Parental ability, education and occupation as influences on offspring cognition in Hawaii and Korea

Abstract

Partial correlation procedures were used to assess the separate influences of parental ability and parental status (as measured by educational and occupational attainment) on offspring ability, using data acquired from persons of European and Japanese ancestry residing in Hawaii and from Koreans residing in Korea. The magnitudes of the correlations of parental ability and attainment with offspring ability varied substantially across groups. Partial correlations indicate that parent ability and parent status each independently influence offspring performance on measures of cognition, but that the influence of status generally is far weaker than is the influence of parental cognitive ability.