Class and the Educational Attainment of Siblings: An Explanatory Model of Social Mobility

In order to explain well-established macro mobility patterns, this chapter seeks to examine the role of parents in the education and career of their children. This examination provides not only a micro foundation for the observed patterns, but also an explanation for differentials among siblings and class differentials in mobility outcomes at three stages. Qualitative data collected by in-depth interviews with 60 respondents in Hong Kong between 1996 and 1997 are used for illustration. The data show that parents of the same class do not necessarily use the same mobility strategies for their children, and that even the same parents do not necessarily play the same role in the mobility of their different children. A tentative explanatory model for social mobility is then put forward. The essence of its explanation lies in selective parental treatment for their children of different birth orders and/or genders.