scholarly journals Measuring social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment in the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastian Andreas Betthäuser ◽  
Mollie Bourne ◽  
Erzsebet Bukodi
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Social Origin ◽  
Education Class ◽  
British Cohort Study ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
Class Status

This data note presents and discussed descriptive statistics of the key variables on individuals’ social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment that have been constructed based on the information contained in the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). The main sets of variables presented are (1) measures of respondents’ cognitive ability in childhood, (2) parental education, class, status and income, and (3) respondents’ highest qualification and measures indicating whether respondents have crossed different educational qualification thresholds.

scholarly journals Measuring social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment in the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mollie Bourne ◽  
Bastian Andreas Betthäuser ◽  
Erzsebet Bukodi
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Young People ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Social Origin ◽  
Education Class ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
Class Status

This data note presents and discussed descriptive statistics of the key variables on individuals’ social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment that have been constructed based on the information contained in the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE). The main sets of variables presented are (1) measures of respondents’ cognitive ability in childhood, (2) parental education, class, status and income, and (3) respondents’ highest qualification and measures indicating whether respondents have crossed different educational qualification thresholds.

scholarly journals Measuring social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment in the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS).pdf

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastian Andreas Betthäuser ◽  
Mollie Bourne ◽  
Erzsebet Bukodi
Keyword(s):  
Child Development ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Social Origin ◽  
Development Study ◽  
National Child Development Study ◽  
Education Class ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
Class Status

This data note presents and discussed descriptive statistics of the key variables on individuals’ social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment that have been constructed based on the information contained in the National Child Development Study (NCDS). The main sets of variables presented are (1) measures of respondents’ cognitive ability in childhood, (2) parental education, class, status and income, and (3) respondents’ highest qualification and measures indicating whether respondents have crossed different educational qualification thresholds.

scholarly journals Comparative Data Note: Harmonising the measurement of social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment across the National Child Development Study (NCDS), the British Cohort Study (BCS70), the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), and the Avon Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastian Andreas Betthäuser ◽  
Mollie Bourne ◽  
Erzsebet Bukodi
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Child Development ◽  
Young People ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Social Origin ◽  
National Child Development Study ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
British Cohort Study

The data note presents and discusses descriptive statistics comparing key variables on individuals’ social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment that have been constructed based on the information contained in four different data sets: National Child Development Study (NCDS), 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) and Avon Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The main sets of variables presented are (1) measures of respondents’ cognitive ability in childhood, (2) parental education, class, status and income, and (3) respondents’ highest qualification and measures indicating whether respondents have crossed different educational qualification thresholds.

scholarly journals An investigation of Social Class Inequalities in General Cognitive Ability in Two British Birth Cohorts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roxanne Connelly ◽  
Vernon Gayle
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
General Cognitive Ability ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
Ability Test ◽  
British Cohort Study ◽  
Nationally Representative

The ‘Flynn effect’ describes the substantial and long-standing increase in average cognitive ability test scores, which has been observed in numerous psychological studies. Flynn makes an appeal for researchers to move beyond psychology’s standard disciplinary boundaries and to consider sociological contexts, in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of cognitive inequalities. In this article we respond to this appeal and investigate social class inequalities in general cognitive ability test scores over time. We analyse data from the National Child Development Study (1958) and the British Cohort Study (1970). These two British birth cohorts are suitable nationally representative large-scale data resources for studying inequalities in general cognitive ability.We observe a large parental social class effect, net of parental education and gender in both cohorts. The overall finding is that large social class divisions in cognitive ability can be observed when children are still at primary school, and similar patterns are observed in each cohort. Notably, pupils with fathers at the lower end of the class structure are at a distinct disadvantage. This is a disturbing finding and it is especially important because cognitive ability is known to influence individuals later in the lifecourse.

Language skills in student essays: social disparities and later educational attainment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maximilian Weber
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Social Origin ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Socially Disadvantaged ◽  
The Social ◽  
British Cohort Study ◽  
Origin Effect

This article examines the role of language skills in socially stratified educational attainment. Using essays written at the age of 11 in a large British cohort study, the National Child Development Study (NCDS), two measures of written language skills are derived: lexical diversity and the number of spelling and grammar errors. Results show that participants from the lower social strata misspelt more words and used a smaller variety of words in their essays than more socially privileged cohort members. Those language skills mediate part of the association between social origin and the highest level of educational attainment achieved. An even higher mediation of about half can be observed if standardised test measures for verbal and non-verbal cognitive abilities are included in the model. The models show that language skills mediate the social origin effect on educational attainment by about a quarter.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Student essays are used to measure language skills.</li><br /><li>Socially disadvantaged students’ essays contain more errors.</li><br /><li>Essays from socially advantaged cohort members are more lexically diverse.</li><br /><li>Language skills mediate part of the social origin effect on educational attainment.</li></ul>

scholarly journals Resource Compensation or Multiplication? The Interplay between Cognitive Ability and Social Origin in Explaining Educational Attainment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Stienstra ◽  
Ineke Maas ◽  
Antonie Knigge ◽  
Wiebke Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Compensation Effect ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Social Origin ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
Do So

Abstract While previous research has conclusively established that children with higher cognitive ability and those originating from advantaged socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds have better educational outcomes, the interplay between the influences of cognitive ability and social origin has been largely overlooked. The influence of cognitive ability might be weaker in high-SES families as a result of resource compensation, and stronger in high-SES families owing to resource multiplication. We investigate these mechanisms while taking into account the possibility that the association between cognitive ability and educational attainment might be partly spurious due to unobserved genetic and environmental influences. We do so by analysing a large sample of twins from the German TwinLife study (Npairs = 2,190). Our results show that the association between cognitive ability and educational attainment is to a large extent confounded by genetic and shared environmental factors. If this is not considered, and this is the case in most previous studies, high-SES parents seem to compensate for the lower cognitive ability of their children. However, when we consider the genetic and shared environmental confounding, the resource compensation effect becomes non-significant.

