scholarly journals Parental education, divorce, and children’s educational attainment: Evidence from a comparative analysis

2022 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 65-96
Author(s):  
Raffaele Guetto ◽  
Fabrizio Bernardi ◽  
Francesca Zanasi
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Parental Education

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 Cognitive and brain development is independently influenced by socioeconomic status and polygenic scores for educational attainment

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (22) ◽  
pp. 12411-12418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Judd ◽  
Bruno Sauce ◽  
John Wiedenhoeft ◽  
Jeshua Tromp ◽  
Bader Chaarani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Cortical Surface ◽  
Cortical Surface Area ◽  
Regional Association ◽  
Polygenic Scores

Genetic factors and socioeconomic status (SES) inequalities play a large role in educational attainment, and both have been associated with variations in brain structure and cognition. However, genetics and SES are correlated, and no prior study has assessed their neural associations independently. Here we used a polygenic score for educational attainment (EduYears-PGS), as well as SES, in a longitudinal study of 551 adolescents to tease apart genetic and environmental associations with brain development and cognition. Subjects received a structural MRI scan at ages 14 and 19. At both time points, they performed three working memory (WM) tasks. SES and EduYears-PGS were correlated (r= 0.27) and had both common and independent associations with brain structure and cognition. Specifically, lower SES was related to less total cortical surface area and lower WM. EduYears-PGS was also related to total cortical surface area, but in addition had a regional association with surface area in the right parietal lobe, a region related to nonverbal cognitive functions, including mathematics, spatial cognition, and WM. SES, but not EduYears-PGS, was related to a change in total cortical surface area from age 14 to 19. This study demonstrates a regional association of EduYears-PGS and the independent prediction of SES with cognitive function and brain development. It suggests that the SES inequalities, in particular parental education, are related to global aspects of cortical development, and exert a persistent influence on brain development during adolescence.

Sibship size and educational attainment of Canadian baby boomers

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Dilmaghani
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Baby Boomers ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Baby Boom ◽  
Sibship Size ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Surveys ◽  
Female Baby

PurposeThe present study assesses how sibship size affects child quality as measured by educational attainment.Design/methodology/approachThe data are from the Canadian General Social Surveys (GSS) of 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1995. The sample is restricted to the individuals born in Canada between 1946 and 1965, that is, the baby-boom generation. In addition to controlling for parental education, the sibship size is instrumented by a non-binary variable created based on the sex composition of the sibship. While most previous studies have pooled both genders, the present paper produces by gender estimatesFindingsThe OLS estimates are statistically significant, negative and moderately large for both male and female baby boomers. When the sibship size is instrumented, the estimates indicate that one additional sibling had reduced the educational attainment of male baby boomers by almost half a year. No causal effect for the sibship size is found for female baby boomers.Originality/valueThis is the first paper on the effects of sibship size on educational attainment, using Canadian data.

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.

scholarly journals The Socio-Economic Determinants of Child Educational Attainment in Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 75-96
Author(s):  
Amjid Iqbal ◽  
Ghulam Mustafa Sajid ◽  
Sami Ullah Khan
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Household Head ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Gender Disparity ◽  
Urban Region ◽  
Separate Analysis ◽  
Economic Determinants

The main purpose of conducting this study was to explore the socio-economic determinants of child educational attainment in Pakistan. Data on selected variables is extracted from nationally representative survey of Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) 2013-14. The study considers the children of age 5-18 years who ever attended any or currently attending any educational institution. Censored Ordered Probit model is employed. The results at aggregate level reveal that child’s gender, child’s age, age of household’s head, parental education, household assets and availability of private schools positively affect child educational attainment in Pakistan. Children belong to Baluchistan province and urban region of Pakistan also get more education as compare to reference categories. Gender of household head and distance to school has negative effect on child educational attainment. To explore the inconsistency in effect of these factors across region and across gender, separate analysis is conducted for urban, rural, male and female sample. The results of gender specific analysis indicate that income of the household, region of residence (urban) and annual school fee are the main factors causing gender disparity whereas estimates at regional level analysis show that parental education, agricultural land ownership and, distance to school are the factors responsible for regional disparity in child educational attainment.

