Parents and friends are important influences on adolescents’ academic outcomes. We examine whether and how adolescents’ social networks compensate for or enhance the effects of their parents’ education on academic outcomes. Among a large ethnoracially diverse sample of high school students in the Southwestern (N = 2,136) and Midwestern (N = 1,055) United States, results from network autocorrelation models showed that higher levels of mother and father education were related to greater academic self-efficacy and engagement and higher aspirations, expectations, and grade point averages at both schools. Friends’ parents’ education levels were positively associated with adolescents’ academic aspirations, expectations, and grade point averages across all of the models; higher levels of friends’ parents’ education were related to greater academic self-efficacy across all models, except for mothers in the Southwest; and friends’ fathers’ education levels were positively related to adolescents’ academic engagement for students in the Midwestern school only. There were no significant interaction effects between parents’ and friends’ parents’ education levels in predicting academic outcomes. Differences in the distribution of parental education across ethnic-racial groups shaped the implications of the model for adolescents’ academic adjustment. Findings highlight the impact of educational opportunity across generations in shaping academic inequities.

中文翻译：

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教育不平等的结构：青少年通过友谊网络接受父母教育及其对学业成绩的影响

父母和朋友是影响青少年学业成绩的重要因素。我们研究了青少年的社交网络是否以及如何补偿或增强父母教育对学业成绩的影响。在西南（N  = 2,136）和中西部（N = 1,055) 美国，网络自相关模型的结果显示，父母受教育程度越高，两所学校的学术自我效能感和参与度越高，抱负、期望和平均绩点越高。在所有模型中，朋友父母的教育水平与青少年的学业愿望、期望和平均成绩呈正相关；除西南地区的母亲外，所有模型的朋友父母受教育程度越高，学业自我效能越高；仅中西部学校的学生和朋友父亲的教育水平与青少年的学业投入呈正相关。父母和朋友父母的教育水平在预测学业成绩方面没有显着的交互作用。不同种族种族群体中父母教育分布的差异影响了该模型对青少年学业调整的影响。调查结果强调了跨代教育机会在塑造学术不平等方面的影响。