Timing of parenthood and children’s educational outcomes: a new approach focusing on education as a positional good

As the timing of parenthood is steadily increasing in many Western countries, scholars have been interested in the consequences of later motherhood on children’s educational outcomes. Previous studies have shown that, in several contexts, the effect of maternal age on children’s education is positive. The mechanisms behind this positive effect, however, are unclear, since both the availability of higher socio-economic resources of older mothers and positive period trends in education may explain the gradient. In this study, I argue that to clarify the association between maternal age and children’s education, it is important to consider a relative measure of children’s education, focusing on education as a positional good. By means of the French survey Formation et Qualification Professionnelle (FQP) 2014-2015, and a siblings fixed-effects design, I estimate the effect of maternal age on children’s level of education measured in absolute (highest level of education attained) and relative (highest level attained relatively to others in the same age group) terms. Results show that, also in France, maternal age is positively associated with children’s – absolute – level of education. Still, the positive gradient disappears when children’s education is measured in relative terms. These findings support the argument according to which the positive gradient in children’s education by maternal age is substantially driven by educational expansion.