What We Learned from PIAAC: Relationships Between Parental Education and Adult Socioeconomic Outcomes
What benefits are associated with having more highly educated parents, and how do these benefits vary from country to country? Understanding the lasting effects of parental education on adult outcomes offers critical insights into the state of social mobility, particularly in the United States where significant disparities in educational attainment and economic opportunity persist.
The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), conducted between 2012 and 2017, included an item assessing the education level of respondents’ parents. This information has allowed researchers to investigate relationships between parental education and their children’s skills, as well as social and economic outcomes, including income, employment status, and educational attainment.
This brief highlights the main findings from dozens of national and international reports and research papers that utilize PIAAC data to explore the relationship between parental education and a range of adult outcomes.
