Palacios Abad, Alberto2021-06-302021-06-302021-03-18Palacios-Abad, A. (2021). Strive to Succeed? The Role of Persistence in the Process of Educational Attainment. American Behavioral Scientist, 0002764221996750002-7642https://hdl.handle.net/10016/32958This paper examines the role of effort in the process of educational attainment. First, I analyze the impact of effort on future tertiary educational attainment. Then, I test two sociological theories that argue that effort transmits educational inequality across generations. According to the first theory, parental background shapes the effort that children exert in education-related activities. The second theory argues that the drivers of effort in this context are educational expectations. I use a variable for effort that is measured directly over the course of the PISA test. Using a longitudinal dataset from Australia, I estimate different hierarchical and structural equations models. I find that the measure of effort is positively and significantly associated with the probability of having obtained a tertiary degree ten years later. Furthermore, the results show partial support for the second theory but not for the first one.20eng© The author, 2021Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 EspañaPersistenceEducational attainmentParental backgroundExpectationsEducational inequalityresearch articleSociologíahttps://doi.org/10.1177/0002764221996758open access0100027642219967520American Behavioral ScientistAR/0000027989