A study has found that children from privileged backgrounds are more likely to go to universities than their counterparts. The study found that 77 percent of privileged children made it to universities compared to 47 percent from poor backgrounds.
Academics from New York analyzed data from 5,000 students and determined that coming from a privileged background is the most important factor in determining if one goes to university. The participants in the study were children born between 1994 and 1996 in the UK. The study looked at different factors, including the genetic propensity for education in these children, and came to the same conclusion.
Comparison between genetic propensity and privileged backgrounds as determinants
Having wealthy parents far outweighed all other factors, according to Professor Sophie von Stumm, the lead author of the study. She continued by saying,
Genetics and socio-economic status capture the effects of both nature and nurture, and their influence is particularly dramatic for children at the extreme ends of the distribution. However, our study also highlights the potentially protective effect of a privileged background.
The study also showed that having a genetic propensity for education made children from poor backgrounds more likely to attend universities. However, children with a low genetic propensity for education and from privileged families had higher chances of getting into universities than these poor children.
Likelihood of going to universities
The study concluded that these children from well to do families had an edge over everyone else regardless of whether they concentrated more on their studies or not. The research used genome-wide polygenic scoring to test how genetic differences predict children’s education success.
The study found that only 47 percent of poor background children with a higher genetic propensity in education made it to universities. This is lower than the 62 percent of children from affluent families who made to universities and had a low genetic propensity for education. The study also found that 77percent of children from affluent families made it to universities as compared to 21 percent from poor backgrounds.
Featured image by Pexels
