Parental Occupation More Than Doubles Impact on Child's Academic Achievement, Study Finds

A new study by the Taub Center for Social and Economic Policy reveals that a parent's occupation is a stronger predictor of a child's academic success than their level of education. The research, which analyzed data from over 10,000 Israeli 15-year-olds who participated in PISA exams between 2012 and 2022, found that parental occupation explains approximately 45% of the achievement gaps, compared to parental education which accounts for only about 21%.

The study, conducted by researcher Ariela Saban and economics professors Il Khemchi and Dan Ben-David, examined the link between parental employment and children's academic performance after controlling for parental education and other background factors. The findings indicate that fathers' occupations play a particularly significant role, explaining about 33% of the achievement gaps, while mothers' occupations explain 12%.

Conversely, mothers' education was a more substantial factor than fathers' education in explaining achievement gaps, accounting for 17% compared to the fathers' 4%. Fathers' occupations were linked to children's performance across all three PISA domains: reading, mathematics, and science. For mothers, the connection was most prominent in reading.

Children of fathers working in academia, science, and research showed particularly high achievement, exceeding the baseline group by 7.3%. Those with fathers in technology, information, and software also performed well, scoring 6.8% higher. High achievements were also noted for children of fathers in advanced engineering (5%), finance, accounting, and economics (4.2%), and health and medicine (3.7%).

In contrast, children of mothers working as early childhood educators scored 4.6% lower than the baseline group, and children of mothers working as teaching assistants scored 2.2% lower. These were the only two occupational categories where a significant negative gap was observed. Professor Il Khemchi suggested that high-quality occupations might reflect high-quality parental education and lead to higher incomes, both of which can influence children's outcomes. He emphasized that the education system should aim to reduce these initial disparities to promote equal opportunities and intergenerational mobility.