No previous research on parental birth order has examined its influence on the first stage of tracking into schools, which significantly shapes individuals’ future educational trajectories. We are the first to do so, and examine how parental birth order is associated with attainment of general upper secondary education in Finland. Tracking into schools increases inequalities in educational opportunities later in life. School tracking manifests in better socio-economic outcomes for persons with general education as compared to those with vocational education, because the former type of education prepares students for more advanced educational programs and lays the foundation for lifelong learning (Ozer and Perc, 2020). Individuals’ transitions between different educational stages are also important mechanisms lying behind their completed educational attainment (Blossfeld and Shavit, 1993; Breen et al., 2009).

Many European countries employ systems akin to the Finnish model. In the Finnish education system, the first tracking into schools takes place in the calendar year when youngsters complete primary school. This is usually at age 16, which corresponds with the age at first selection into distinct education programs in several other countries (OECD, 2020). The youngsters can then choose between general upper secondary education, which leads to matriculation examination, and vocational education and training. Very few of those who choose vocational education will continue to university studies. This first tracking point therefore separates between persons who aim for an academic track and persons who do not aim for higher education. The Finnish setting consequently makes it possible to study antecedents of the first tracking point into schools.

We study the association between parental birth order and their children’s probability of having a general upper secondary education, measured as having the matriculation examination at age 20. Hence, we focus on an educational choice that people make at young age, rather than on achieved education in adulthood. Register data that cover the full population of Finland are used. We employ an empirical strategy that is similar to that used by Barclay et al. (2021), who studied the neighbouring country Sweden. Our analyses are based on three generations, and we estimate parental birth order through cousin fixed effects. Maternal and paternal cousin groups are constructed, and the models thus control for shared family background.

The total number of individuals in the child generation is 377,038. We find that the probability of having the matriculation examination decreases with parental birth order. Having later-born parents, and in particular a later-born father, is negatively associated with first tracking into schools. These patterns can solely be attributed to the fact that earlier-born parents are higher educated and found in higher social classes than later-born parents. The results largely corroborate findings from similar analyses of length of schooling in Sweden, although the contribution of parental education and social class is notably stronger in our study context. We recommend that future research explores the impact of parental birth order on upper secondary education in various contexts where school tracking plays a pivotal role in determining young persons’ educational careers.

This article presents the main results from a survey highlighting the students’ decision-making process at the end of upper secondary education, showing the propensities toward those continuing their studies at the tertiary level in the various subject fields and displaying the baskets of university choices. It's widely recognized in the social sciences that educational choices play a crucial role in explaining the (re)production of social and educational inequalities. The literature has shown the dual nature of choices (Bourdieu, 1970; Boudon, 1974; Mare, 1980; Breen & Goldhtorpe, 1997; Jackson, 2013), as both dependent variables with significant effects on individual pathways and future expectations, and as independent variables influenced by multiple dimensions (individual/ascriptive; aggregate/individual; institutional). The aim is to reconstruct the network of future propensities among the various university fields of studies using Social Network Analysis (Hanneman & Riddle, 2005; Knoke & Yang, 2019), from data collected by the Mapping technique (Hauser & Koppelman, 1979; Giancola et al., 2023). To achieve the goals, we developed a survey conducted between March and May 2023, in the city of Rome and the Lazio region. We collected 1953 cases of students who decide to pursue their studies at the tertiary level, from a total sample of 2860 respondents. The analysis started by identifying the level of certainty of respondents’ choice regarding the multiple proposed fields of university studies (Hoffmans et al., 2009). Next, we reconstructed the choices network, wherein the nodes represent the individual propensities and the links between them depict the mutual interchange among pairs of options. Using Social Network Analysis, we observed how perspectives overlap and combine or differ from each other. From this representation, we isolated the basket groups in which the membership was used as the dependent variable in a set of regression models. The results reveal the ability of this technique to assess the disparities in the effects on choices generated by the ascriptive factors (social origin, gender, migratory background), path variables (grade repletion, school track, school marks) and lastly attitudes towards school and university (measured using Likert and self-anchoring scales). The power of inertia of ascriptive variables seems to be reconfirmed in both the decision to pursue university studies and among the various fields of tertiary study.

The disruptive event of the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced the educational paths of pupils globally. In the Italian context, the pandemic increased the level of educational inequalities (Giancola & Piromalli, 2020). Consequently, traditional factors contributing to educational disparities such as social origin, gender, immigration status, and disabilities have been further exacerbated by new health, economic, and digital elements, accelerating the process of inequality (Giancola & Salmieri, 2024).

