ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Sociology of Stratification
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1585464
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Social Stratification Dynamics: Insights from Longitudinal Survey DataView all 7 articles
Intergenerational status transfer and post-compulsory pathways in a changing education system: A comparison of two Swiss school-leavers' cohorts
Provisionally accepted
- Institute of Sociology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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This study compares the mechanisms of intergenerational occupational status transfer among a subsample of two Swiss school-leaving cohorts (2000 and 2016) that was enrolled in VET programmes at upper-secondary level of education. In particular, we focus on the effect of tracking at the lower-secondary level, which is pronounced in Switzerland and known to play a crucial role for educational and social stratification. Drawing on data from two cohorts of the TREE 1 panel survey, we compare cohort-specific linear regression models that examine overall intergenerational transmission of status and direct as well as indirect or mediating effects of lower-secondary track attendance on (occupational) status attainment. As a measure for analysing the association between parental and child status, we draw on the recently developed linear hierarchical Occupational Earnings Potential (OEP) scale. We find that while the impact of lower-secondary tracking has declined across cohorts, overall intergenerational status transmission remains stable, suggesting that institutional context factors that have changed across cohorts (such as educational reforms and improvements of VET supply) have failed to mitigate intergenerational status transmission and social inequality. Our analyses underscore the need for structural policy interventions to enhance educational equity, particularly measures that foster de facto (and not only formal) permeability within the highly stratified Swiss education system.
Keywords: occupational status, Intergenerational social mobility, Vocational education and training, Switzerland, Cohort data
Received: 28 Feb 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gomensoro, Hupka-Brunner and Meyer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Andrés Gomensoro, Institute of Sociology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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