scholarly journals Class, Status, and Education: The Influence of Parental Resources on IEO in Europe, 1893-1987

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cinzia Meraviglia ◽  
Maarten L. Buis
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
Social Background ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Occupational Class ◽  
Parental Background ◽  
Class Status ◽  
Parental Resources ◽  
Over Time

Abstract:There is a long tradition of studying the influence of parental background on educational attainment of the offspring. Recently the emphasis in this tradition has shifted to the question of what parental background is. In particular, what contributes to social background, for example parental occupational status, parental occupational class, and/or parental education? Moreover, who contributes to parental background, the mother, the father, or both? In this article we asked the question whether these different components of parental background are stable across time and across countries, or are some components more important in some countries or periods than in other countries or periods. We were able to reject the hypothesis that the contributions of the different components were constant across 29 European countries. In most of these countries we were also able to reject that these contributions were constant over time.

scholarly journals Does Smoking Cause Lower Educational Attainment and General Cognitive Ability? Triangulation of causal evidence using multiple study designs

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne H. Gage ◽  
Hannah Sallis ◽  
Glenda Lassi ◽  
Robyn Wootton ◽  
Claire Mokrysz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Mendelian Randomization ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Smoking Initiation ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Summary Statistics ◽  
Lower Educational Attainment

AbstractObjectivesObservational epidemiological studies have found associations between smoking and both poorer cognitive ability and lower educational attainment; however, evaluating causality is more challenging. We used two complementary methods to attempt to ascertain whether smoking causes poorer cognitive ability and lower educational attainment.DesignA cohort study (Study One) and a two-sample Mendelian randomization study using publicly-available summary statistics (Study Two).SettingThe Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a birth-cohort study based in Bristol, United Kingdom, and general population samples from published genome-wide association studies (GWAS).ParticipantsUp to 12,004 young people in ALSPAC (complete case analysis N = 2,107) (Study One and Study Two), and summary statistics from three previously published GWAS (not individual-level data) (Study Two).Main outcome measuresCognitive ability at age 15 (assessed via the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence) and educational attainment at age 16 (assessed via school records) (Study One), and educational attainment (measured as years in education) and fluid intelligence from previously published GWAS (Study Two).ResultsIn Study One, heaviness of smoking at age 15 was associated with lower cognitive ability at age 15 and lower educational attainment at age 16. Adjustment for potential confounders and earlier cognitive ability or educational attainment attenuated findings although evidence of an association remained (e.g., fully adjusted cognitive ability beta - 0.736, 95% CI −1.238 to −0.233, P = 0.004; fully adjusted educational attainment beta −1.254, 95% CI −1.597 to −0.911, P < 0.001). Comparable results were found in sensitivity analyses of multiply imputed data. In Study Two, two-sample Mendelian randomization indicated that both smoking initiation and lifetime smoking lower educational attainment and cognitive ability (e.g., smoking initiation to educational attainment inverse-variance weighted MR beta −0.197, 95% CI −0.223, −0.171, P = 1.78 × 10−49). Educational attainment results were robust to various sensitivity analyses, while cognition analyses were less so.ConclusionsOur results provide evidence consistent with a causal effect of smoking on lower educational attainment, although were less consistent for cognitive ability. The triangulation of evidence from observational and Mendelian randomisation methods is an important strength for causal inference.Summary boxesWhat is already known on this topicAssociations are seen between smoking and both educational attainment and cognition. These is some evidence that educational attainment might causally influence smoking, but causality in the opposite direction has not been assessed.What this study addsUsing multiple methodologies, we found evidence consistent with a causal effect of smoking on lower educational attainment. An exploration of potential mechanisms could inform the development of interventions to mitigate this risk.

scholarly journals Influence of childhood socioeconomic position and ability on mid-life cognitive function: evidence from three British birth cohorts

2021 ◽  
pp. jech-2020-215637
Author(s):  
Eoin McElroy ◽  
Marcus Richards ◽  
Emla Fitzsimons ◽  
Gabriella Conti ◽  
George B Ploubidis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Socioeconomic Position ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
Modifiable Factors ◽  
British Cohort Study ◽  
Childhood Cognitive Ability

BackgroundChildhood socioeconomic position (SEP) is robustly associated with cognitive function later in life. However, it is unclear whether this reflects a direct relationship, or an indirect association via modifiable factors such as educational attainment and occupation. We sought to clarify these associations using retrospectively harmonised data from three ongoing British birth cohorts.MethodsWe analysed data from the 1946 National Survey of Health and Development (n=2283), the 1958 National Child Development Study (n=9385) and the 1970 British Cohort Study (n=7631). Retrospective harmonisation was used to derive equivalent indicators of cognition, SEP, education and occupation across the three cohorts. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the association between childhood SEP and mid-life cognitive function, via childhood cognitive ability, educational attainment and mid-life occupation.ResultsAcross all three cohorts, no direct pathways were observed between childhood SEP and mid-life cognitive function. Rather, this association was indirect via the three temporally ordered mediators. In addition, the direct pathway between childhood cognition and adult cognitive function was weaker in the two younger studies.ConclusionsAcross three British birth cohorts, we found that the association between early life SEP and mid-life cognitive function was fully mediated by childhood cognitive ability, educational attainment and occupational status. Furthermore, the association between early cognitive ability and mid-life cognitive function has decreased in younger generations. Therefore, cognitive function in adulthood may be influenced by modifiable factors and societal change.

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