Determinants of students' idealistic and realistic educational aspirations in elementary school

Although the social stratification of educational aspirations is well documented for parents and adolescents, current educational inequality research largely ignores the perspective of children. To learn more about the involvement of children in the emergence and reproduction of social disparities, we examine children's educational aspirations during elementary school. Based on the Wisconsin model, rational choice approaches, and the theory of cultural reproduction, our explorative investigation aims to identify determinants of young students' idealistic and realistic aspirations. We utilize a sample of 4947 third grade students from Starting Cohort 2 of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). The multivariate results indicate that students' aspirations are influenced by their parents' social position and aspirations, whereby the students' self-rated rational choice indicators assert the greatest impact.