Educational aspirations among UK young teenagers: exploring the role of gender, class and ethnicity

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of teenagers’ aspirations for higher levels of education during the recent economic recession. We analyse the responses of 4899 young people aged 10 to 15, who participated in the UK Household Longitudinal Study in 2009-10. The timing of the survey is especially significant given the political emphasis on raising aspirations as a means to stimulate the economy. We consider the impact of gender, parental occupational class, parental educational background, family structure and parental attitudes towards education upon teenagers’ educational aspirations, and use multiple regression analyses to consider whether their effects are consistent across ethnic groups. Until now, only limited nationally representative data on young people’s aspirations have been available, especially in respect of ethnic differences. This research aims to fill that gap. It was undertaken as part of a wider study into the aspirations for living and learning among young people in the UK.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Ann Berrington: orcid.org/0000-0002-1683-6668

ORCID for Teresa McGowan: orcid.org/0009-0002-9231-3743

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