Intergenerational Mobility in Education: Evidence from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study

The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) has been following a large and diverse sample of children born in 20 large US cities since their births in 1998 to 2000. The children—now young adults—were re-interviewed between October 2020 and January 2024, at age 22, responding to questions about their income, earnings, living arrangements, employment, education, family, financial support, health, identity, and more. These children turned 22 during the COVID-19 pandemic. As youth in the FFCWS cohort transition into young adulthood, these interviews provide an opportunity to understand how today’s young adults are faring.

This brief focuses on intergenerational mobility in education. Taking advantage of the longitudinal data, we provide a first look at two distinct questions: 1) are today’s young adults are completing more education on average than their parents’ generation; and 2) how strongly is a young adult’s educational attainment predicted by their parents’ educational attainment, and does this differ by gender or race/ethnicity. This brief is part of a series on young adults’ wellbeing at age 22.

Key Findings

• In aggregate, young adults today are on track to complete more education than their parents’ generation did.
  • Among the young adults at age 22, only 12% had less than a high school degree (compared to almost one-third of their mothers), 41% just a high school degree or equivalent, 37% some college (compared to one-quarter of their mothers), and 10% a college degree or more by age 22 (compared to 12% of their mothers by about age 24). 
     
• However, the amount of education that a young adult has completed by age 22 is still strongly predicted by their parents’ educational attainment.
  • Among young adults whose mothers had less than a high school education, a tiny share (4%) has completed a college degree by age 22. In contrast, among those whose mothers had a college degree or more, 33% have completed a college degree or more.
  • While there is upward mobility for this cohort of young adults, parents’ education remains a strong predictor, limiting mobility for those whose parents had low educational attainment. 
     
• The links between parents’ educational attainment and young adults’ educational attainment are stronger for young men than young women. 
   
• We also see differences by race/ethnicity. Surprisingly, we find that parents’ educational attainment is a stronger predictor of educational attainment for White young adults than it is for Black young adults or Hispanic young adults. 

The study is a joint effort by Princeton University’s Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child and Family Wellbeing and the Columbia Population Research Center.

The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study is a long-running collaborative birth cohort study, which has followed a large and diverse sample of children since their births in 1998 to 2000. The children were born in 20 large cities but now reside all over the United States. When weighted, the study provides data that is nationally representative of young adults born in large cities and as such is the only nationally representative sample of a contemporary cohort of young adults followed longitudinally since birth.

Suggested Citation

Dickerson, Tia, Hye-Min Jung, and Jane Waldfogel. 2026. Intergenerational mobility in education: Preliminary evidence from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Princeton, NJ: The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study.

Published on February 27, 2026