Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (E-Journal)
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Pushy parents make for later grandparents: parents’ educational expectations and their children’s fertility among two British cohorts
Get PDFThe timing of first birth is often viewed through the opportunity costs of childbearing theory – greater potential in the labour market will lead to postponement of first birth. This paper examines the effect of parental educational expectations in shaping opportunity costs as predictors of early parenthood, using data from two British Birth cohorts born in 1958 and 1970. Rapid inter-cohort changes in labour market and educational patterns could change the importance of educational expectations in determining time to first parenthood. Two definitions of early parenthood are used – one relative, based upon the first quartile of each cohort entering parenthood, and the second equating to teenage parenthood. Parental educational expectations measured at age 16 are used in binary logistic regression models for men and women. Predicted probabilities are presented to emphasise the contrast between educational expectations and socioeconomic measures. Parental educational expectations are found to be strong predictors of early fertility in most models. Expecting any post-compulsory education leads to a decrease in the odds of early parenthood against a battery of controls. Where the expectations of parents are non-significant, those of the teacher are significant. Only in the 1970 cohort teenage fatherhood model were educational expectations of important adults found to be non-significant. Adult, usually parental, high educational expectations reduce the probability of young people becoming early parents, even in the presence of controlling factors that are usually assumed to account for this relationship. This indicates a role for parents in future interventions aimed at lowering levels of early parenthood
Childhood cognitive ability and adult academic attainment: evidence from three British cohort studies
Get PDFThis paper examines the association between general cognitive ability directly measured in mid childhood and adult academic attainment in three British birth cohorts born in 1946, 1958, and 1970, controlling for family socio-economic background and gender. The study uses structural equation modeling to link latent variables indicating family socio-economic background, childhood general cognitive ability, and academic attainment assessed through school leaving age and highest qualifications achieved by age 26. In addition logistic regression modeling is used to establish the odds of obtaining degree level qualifications in times of social change. The results show that the association between family social background and academic attainment has remained more or less the same over time, gender inequalities have reduced, while the association between general cognitive ability and academic attainment has decreased for the 1970 cohort. Although more young people achieve degree level qualifications in the later born cohort, the findings suggest persisting social inequality in the realisation of cognitive potential and educational opportunities. The findings are discussed in terms of their policy implications
Health returns to cognitive capital in the British 1946 birth cohort
Get PDFThe association between education and health has long been discussed; but more recently the question of whether this association is accounted for by cognitive capital has received considerable attention, including in the British birth cohorts. Following work in the British 1970 cohort we investigated childhood cognition in relation to six health outcomes in midlife linked to risk of cardiovascular disease in the British 1946 cohort. These outcomes were smoking, physical exercise, healthy dietary choice, obesity, hypertension, and non insulin-dependent diabetes at or by age 53 years. Childhood cognition was associated with all of these outcomes although for all except exercise and healthy diet this was fully mediated by educational attainment, and partially so by adult socioeconomic attainment. Cognitive capital plays a role in the accumulation of risk for chronic physical disease in midlife, but it is not a sufficient determinant of this risk, and does not account for the association between education and health outcomes related to this risk
Progress and attainment during primary school: the roles of literacy, numeracy and self-regulation
Get PDFAcademic achievement is a cumulative process marked by both continuity and change over time. Research increasingly documents the critical importance of not only language and mathematical competency for academic success, but also the centrality of wider skills that enable pupils to regulate their own learning behaviours. This paper examines the balance that exists between change and stability in different domains of children’s academic achievement during middle childhood and the relative importance of achievement, attention and related features of self-regulation skills for subsequent achievement. Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, the analysis attempts to move beyond a narrow view of educational success and seeks to inform the understanding of how changes in children’s developing capabilities predict educational success at the end of primary school in English and maths. The results demonstrate a clear pattern of continuity in attainment but also evidence of mobility both up and down the achievement distributions. In line with an increasing body of literature, the findings also show evidence of a remarkable persistence in skills related to attention as important predictors of later achievement
