Living Near Grandma: Spatial Proximity and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Advantage

Megan Evans, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)
Sanny Boy Afable, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Kaarina Korhonen, University of Helsinki
Lasse Tarkiainen, University of Helsinki
Moritz Oberndorfer, Max Planck - University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health
Pekka Martikainen, University of Helsinki
Mikko Myrskyla, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Since Mare’s 2011 PAA address, a growing body of evidence has demonstrated the important role that grandparents have to play in the intergenerational transmission of advantage. Through a variety of direct and indirect mechanisms, the social status of grandparents often influences the social attainment of their grandchildren, even after accounting for the social status of the intervening generation of the parents. This study suggests that spatial proximity to grandparents may be an additional, yet understudied mechanism helping to explain the intergenerational transmission of advantage. Using Finnish registry data on a cohort of grandchildren born between 1987 and 1999, we investigate how spatial proximity to grandparents influences the grandchild’s high school GPA at age 16. Preliminary results suggest spatial proximity to maternal grandmothers directly influences academic achievement, net of the educational attainment of both the grandmother and the mother. These results have important implications for understanding the mechanisms through which grandparents influence their grandchildren’s life chances.

Keywords: Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Human Capital, Education, and Work, Older Adults and Intergenerational Relations, Spatial Demography

See extended abstract.