The Social Stratification of Choice in the Transition to Adulthood

The occurrence and timing of major demographic decisions in the transition to adulthood are strongly stratified, with young adults with a high socio-economic status (SES) background usually experiencing many of these events later than young adults with a low SES background. To explain this social stratification, we outline a theoretical framework in which social stratification affects choice in the transition to adulthood through three, potentially reinforcing, pathways: stratified socialization, stratified agency, and stratified opportunity. We test our framework against longitudinal data from two waves of the Generations and Gender Surveys for Austria, Bulgaria, and France. We find evidence for the importance of all three pathways. Furthermore, processes differ little by gender, age and country context.

socio-economic status (SES)

This figure summarizes how we expect social background to influence the timing of demographic events in young adulthood. First, the parental socio-economic background is expected to influence the intentions of young adults concerning the timing of demographic events (Path 1: Stratified Socialization). Second, the parental socio-economic background may influence the extent to which young adults are able to realize these intentions1 (Path 2: Stratified Agency). Third, the parental socio-economic background may influence the timing of the event via differences in the structural opportunities that children encounter during their transition to adulthood (Path 3: Stratified Opportunity).