Citation

Göllner R, Damian RI, Nagengast B, Roberts BW, Trautwein U. Psychol. Sci. 2018; 29(11): 1785-1796.

Affiliation

Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Association for Psychological Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1177/0956797618794454

PMID

30215575

Abstract

We examined life-course effects of attending selective schools using a longitudinal study of U.S. high school students begun in 1960 ( Ns ranging from 1,952 to 377,015). The effects, measured 11 and 50 years after the initial assessment, differed significantly across the two indicators of school selectivity that were used. School average socioeconomic background was positively related to students' educational expectations, educational attainment, income, and occupational prestige at the 11-year follow-up (0.15 ≤ β ≤ 0.39; all ps <.001). Conversely, schools' average achievement at the 11-year follow-up was negatively related to students' expectations, attainment, income, and occupational prestige (-0.42 ≤ β ≤ -0.05; all ps <.05) when schools' socioeconomic background was controlled for. All associations were mediated by students' educational expectations. With the exception of income, these effects were consistent 50 years after high school, pointing to the long reach of beneficial learning resources and negative social comparison processes when attending selective schools.

Language: en

Keywords

U.S. high schools; life-course outcomes; open materials; school composition