How Intergenerational Closure Shapes Parental Aspirations in a Highly Differentiated Educational System: Evidence from Germany

According to James Coleman's theoretical considerations, intergenerational closure, defined as social ties among the parents of children's peers, is a crucial factor in the formation of educational inequalities. Empirical studies report positive associations between intergenerational closure and academic success, while indicating that these associations cannot be understood in isolation from the social contexts in which closure is embedded. Nothing is known about its impact on parental aspirations that precede the children's educational success. From the perspective of the Wisconsin Model, aspirations are not only precursors of educational attainment but are themselves shaped through social interactions with significant others. Educational systems structure the social contexts in which children and parents form networks and become significant to each other, and the extent to which educational outcomes, including educational aspirations, are shaped by the degree of educational stratification. Germany represents a highly differentiated educational system with secondary school tracks that differ in their student composition and educational opportunities. No study has examined whether parents of classmates function as significant others for parental educational aspirations, nor whether this role varies across school tracks. Using unique data from a National Educational Panel Study (n = 6,162), we examine whether intergenerational closure is associated with parents’ realistic and idealistic aspirations for their child’s educational attainment. Results from linear probability models indicate that intergenerational closure significantly increases realistic aspirations only among parents with children in intermediate educational tracks, suggesting that significant others shape realistic aspirations primarily as models providing information and resources, rather than through normative mechanisms.