限制個人職業發展的究竟是「窮爸富爸」還是你的性別

論文標題：How long is the shadow? The relationships of family background to selected adult outcomes: results from PIAAC

作者：Henry Braun

數字識別碼：10.1186/s40536-018-0058-x

原文作者：Henry Braun

家庭對一個人生活的影響有多大？它會決定我們的學業，職業和收入嗎？如果真的有影響，這些來自家庭優劣的影響又是如何代代相傳的呢？最近在Large-scale Assessments in Education上發表的一個新研究試圖解答這些問題。

家庭背景與個人成年後的成就之間的相互關係一直是一個有趣的話題，因為這關乎到代與代之間的傳承，不管是好的傳承還是壞的傳承。本研究試圖（1）量化家庭背景（主要觀察父母的受教育水平和家中的藏書量）對個人未來職業成就（以其在國民收入分布中所處的收入分位為指標）的影響；（2）記錄其他因素對這些關係的影響程度；所謂的其他因素包括認知能力，教育程度和職業類別。同時我們研究了年齡和性別對以上相同指標的影響。

我們的數據來自21個參與第一輪國際成人能力評估項目（PIAAC, 2012）的國家。PIAAC是在技術平台上進行的家庭調查。調查通過概率抽樣選定成人參與者，首先在不同技能層面進行評估，然後再通過廣泛的背景調查問卷進行評估。

我們發現在所有參加調查的國家中，家庭背景與收入密切相關，但這種聯繫很大程度上受認知能力和教育程度的影響。意料之中的是，家庭背景與認知能力和教育程度高度相關。並且如我們所預期的，更強的認知能力和更高的教育程度與收入正相關。

在所有國家中，性別和收入有很強的聯繫，而且這種強度居然基本上不受其他因素的影響。具體來說，即使考慮了年齡，全職的職業，認知能力，教育水平和職業類別等因素，女性佔據國民收入分布最高分位的可能性仍比男性低。總的來說，在對其他因素進行適當控制的情況下，比起男性，女性更有可能處於國民收入分布里的最低分位。性別帶來的劣勢幅度因國家而異，日本的程度最大，愛爾蘭的程度最小。較低的教育程度帶來的劣勢也是巨大的，並且在多數國家裡大於性別相關的劣勢。

鑒於PIAAC是一種橫向研究，我們不能從這些模式里得出因果關係，但是各國之間的一致現象說明這個問題值得深究。當某個國家要把這些研究結果應用到政策上時，需要了解本國經濟活動的歷史走勢，一貫的政策，並且要考慮文化和人口組成等因素。所以，要想充分利用這些發現，我們有必要根據不同國家的情況進行更深入的縱向追蹤研究。

摘要：

Background

Ongoing interest in the relationships between family background and adult outcomes is motivated by concerns regarding the intergenerational transmission of advantage/disadvantage. Currently all countries are far from achieving the ideal that all individuals, irrespective of their starting points or their demographic characteristics, are able to accumulate sufficient human capital so that they can achieve success in the workplace and fulfill their responsibilities as family members and as citizens. This study quantifies the length of the shadow cast by family background and personal characteristics on an individual』s prospects in the labor market. It also examines the extent to which these relationships are mediated by factors more proximal to labor market entry.

Methods

This study uses data for 21 OECD countries from the first round of PIAAC. It employs descriptive statistics, correlations and logistic regression. Two dichotomous variables are derived from each country』s national annual income distribution: Q1 = 1 if the individual』s income is in the first (lower) quartile and Q4 = 1 if the individual works full-time and whose income is in the fourth (upper) quartile. For each country, a nested sequence of logistic regression models are fit to ascertain the role of more proximal factors in mediating the impact of family background and demographic characteristics on these labor market outcomes.

Results

The patterns of relationships are qualitatively similar across the 21 countries, although the estimated associations vary greatly in strength. Parental education accounts for substantial proportions of the variation in respondents』 Educational Attainment and Cognitive Skills. In most countries, children born to parents with lower levels of education have less than a fifty–fifty chance of exceeding that level. Family background is strongly associated with income, but the relationship is largely mediated by Educational Attainment and Cognitive Skills. Females and younger individuals have much higher odds of being in the lower quartile and much lower odds of reaching the upper quartile, even after adjusting for other variables. The magnitudes of these adjusted odds are concerning.

Conclusions

Family background and gender cast a long shadow on individuals』 life prospects. Countries vary greatly in their success in mitigating these disadvantages. Formulating effective policies will depend on understanding a complex set of dynamics that surely differ among countries.

期刊介紹：

Large-scale Assessments in Education(https://largescaleassessmentsineducation.springeropen.com/) is a joint publication of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and Educational Testing Service (ETS). The articles in this journal contribute to the science of large-scale assessments, help disseminate state-of-the-art information about empirical research using these databases and make the results available to policy makers and researchers around the world.

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