scholarly journals Mathematical Performance of American Youth: Diminished Returns of Educational Attainment of Asian-American Parents

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari ◽  
Shanika Boyce ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan ◽  
Cleopatra H. Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Asian Americans ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Test Score ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Mathematical Performance ◽  
Asian American Youth ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment ◽  
Hispanic White

The Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDR) phenomenon refers to the weaker effects of parental educational attainment for marginalized groups, particularly ethnic minorities. This literature, however, is limited to Blacks and Hispanics; thus, it is not clear if the MDR phenomenon also applies to the educational performance of Asian Americans or not. To explore ethnic differences in the association between parental educational attainment and youth mathematical performance among 10th-grade American high schoolers, this cross-sectional study used baseline data from the Education Longitudinal Study, a national survey of 10th-grade American youth. The analytical sample included a total number of 10,142 youth composed of 1460 (14.4%) Asian-American and 8682 (85.6%) non-Hispanic youth. The dependent variable was youth math performance (standard test score). The independent variable was parental education. Gender, both parents living in the same household, and school characteristics (% students receiving free lunch, urban school, and public school) were the covariates. Ethnicity was the moderating variable. Linear regression was used for data analysis. Overall, parental educational attainment was positively associated with math ability (test score). We observed a statistically significant interaction between ethnicity (Asian American) and parental education attainment on the results of math test scores, indicating that the boosting effect of high parental educational attainment on youth math function is smaller for Asian-American youth than for Non-Hispanic White youth. While high parental educational attainment contributes to youth educational outcomes, this association is weaker for Asian-American youth than non-Hispanic White youth. Diminished returns (weaker effects of parental education in generating outcomes for ethnic minorities) that are previously shown for Hispanics and Blacks also apply to Asian Americans.

scholarly journals Family Income Mediates the Effect of Parental Education on Adolescents’ Hippocampus Activation During an N-Back Memory Task

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari ◽  
Shanika Boyce ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan ◽  
Cleopatra H. Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Left Hippocampus ◽  
Neighborhood Income ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment

Introduction: Hippocampus, a medial temporal lobe structure, has significant implications in memory formation and learning. Although hippocampus activity is believed to be affected by socioeconomic status (SES), limited knowledge exists on which SES indicators influence hippocampus function. Purpose: This study explored the separate and combined effects of three SES indicators, namely parental education, family income, and neighborhood income, on adolescents’ hippocampus activation during an N-Back memory task. As some of the effects of parental education may be through income, we also tested if the effect of parental education on hippocampus activation during our N-Back memory task is mediated by family or neighborhood income. Methods: The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study is a national multi-center investigation of American adolescents’ brain development. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data of a total sample of 3067 9–10-year-old adolescents were used. The primary outcome was left- hippocampus activation during the N-Back memory task (mean beta weight for N-Back run 1 2 back versus 0 back contrast in left hippocampus). The independent variable was parental education. Family income and neighborhood income were two possible mediators. Age, sex, and marital status were the covariates. To test mediation, we used hierarchical linear regression models first without and then with our mediators. Full mediation was defined according to Kenny. The Sobel test was used to confirm statistical mediation. Results: In the absence of family and neighborhood income in the model, higher parental educational attainment was associated with lower level of left hippocampus activation during the N-Back memory task. This effect was significant while age, sex, and marital status were controlled. The association between parental educational attainment and hippocampus activation during the N-Back memory task was no more significant when we controlled for family and neighborhood income. Instead, family income was associated with hippocampus activation during the N-Back memory task. These findings suggested that family income fully mediates the effect of parental educational attainment on left hippocampus activation during the N-Back memory task. Conclusions: The effect of parental educational attainment on adolescents’ hippocampus activation during an N-Back memory task is fully explained by family income. That means low family income is why adolescents with low-educated parents show highlighted hippocampus activation during an N-Back memory task. Given the central role of the hippocampus in learning and memory and as income is a modifiable factor by tax and economic policies, income-redistribution policies, fair taxation, and higher minimum wage may have implications for promotion of adolescent equality and social justice. There is a need to focus on family-level economic needs across all levels of neighborhood income.

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