NASP International and Interdisciplinary Seminars

Francesco Billari (Bocconi University)
The Social Stratification of Choice in the Transition to Adulthood

7 April 2017, 14.30
Room A
NASP Graduate School in Social and Political Sciences
Via Pace, 10 - Milan

Abstract
We examine to what extent and through which mechanisms parental socio-economic status influences young adults' choices on the timing and occurrence of the four key demographic events in the transition to adulthood (leaving home, union formation, marriage, and childbearing), and we do so comparatively for three different societal contexts. We outline a theoretical framework in which social stratification affects choice in the transition to adulthood through three, potentially reinforcing, mechanisms: stratified socialization, stratified agency, and stratified opportunity. Operationally, we decompose choice into the intention to experience (or to avoid) events, the realization (or lack of realization) of this intention, and the actual experience of events. Using data from two waves of the Generations and Gender Surveys for Austria, Bulgaria, and France, we find evidence that all three mechanisms play a role in the social stratification of choice in the transition to adulthood, and that these roles are broadly similar across societies.