Who Goes? The Direct and Indirect Effects of Family Background on Access to Post-secondary Education

This research finds that family background (parental education level, family type, ethnicity, location) has important direct and indirect effects on post-secondary participation. The indirect effects of background operate through a set of intermediate variables representing high school outcomes and related attitudes and behaviours. Overall, the large fraction of the family background effect that operates through indirect channels indicates that the period of life before post-secondary financing and related issues become important is crucial for equitable and efficient post-secondary access. These results are based on two sex-specific measures of access (Any Post-secondary, and University) obtained from Statistics Canada's School Leavers and Follow-Up Surveys.