The school choice process is one of the most significant events in a youngster's educational path. Additionally, it is a phenomenon through which educational inequalities often perpetuate high levels of discrimination.

Generally, studies on school choice focus on examining the structural factors that influence this process(Bourdieu & Passeron, 1964) identifying rational choice mechanisms (Boudon, 1973), and understanding how these elements, along with the influence of family expectations (Gambetta, 2019), impact the biographical paths of pupils. The school choice and tracking are also studied in relation to school performance and the recently observed phenomenon of learning loss (Contini et al., 2022). Furthermore, scholars highlight the influence of social and occupational role models on the school choice process and how these factors shape the way pupils and families choose the school track for youngsters (Hägglund & Leuze, 2021). The social representation of profession influences also the pupils’ job expectations.

This paper aims to analyse the relation between the school choice process and the expectations of Italian pupils in the post pandemic educational scenario. To carry this work, I will use the data of last wave of OECD Program for International Study Assessment (PISA2022). Due to the pandemic situation last PISA wave was carried out in 2022 and data released in December 2023. Despite some cultural representation problem of PISA data for non-western countries (Villani, 2018), PISA seems describe very well the Italian context in which, as mentioned before, there is a concatenation between effect of social origin on track choice and that it then significantly affects learning. This effect then falls as much on the educational expectations as on the occupational imaginaries of the students surveyed at age fifteen at the tenth grade of schooling (Giancola & Salmieri, 2022). In the 2022 edition of PISA survey there are several items related to job expectation of respondents, that enable to analyse the relation between, social origin, school track and job expectation. I will perform a set of regression models that, step by step, include as the independent variable the dependent variable at the previous state. In this sense the analysis will show how Italian pupils job expectation is influenced, by social origin, school choice process and school track and how the traditional determinants of educational inequalities likewise gender, immigration status, social origin interact with those elements. Given the presence of prior analysis (Lee, 2014; Pensiero at al., 2019), this study is also aimed at the production a picture of the Italian educational scenario afterwards the pandemic covid19 events.

This paper aims to understand the role played by perceived social norms regarding the ideal age of having the first child in shaping the post-diploma choices of students in the fifth class of high school. In most of the literature on the topic of school choice, in fact, the role of ascribed variables and students' academic performance in determining school paths and the school-university-work transition has been analyzed. This study, on the other hand, aims to hybridize two theoretical strands: the first studying the stages of the transition to adulthood according to the imperatives imposed by tacitly internalized social norms and the second analyzing the reproduction of inequality in education.

On the one hand, social norms and, in particular, age norms, institutionalize life paths by stabilizing transition times and roles to adulthood (Tosi 2017; Billari & Liefbroer 2007). On the other hand, post-diploma school choice is a privileged moment of observation to understand the processes of production and reproduction of social and educational inequalities (Pitzalis 2012; Cataldi & Pitzalis 2014; Tarabini & Ingram 2018) because it is in the transition between school levels that social selection takes place (Boudon 1973). The post-diploma choice, therefore, represents a decisive step in the school career and, more generally, in the life of students because it constitutes an essential stage towards the transition to adulthood (Arnett 2000, 2007, 2016). This stage may be conditioned by social, value, and identity expectations that are linked to one's family environment and the opportunities offered by the territorial context to which one belongs (Cefalo & Scandurra 2021; Iammarino et al. 2018). The hypothesis on which this study is based is that, in addition to the role played by the ascribed variables, the social norms perceived by students regarding the ideal age of having their first child may influence their decision to continue their studies, all else being equal, given certain contextual conditions in which young people live and experience. In addition, due to greater social pressure for women, it is hypothesized that gender may have an influence on the perception of the ideal age at which to have the first child (Bergnéhr 2009; Bernhardt & Goldscheider 2006).

The study used data from the first phase of the MAYBE project - 'Moving into Adulthood in uncertain times: Youth Beliefs, future Expectations, and life choices between changing social values and local policy initiatives', which interviews students before school graduation and has as its main objective to investigate the role of values and choices in the transition to adulthood. Particularly relevant in the study is the attention given to the regional context of reference, Lombardy, which is very heterogeneous in terms of youth services and initiatives offered at the local level. Through the application of logistic regression, the contribution shows how the ideal age perceived by students on a stage considered to be among the main ones for the transition to adulthood, such as having their first child, can orient the decision of the post-diploma school pathway.