Children Of Less-educated Parents Research Articles

Does entering early childhood education as a toddler benefit language and social development until age seven? A propensity score analysis

Is entering into early childhood education (ECE) at a young age a resource or risk for language and social development? For the German National Education Panel Study – Newborn Cohort (analytical n = 2296), we balanced 23 covariates taken in infancy with inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) and modeled relations between ECE entry age (very early entry <24, early entry 24-35, later entry >35 months) and societal language and social development age three to seven. Very early entry predicted larger vocabulary for dual language learners (DLLs) and children of less educated parents until first grade, implying “buffering effects.” Early entry also predicted vocabulary advantages in first grade. Very early and early entry predicted fewer peer problems until first grade. Very early entry predicted more prosocial behavior for monolinguals, but less for DLLs in first grade. Robustness checks suggested several of these advantages emerge only in diverse populations and revealed disadvantages implying “lost resources.”

Family structure transitions and educational outcomes: Explaining heterogeneity by parental education in Germany

Recent research has documented that the effect of parental separation on children’s educational outcomes depends on socioeconomic background. Yet, parental separation could lead to a stable single-parent family or to a further transition to a stepfamily. Little is known about how the effect of family structure transitions on educational outcomes depends on the education of parents and stepparents, and there has been limited empirical research into the mechanisms that explain heterogeneity in the effects of family transitions. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and models with entropy balancing and sibling fixed effects, I explore the heterogeneous effects of family transitions during early and middle childhood on academic secondary school track attendance, grades and aspirations. I find that family transitions only reduce the academic school track attendance among children of less educated parents living in stepfamilies or with a single mother after parental separation, and among children of highly educated fathers living in single-mother families. The mechanisms that partly explain these effects relate to reduced income and exposure to poverty after parental separation. The findings underscore the importance of considering the stepparent's educational level, indicating that the adverse consequences of parental separation on educational outcomes are mitigated when a highly educated stepfather becomes part of the family. Overall, these findings align more closely with the resource perspective than the family stability perspective.

Sources of mathematics self-efficacy: The interactive role of parental education and perceptions of teachers.

Using US National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) data, we explore how parental education and primary students' perceptions of their teachers interact to impact students' self-efficacy in mathematics. Our results demonstrate that students tend to have higher self-efficacy if they perceive that their teacher promotes the importance of mathematics. This relationship holds regardless of parental education, though it is strongest for children of parents without a university education. Children of less educated parents also tend to have lower self-efficacy if they attend private schools, which typically have high average parental socio-economic status (SES). School type has no discernable impact on children of university-educated parents. These findings are highly relevant to the Canadian context, which is characterized by schools being stratified by SES and the high importance of STEM education for occupational outcomes.

Parental education and cancer mortality in children, adolescents, and young adults: A case-cohort study within the 2011 Italian census cohort.

Progress in the treatment of juvenile cancers has led to remarkable improvements in survival. However, not all families have the resources to cope with the burden that such diseases require. This study was aimed at evaluating the association between parental education and cancer mortality in children, adolescents, and young adults. This was a case-cohort study based on 1889 cancer cases and 108,387 noncases sampled from the 2011 Italian census cohort of 10,964,837 individuals younger than 20 years and followed for 6 years. Mortality rate ratios (MRRs) were estimated for individuals with parents with high and intermediate levels of education (International Standard Classification of Education [ISCED] levels 5-8 and 3-4, respectively) in comparison with individuals with less educated parents (ISCED levels < 3) through multiple Poisson regression models. Over the follow-up, 684, 858, and 347 cancer cases with parents with the lowest, intermediate, and highest levels of education, respectively, were registered. In comparison with the individuals with parents with the lowest level of education, the MRR from all neoplasms was 0.92 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83-1.03) for those with parents with an intermediate level of education and 0.83 (95% CI, 0.72-0.95) for those with parents with the highest level of education. The MRRs from all neoplasms for individuals with parents with the highest level of education were 0.88 (95% CI, 0.69-1.11) among children, 0.87 (95% CI, 0.70-1.06) among adolescents, and 0.64 (95% CI, 0.50-0.83) among young adults. Children, adolescents, and young adults with highly educated parents have reduced mortality from cancer. This calls for further efforts to optimize treatment for children of less educated parents.

Believing and Achieving: Gendered Pathways Toward Upward Educational Mobility in the United States.

Little research has investigated the impact of adolescent motivational resources, other than educational plans, on adult educational attainment, or whether their effects differ by gender and social class. Data from the St. Paul Youth Development Study (n = 874, 55% female, 30% children of college graduates) are used to estimate a second-order latent motivation factor encompassing adolescent (age 15-16) educational plans, academic self-concept, economic self-efficacy, and mastery. Then, using logistic regression, the effect of this second-order factor on odds of college graduation in adulthood (ages 26-27 to 37-38) is estimated. Heterogenous effects of motivation by gender and parental education are investigated. The results show that the second-order motivation factor had strong positive effects on educational attainment after adjusting for family background variables. The effect of motivation did not differ by gender in the whole sample nor among children of college graduates. However, among children of less-educated parents, women were found to benefit more than men from these psychological assets for achieving upward educational mobility. These findings suggest that adolescent motivation, especially among U.S. women whose parents do not have college degrees, may be a resource for higher educational attainment.

