Supplemental Material for Parental Educational Attainment and Adult Offspring Personality: An Intergenerational Life Span Approach to the Origin of Adult Personality Traits

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Adult Offspring ◽  
Adult Personality ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment

scholarly journals Educational Attainment and Personality Are Genetically Intertwined

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 1631-1639 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Mõttus ◽  
Anu Realo ◽  
Uku Vainik ◽  
Jüri Allik ◽  
Tõnu Esko
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Trait ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Five Factor Model ◽  
Molecular Genetic ◽  
Maximum Amount ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Psychological Traits ◽  
Polygenic Scores

Heritable variance in psychological traits may reflect genetic and biological processes that are not necessarily specific to these particular traits but pertain to a broader range of phenotypes. We tested the possibility that the personality domains of the five-factor model and their 30 facets, as rated by people themselves and their knowledgeable informants, reflect polygenic influences that have been previously associated with educational attainment. In a sample of more than 3,000 adult Estonians, education polygenic scores (EPSs), which are interpretable as estimates of molecular-genetic propensity for education, were correlated with various personality traits, particularly from the neuroticism and openness domains. The correlations of personality traits with phenotypic educational attainment closely mirrored their correlations with EPS. Moreover, EPS predicted an aggregate personality trait tailored to capture the maximum amount of variance in educational attainment almost as strongly as it predicted the attainment itself. We discuss possible interpretations and implications of these findings.

scholarly journals Personality development from 12 to 18 years of age: changes in mean levels and structure of traits

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 445-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jüri Allik ◽  
Kaia Laidra ◽  
Anu Realo ◽  
Helle Pullmann
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
The Self ◽  
Age Changes ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Adult Personality ◽  
12Th Grade ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Change In The Mean ◽  
The Mean

The Estonian NEO‐FFI was administered to 2650 Estonian adolescents (1420 girls and 1230 boys) aged from 12 to 18 years and attending 6th, 8th, 10th, or 12th grade at secondary schools all over Estonia. Although the mean levels of personality traits of Estonian adolescents were quite similar to the respective scores of Estonian adults, there was a developmental gap in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Three of the five personality dispositions demonstrated a modest cross‐sectional change in the mean level of the trait scores: the level of Openness increased and the levels of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness decreased between 12 and 18 years of age. Although the five‐factor structure of personality was already recognizable in the sample of 12‐year‐old children, it demonstrated only an approximate congruence with the adult structure, suggesting that not all children of that age have developed abilities required for observing one's own personality dispositions and for giving reliable self‐reports on the basis of these observations. The self‐reported personality trait structure matures and becomes sufficiently differentiated around age 14–15 and grows to be practically indistinguishable from adult personality by the age of 16. Personality of adolescents becomes more differentiated with age: along with the growth of mental capacities the correlations among the personality traits and intelligence become smaller. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

scholarly journals Parental Educational Attainment and Mental Well-Being of College Students: Diminished Returns of Blacks

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Black Families ◽  
Black College ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Black College Students ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment ◽  
Mental Well Being

Background. According to the Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDR) theory, the health returns of socioeconomic status (SES) are systemically smaller for Blacks compared to Whites. Less is known, however, about trans-generational aspects of such diminished gains. For example, the differential impact of parental educational attainment on differences in mental well-being between White versus Black college students remains unknown. Aims. With a national scope, this study explored racial differences in the effect of parental educational attainment on the mental well-being of college students in the United States. Methods. The Healthy Mind Study (HMS), 2016–2017, is a national telephone survey that included 41,898 college students. The sample was composed of Whites (n = 38,544; 92.0%) and Blacks (n = 3354; 8.0%). The independent variable was highest parental educational attainment. The dependent variable was mental well-being (mentally healthy days in the past month) which was measured using a single item. Age and gender were covariates. Race was the moderator. Logistic regression was used for data analysis. Results. In the pooled sample, high parental educational attainment was associated with better mental wellbeing, independent of race, age, and gender. Race, however, showed a significant interaction with parental educational attainment on students’ mental wellbeing, indicating a smaller effect of parent education on the mental wellbeing of Black compared to White college students. Conclusions. The returns of parental educational attainment in terms of mental well-being is smaller for Black college students compared to their White counterparts. To minimize the diminished returns of parental education in Black families, policies should go beyond equalizing SES and reduce the structural barriers that are common in the lives of Black families. Policies should also aim to reduce extra costs of upward social mobility, prevent discrimination, and enhance the quality of education for Blacks. As the mechanisms that are involved in MDR are multi-level, multi-level solutions are needed to minimize the racial gaps in gaining mental health benefits from higher socioeconomic levels.

