Abstract
The general question of this study is: how does the participation in cultural activities develop during the first 35 years of the life course, in consequence of the family of origin and later acquired social status?
Taking the results based on cross-sectional data as a starting point, this study analyzes
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mainly longitudinal (life-history) data referring to 1028 Dutch former schoolmates graduated from 31 secondary schools. The data also contain extensive and independent information on cultural activities in the parental home, obtained by interviewing 840 parents. In addition, for 654 respondents the siblings nearest in age were located and information was collected on their cultural participation. The combined clustering of former schoolmates within schools, and siblings within families, made it possible to estimate total effects of family and school.
In sum, the main findings are:
* Cultural participation emerges as a rather stable kind of behavior, originating early in life, most often in the parental family.
* Among those who have started their cultural careers before the age of eighteen, the age of initial attendance turns out to be most effective. A person s starting age matters more to cultural participation in early adulthood than the company of the first visit, the cultural behavior by the parents or art education at school.
* The association between the cultural behavior by parents and their offspring is at its maximum when the children are between ten and twelve years old. After the age of ten (museum) or twelve (stage arts) the resemblance in cultural participation between parents and children decreases, but remains positive.
* As a result of the longitudinal research design and the opportunity to estimate total family and school effects, is has become clear that a number of apparent effects of social conditions occurring later in life are to a large extent the result of selection mechanisms. Differences in cultural participation according to later acquired status characteristics are largely present before these conditions turn up.
* The additional influence of social conditions, occurring later in life, especially level of education and arts instruction, is found to be smaller than in studies using cross-sectional data.
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