. Thus, siblings were more likely to stay in education or transition into labour market. However, they were also more likely to follow the more precarious pathway, highlighting the role of shared family background in perpetuating disadvantage. Family characteristics as well as siblings’ compositional factors play an important role in shaping EET at ages 16-19 among siblings. After controlling for the shared parental characteristics, perceived family environment (e.g., parental support), adolescent educational aspirations and mental health are crucial predictors of EET.

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 Presented in Session 84. Flash session Life Course