One of the most robust findings of sociological research is that family background is associated with children’s status and educational attainment. A child with an advantageous family background is more likely to have a higher education and socioeconomic status than a child with a disadvantageous background. This phenomenon has been interpreted to indicate a lack of equal opportunities in socioeconomic attainment. In sociological research, inequality of opportunities is usually explained by unequal distribution of different socioeconomic resources between families. Modern societies function most efficiently when opportunities for education and occupational attainment of individuals are based on individuals’ merits independent of family background. In addition to the parents, other relatives such as aunts, uncles, and grandparents may affect the socioeconomic achievement of children. However, social stratification research has usually concentrated on studying the associations between family resources and children’s achievement. The role of extended family members has been ignored.

This dissertation analyzes the direct effects of family resources and disadvantageous events on children’s education and socioeconomic status, as well as the effects of extended family members and their socioeconomic resources on children’s educational achievement. The theoretical framework is based on evolutionary and social sciences of kin influences in intergenerational transmissions.

The empirical analyses of the four research articles are based on highly reliable and voluminous Finnish register data. Analyses are conducted by comparing siblings with random and fixed effect regression models. Some of the results can be interpreted as reflecting a causal relationship between parental resources and the effects of extended kin.

According to the results, parental socioeconomic resources can independently explain only a minor proportion of adult children’s socioeconomic status in Finland; most of the associations of family background are explained by unobserved characteristics. Maternal education has the most substantial independent effect on adult children’s status in early childhood. On average, it explains 14 percent of the family variance. The mother’s or father’s income has no independent effects on children’s socioeconomic status or education. However, parental unemployment has a negative effect on children’s general secondary attainment, grade point average at the end of compulsory school and tertiary education enrollment. High parental education entirely compensates for the negative effect on general secondary attainment and grade point average. For tertiary enrollment, the negative effect of parental unemployment can be observed only for those children who have a highly educated parent, indicating relative risk aversion caused by parental status decline.

On average, the direct effects of extended kin socioeconomic resources are negligible. Grandparental socioeconomic status is not associated with children’s general secondary attainment. When controlling for parental socioeconomic status and education, the effect of grandparental education is statistically significant but substantially meaningless. However, the results show that grandparents are important for grandchildren’s general secondary attainment. Grandmothers are beneficial for children’s education if they share a lifetime with grandchildren. The effect of the shared life can be observed in families who have low socioeconomic resources and families with many relatives. The results show that the total amount of aunts and uncles’ education compensates for low parental education, thereby increasing the likelihood of children’s higher education attainment. The association can be observed only from the maternal lineage aunts and uncles. According to the results, mothers and grandmothers who keep family networks flourishing are particularly important kin keepers within the family circle. The results provide support for evolutionary interpretations of the effect of extended kin and for the significance of social capital within the (extended) family in intergenerational effects.

According to the results of the four articles of the dissertation, socioeconomic resources of families and extended kin can explain only a small amount of the variation in children’s education and socioeconomic attainment. It can be argued that equality of opportunities actualizes well in the Finnish welfare state. The association between the family background and children’s socioeconomic and education attainment is largely explained by factors other than the socioeconomic resources of parents and extended kin. In the future, studies of intergenerational transmission of education and social status should consider factors other than socioeconomic resources, such as genetic endowments. Correlations between child and kin should not be interpreted to indicate direct effects of parental or other relatives’ socioeconomic resources.