Expansion and Intergenerational Mobility of Education

Using data from the 2013 Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP2013), we analyze intergenerational educationa1 mobility and the distribution of benefits among different groups in the course of educational expansion. Overall, educational expansion has raised educational mobility, reduced the possibility of downward intergenerational educational mobility, and increased the possibility of upward intergenerational mobility. However, the degree to which different types of households have benefited from the expansion of education is closely related to the urban-rural gap and the level of parenta1 education. The expansion of basic education has been more advantageous to the children of less-educated parents, whereas the expansion of higher education has mainly benefited the children of households with higher levels of parental education and to urban children. If, therefore, China is to promote the balanced development of educational modernization and build a nation that is an educational power, it needs to make active adjustments at the policy leve1.

Attendance at Well-Child Visits After Reach Out and Read.

Attendance at well-child visits (WCVs) is a sine qua non of preventive care. We hypothesized that Reach Out and Read (ROR) would be associated with better WCV attendance. Parents of children 76 to 72 months at 8 clinics who did not yet have ROR reported how many WCVs their child had attended in the previous year; separate samples at the same clinics were interviewed 16 months after the ROR program was instituted. Comparing 267 parents before ROR and 254 after, the percentage who had attended the minimum number of WCVs required by the American Academy of Pediatrics periodicity schedule rose from 67.4% (180/267) to 78.3% (199/254; P < .01). This difference remained significant after controlling for multiple potential confounding factors (estimated odds ratio = 2.1, 95% confidence interval = 1.3-3.5). The largest differences were among Latino children and children of less-educated parents. Programs to enhance early literacy may increase attendance at WCVs among at-risk families.

Boy-Girl Differences in Pictorial Verbal Learning in Students Aged 8-12 Years and the Influence of Parental Education.

This large-scale cross-sectional study of schoolchildren aged 8–12 years (N = 152) evaluates two factors which potentially determine individual differences in intentional learning: the child’s sex and parental education. Intentional learning was assessed with a newly constructed Pictorial Verbal Learning Task (PVLT). This task presents line drawings of concrete objects as to-be-remembered information instead of written or auditory presented words. The PVLT has the advantage that performance is not confounded by individual differences in reading or hearing abilities. Results revealed clear sex differences in performance: Girls outperformed boys. Parental education also contributed to individual differences in performance since children of higher educated parents outperformed children of lower educated parents. The results therefore suggest that both sex and parental education could be potent contributors to individual differences in learning performance at school. The findings more specifically imply that children of less educated parents and boys need additional guidance and support in intentional learning when new information and procedures are presented for the first time.

The intergenerational effects of education on delinquency

Children of less educated parents are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior. One explanation for this is that better educated parents are inherently more likely to raise children in ways that are less conducive to criminal participation. Alternatively, additional parental education may change parents’ behavior in ways that reduces their children’s propensity to commit crime. Using data from the NLSY79 and variation induced by changes in compulsory schooling laws in the United States, we find that an increase in parental education reduces delinquent behavior among the children of those exposed to compulsory schooling laws. This research is the first to uncover evidence of an intergenerational effect of education on crime in the United States. We conclude that previous analyses of compulsory schooling laws − and investments in education more generally − appreciably underestimate the full benefits of investments in education.

Socioeconomic disparities in neurocognitive development in the first two years of life.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly associated with cognition and achievement. Socioeconomic disparities in language and memory skills have been reported from elementary school through adolescence. Less is known about the extent to which such disparities emerge in infancy. Here, 179 infants from socioeconomically diverse families were recruited. Using a cohort-sequential design, 90 infants were followed at 9 and 15 months, and 89 were followed at 15 and 21 months. SES disparities in developmental trajectories of language and memory were present such that, at 21 months of age, children of highly educated parents scored approximately .8 standard deviations higher in both language and memory than children of less educated parents. The home language and literacy environment and parental warmth partially accounted for disparities in language, but not memory development.

Unintentional child neglect: literature review and observational study.

