While much attention has been devoted to measuring levels of social mobility over time, less attention has been given to the possibility of changing pathways to social mobility. This paper examines pathways from social origins to socio‐economic destinations in midlife for two British cohorts, born in 1958 and 1970 respectively, using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). We address the roles of cognitive attainment, private schooling and educational attainment in mediating the link between social origins and destinations. Have these mechanisms become more or less important over time, in a context of structural change in the state schooling system and educational expansion? We find that private schools displayed greater academic selectivity and an increased link to high levels of educational attainment for the younger cohort. Essentially, private schools adapted to changing circumstances, becoming more academically selective and less socially selective, and more focused on educational credentials. Childhood social origins were less strongly linked to childhood cognitive scores in the younger cohort, but cognitive scores were also more weakly linked to educational attainment for this cohort. We also find a decreased association between social origins and educational attainment for the younger cohort. While the finding that educational inequalities weakened over this time period is positive, the lack of a corresponding reduction in the overall link between social origins and destinations suggests that reducing educational inequalities was not sufficient to increase social mobility when accompanied by countervailing changes in the role of private schools.

中文翻译：

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从起点到终点的路径：认知、私立学校和受教育程度的角色的稳定和变化

尽管人们对衡量社会流动水平随时间推移给予了很多关注，但对改变社会流动途径的可能性却很少关注。本文使用结构方程模型 (SEM) 研究了两个分别出生于 1958 年和 1970 年的英国人在中年从社会出身到社会经济目的地的途径。我们探讨认知成就、私立学校教育和教育成就在调解社会起源和目的地之间的联系方面的作用。随着时间的推移，在公立学校教育系统和教育扩张的结构性变化的背景下，这些机制是否变得或多或少重要？我们发现私立学校表现出更大的学术选择性，并且与年轻群体的高水平教育程度的联系增加。本质上，私立学校适应不断变化的环境，变得更加学术选择性和更少社会选择性，并且更加注重教育证书。在较年轻的队列中，童年社会出身与儿童认知分数的相关性较低，但认知分数与该队列的教育程度的相关性也较弱。我们还发现，年轻群体的社会出身与教育程度之间的关联性下降。虽然这一时期教育不平等减弱的发现是积极的，但社会出身和目的地之间的整体联系没有相应减少表明，当伴随着教育不平等的作用发生相反的变化时，减少教育不平等并不足以增加社会流动性。私立学校。