The determinants of cognitive and non-cognitive educational outcomes: empirical evidence in Spain using a Bayesian approach

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article aims to extend the literature about the role played by socio-economic and family background in educational outcomes by comparing the determinants of two different dimensions of educational output: academic achievement and non-cognitive traits. To do this, we explore the information provided by a self-report survey developed specifically for the purpose of this research. This will provide us with an innovative measure of non-cognitive performance based on particular personal traits, such as responsibility, effort, motivation and critical capacity, as well as a common measure of cognitive proficiency. We use a Bayesian approach to estimate the potential influence of multiple individual and family variables on both dimensions of educational output. From our results, we find that, despite some similarities, there are several important divergences with regard to some socio-economic variables that have been traditionally considered to be the most influential determinants of academic achievement which do not appear to have a significant impact on non-cognitive outcomes.