Relations were examined between family background, adolescents' academic achievement, aspirations, and young adults' educational attainment. Data were analyzed from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (4,500 men, 4,804 women; M age = 20.1 yr., SD = 0.4). Multistage regression analyses indicated that, while family background and academic achievement measures had medium associations with attainment, adolescents' educational aspirations made a large independent contribution to explaining differences in young adults' education attainment.
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