Intergenerational transmission of occupational status: The role of voluntary association membership as an emerging compensatory strategy of reproduction

• We investigate club membership as a compensatory strategy of social reproduction.
• Club membership does not explain social reproduction for the 1916–1947 cohort.
• Club membership does explain social reproduction for the 1948–1960 cohort.
• Club membership became an effective compensatory strategy of reproduction.

In this article, we raised the question as to what extent members from higher status groups effectuated social resources, more specifically voluntary association membership, as a possible new compensatory strategy to guarantee a successful intergenerational transmission of their occupational status. For that purpose, we investigated whether voluntary association membership (of parents and their child) mediate the positive effect of parental occupational status on that of their child and whether it has become more important over time as an explanation of social reproduction. In the empirical analysis, we incorporated voluntary association membership into the classic status attainment model and estimated path models using retrospective life course data from the Family Survey Dutch Population 2000. The empirical results showed that voluntary association membership does not play a mediating role in the intergenerational transmission of occupational status for the 1916–1947 birth cohort. However, it does so for the 1948–1960 birth cohort, thereby becoming an effective compensatory strategy in the intergenerational transmission of occupation status.