Youth in Unfavorable Social Contexts and Educational Attainment in Secondary Education

Abstract: This paper analyses the profile of youth in unfavorable social contexts who have achieved educational attainment in their secondary education. Attainment is here understood as the completion of the 3rd year of secondary education at the appropriate age, without having failed and/or dropped the school during the educational trajectory. We investigate sociological determinants of the educational attainment in unfavorable social contexts. We use micro-data from the Basic Education Evaluation System, 2011 edition. Despite contrary theoretical and factual predictions, we have found that many individuals in the most unfavorable social conditions achieve educational attainment. We observed that the family background influences, but does not define the educational attainment of the individuals.