What Is Going on Around You: Peer Milieus and Educational Aspirations

Abstract

Peers have long been found to be of relevance for educational aspirations and hence educational success. While sociological and social psychological theories often assume concrete social mechanisms that focus on ‘significant’ peers, past research predominantly had to rely on classroom-level aggregates. This study examines how educational aspirations among adolescents cluster in friendship networks within school classes. Through the utilization of social network measures from the CILS4EU data on Germany, The Netherlands, and Sweden (15,203 individuals, 50 per cent girls, MAGE 14.9 years), we construct two measures of the most significant peers around individuals, i.e. of the peer milieu, and explore the salience of educational aspirations in these milieus. Applying longitudinal logistic regression models and first-difference models with individual-level fixed effects, we find evidence for clustering of individuals with the same educational aspirations within classrooms, underlining the relevance of peers for educational success.