scholarly journals School Administrators’ Personality Traits: Its Relationship to Teachers’ Performance

2021 ◽  
Vol 04 (06) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harly Israel G. Bandojo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Length Of Service ◽  
Personal Traits ◽  
School Year ◽  
Social Traits ◽  
Public Elementary Schools ◽  
Civil Status ◽  
Physical Traits

This descriptive study ascertained the perceived personality traits of school administrators’ and its relationship to teachers’ performance in public elementary schools in the district of Estancia, Iloilo. The respondents of the study were the ninety (90) purposively selected public elementary teachers from the district of Estancia, Iloilo during the school year 2017-2018. A researcher-made questionnaire which was validated and reliability tested was used. The results revealed that the school administrators had strong personality traits as perceived by the respondents, when taken as a whole and when classified as to age (above 30 years old), sex, civil status, length of service and highest educational attainment. However, those who were 30 years old and below perceived that school administrators have very strong personality traits. In terms of school administrators’ physical traits, teachers perceived school administrators to have very strong physical traits except for those who aged above 30 years old and master’s degree holders who perceived school administrators to have strong physical traits. In terms of school administrators’ social traits, teachers perceived school administrators to have strong social traits except for those who aged 30 years old and below who perceived school administrators to have very strong social traits. In terms of emotional traits and moral traits, teachers perceived school administrators in both aspects to have strong emotional traits and strong moral traits in all categories. The teachers in the district of Estancia, Iloilo had a very satisfactory performance when taken as a whole and when classified as to age, sex, civil status, length of service and highest educational attainment. Results further revealed no significant differences in teachers’ performance in the district of Estancia, Iloilo. Moreover, no significant relationship between the school administrators’ personal traits and teachers’ performance was found.

scholarly journals Education and Cognitive Functioning Across the Life Span

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Lövdén ◽  
Laura Fratiglioni ◽  
M. Maria Glymour ◽  
Ulman Lindenberger ◽  
Elliot M. Tucker-Drob
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Positive Effects

Cognitive abilities are important predictors of educational and occupational performance, socioeconomic attainment, health, and longevity. Declines in cognitive abilities are linked to impairments in older adults’ everyday functions, but people differ from one another in their rates of cognitive decline over the course of adulthood and old age. Hence, identifying factors that protect against compromised late-life cognition is of great societal interest. The number of years of formal education completed by individuals is positively correlated with their cognitive function throughout adulthood and predicts lower risk of dementia late in life. These observations have led to the propositions that prolonging education might (a) affect cognitive ability and (b) attenuate aging-associated declines in cognition. We evaluate these propositions by reviewing the literature on educational attainment and cognitive aging, including recent analyses of data harmonized across multiple longitudinal cohort studies and related meta-analyses. In line with the first proposition, the evidence indicates that educational attainment has positive effects on cognitive function. We also find evidence that cognitive abilities are associated with selection into longer durations of education and that there are common factors (e.g., parental socioeconomic resources) that affect both educational attainment and cognitive development. There is likely reciprocal interplay among these factors, and among cognitive abilities, during development. Education–cognitive ability associations are apparent across the entire adult life span and across the full range of education levels, including (to some degree) tertiary education. However, contrary to the second proposition, we find that associations between education and aging-associated cognitive declines are negligible and that a threshold model of dementia can account for the association between educational attainment and late-life dementia risk. We conclude that educational attainment exerts its influences on late-life cognitive function primarily by contributing to individual differences in cognitive skills that emerge in early adulthood but persist into older age. We also note that the widespread absence of educational influences on rates of cognitive decline puts constraints on theoretical notions of cognitive aging, such as the concepts of cognitive reserve and brain maintenance. Improving the conditions that shape development during the first decades of life carries great potential for improving cognitive ability in early adulthood and for reducing public-health burdens related to cognitive aging and dementia.

Polygenic Scores in Developmental Psychology: Invite Genetics In, Leave Biodeterminism Behind

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 389-411
Author(s):  
Laurel Raffington ◽  
Travis Mallard ◽  
K. Paige Harden
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Developmental Outcomes ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Polygenic Scores

Polygenic scores offer developmental psychologists new methods for integrating genetic information into research on how people change and develop across the life span. Indeed, polygenic scores have correlations with developmental outcomes that rival correlations with traditional developmental psychology variables, such as family income. Yet linking people's genetics with differences between them in socially valued developmental outcomes, such as educational attainment, has historically been used to justify acts of state-sponsored violence. In this review, we emphasize that an interdisciplinary understanding of the environmental and structural determinants of social inequality, in conjunction with a transactional developmental perspective on how people interact with their environments, is critical to interpreting associations between polygenic measures and phenotypes. While there is a risk of misuse, early applications of polygenic scores to developmental psychology have already provided novel findings that identify environmental mechanisms of life course processes that can be used to diagnose inequalities in social opportunity.

scholarly journals Unequal Protective Effects of Parental Educational Attainment on the Body Mass Index of Black and White Youth

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (19) ◽  
pp. 3641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Assari ◽  
Boyce ◽  
Bazargan ◽  
Mincy ◽  
Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass Index ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Protective Effects ◽  
White Youth ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment

Background: Parental educational attainment is shown to be protective against health problems; the Minorities’ Diminished Returns theory, however, posits that these protective effects tend to be smaller for socially marginalized groups particularly blacks than whites. Aims: To explore racial differences in the effect of parental educational attainment on body mass index (BMI) in a national sample of US adolescents. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we used baseline data of 10,701 (8678 white and 2023 black) 12–17 years old adolescents in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH; 2013). Parental educational attainment was the predictor. Youth BMI (based on self-reported weight and height) was the dependent variable. Age, gender, ethnicity, and family structure were covariates. Race was the focal moderator. Results: Overall, higher parental educational attainment was associated with lower youth BMI. Race, however, moderated the effect of parental educational attainment on BMI, suggesting that the protective effect of parenting educational attainment on BMI is significantly smaller for black than white youth. Conclusions: In the United States, race alters the health gains that are expected to follow parental educational attainment. While white youth who are from highly educated families are fit, black youth have high BMI at all levels of parental educational attainment. This means, while the most socially privileged group, whites, gain the most health from their parental education, blacks, the least privileged group, gain the least. Economic, social, public, and health policymakers should be aware that health disparities are not all due to lower socioeconomic status (SES) of the disadvantaged group but also diminished returns of SES resources for them. Black–white health disparities exist across all high socioeconomic status (SES) levels.

scholarly journals Parental Educational Attainment and Social Environment of Urban Public Schools in the U.S.: Blacks’ Diminished Returns

Children ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanika Boyce ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan ◽  
Cleopatra H. Caldwell ◽  
Marc A. Zimmerman ◽  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Environmental Risk ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Urban Public Schools ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment ◽  
Hispanic White ◽  
White Youths

Background: Recent research has documented marginalization-related diminished returns (MDRs) of socioeconomic status (SES), defined as weaker effects of SES indicators, such as parental educational attainment, on securing tangible outcomes for the members of socially marginalized (e.g., racial and ethnic minority) groups, compared to privileged social groups (e.g., non-Hispanic Whites). Aims: To explore race/ethnic differences between non-Hispanic Blacks vs. non-Hispanic Whites who attend urban public schools on the effect of parental education on lower school environmental risk among American high schoolers. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, we borrowed the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS-2002) baseline data, a nationally representative study that enrolled 1706 10th grade youths who were attending urban public schools. From this number, 805 (47.2%) were non-Hispanic Black and 901 (52.8%) were non-Hispanic White youths. The dependent variable was the level of school social environmental risk measured using 18 items as self-reported, and was treated as a continuous variable. The independent variable was parental educational attainment, treated as a continuous measure. Gender, region, and parental marital status were the covariates. Race/ethnicity was the moderating variable. Linear regressions were applied to perform our data analysis. Results: Black students were found to attend schools with higher levels of social environmental risk. Youths with parents with a higher educational attainment were found to attend schools with a lower social environmental risk. We found a significant interaction between race (non-Hispanic Black vs. non-Hispanic White) and parental educational attainment on the level of school social environmental risk, suggesting that the protective effect of high parental education on reducing the school social environmental risk was smaller for non-Hispanic Black than for non-Hispanic White youths. Conclusions: Although high parental educational attainment is protective against social environmental risk for American youths, this protective effect is weaker for non-Hispanic Black than non-Hispanic White youths. The diminished returns of parental education in reducing school social environmental risk may explain why the effects of parental education on educational outcomes are smaller for non-Hispanic Black than non-Hispanic White youths (i.e., MDRs). The social environment indirectly generates racial youth educational disparities through deteriorating non-Hispanic Black youth educational outcomes across all SES levels. To prevent the confounding effects of private, suburban, rural, and Catholic schools, we limited this analysis to public urban schools. More research is needed on other settings.

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