Child abuse is a problem that affects over six million children in the United States each year. Child neglect accounts for 78% of those cases. Despite this, the issue of child neglect is still not well understood, partially because child neglect does not have a consistent, universally accepted definition. Some researchers consider child neglect and child abuse to be one in the same, while other researchers consider them to be conceptually different. Factors that make child neglect difficult to define include: (1) Cultural differences; motives must be taken into account because parents may believe they are acting in the child's best interests based on cultural beliefs (2) the fact that the effect of child abuse is not always immediately visible; the effects of emotional neglect specifically may not be apparent until later in the child's development, and (3) the large spectrum of actions that fall under the category of child abuse. Some of the risk factors for increased child neglect and maltreatment have been identified. These risk factors include socioeconomic status, education level, family composition, and the presence of dysfunction family characteristics. Studies have found that children from poorer families and children of less educated parents are more likely to sustain fatal unintentional injuries than children of wealthier, better educated parents. Studies have also found that children living with adults unrelated to them are at increased risk for unintentional injuries and maltreatment. Dysfunctional family characteristics may even be more indicative of child neglect. Parental alcohol or drug abuse, parental personal history of neglect, and parental stress greatly increase the odds of neglect. Parental depression doubles the odds of child neglect. However, more research needs to be done to better understand these risk factors and to identify others. Having a clearer understanding of the risk factors could lead to prevention and treatment, as it would allow for health care personnel to screen for high-risk children and intervene before it is too late. Screening could also be done in the schools and organized after school activities. Parenting classes have been shown to be an effective intervention strategy by decreasing parental stress and potential for abuse, but there has been limited research done on this approach. Parenting classes can be part of the corrective actions for parents found to be neglectful or abusive, but parenting classes may also be useful as a preventative measure, being taught in schools or readily available in higher-risk communities. More research has to be done to better define child abuse and neglect so that it can be effectively addressed and treated.

Personality and the Reproduction of Social Class

A burgeoning literature in psychology and economics examines how personality characteristics predict indicators of attained status. We build on this research by suggesting that connections between personality and attained status are also socially contingent: Valued personality characteristics are stronger predictors of attainments at lower levels of parent education (the resource substitution hypothesis), but such characteristics are less likely among the children of less educated parents (the structural amplification hypothesis). We examine these possibilities by drawing on the Mini-IPIP (a standardized instrument assessing personality), the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, and a statistical framework to test for moderated mediation. Results reveal that (1) personality characteristics have notable associations with educational attainment, hourly wages, and self-direction at work; (2) personality often has stronger associations with status attainments at lower levels of parent education; and (3) personality is a weak mediator of associations between parent education and attained status. That is, the children of less educated parents may benefit more from valued personality characteristics, but they are slightly less likely to possess such characteristics. These results are discussed in terms of new avenues for research into diverse forms of capital and status attainment.

The intergenerational transmission of education and equality of educational opportunity in East and West Germany

Socialist societies often emphasized the abolition of traditional social classes. To achieve this objective, educational opportunities were at times ‘actively managed’ and allocated to children of less educated parents. What happened to these patterns after the demise of socialist rule in Eastern Europe? We study the development of educational mobility after the fall of the iron curtain in East Germany and compare the relevance of parental educational background for secondary schooling in East and West Germany. Based on the data from the German Mikrozensus we find that educational mobility is lower in East than in West Germany and that it has been falling in East Germany after unification. While the educational advantage of girls declined over time, having many siblings presents a more substantial disadvantage in East than in West Germany.

Familiarity with and affective responses to foods in 8–11-year-old children. The role of food neophobia and parental education

The present study investigated whether the familiarity with and affective responses to foods are predicted by the individual trait food neophobia and by parental education in school children. The cross-sectional data collection involved children (N=208, 8- and 11-year-old) from Helsinki, and their parents. A questionnaire assessing children’s food neophobia with Food Neophobia Scale (FNS), and familiarity with and affective responses to 36 foods was completed by parents. Children with low FNS were familiar with a larger number of foods than those with high FNS. High FNS was associated with low pleasantness assessment of most food groups, including cheese, fruit/vegetables, fish, starch/cereals, and ethnic/exotic. Children of well educated parents had tasted a larger number of foods, thus displaying lower behavioral neophobia, and had lower FNS scores than children of less educated parents. Both low FNS scores and high parental education predicted the number of tasted foods. Parental education was not associated with pleasantness ratings (exception: cheese). To conclude, high food neophobia lowers the pleasantness ratings of foods, and parental education moderates behavioral neophobia.

Effects of Parental Background on Other-Regarding Preferences in Children

Other-regarding preferences are central for the ability to solve collective action problems and thus for society’s welfare. We study how the formation of other-regarding preferences during childhood is related to parental background. Using binary-choice dictator games to classify subjects into other-regarding types, we find that children of less educated parents are less altruistic and more spiteful. This link is robust to controlling for a range of child, family, and peer characteristics, and is attenuated for smarter children. The results suggest that less educated parents are either less efficient to instill social norms or their children less able to acquire them.

Effects of Parental Background on Other-Regarding Preferences in Children

Other-regarding preferences are central for the ability to solve collective action problems and thus for society’s welfare. We study how the formation of other-regarding preferences during childhood is related to parental background. Using binary-choice dictator games to classify subjects into other-regarding types, we find that children of less educated parents are less altruistic and more spiteful. This link is robust to controlling for a range of child, family, and peer characteristics, and is attenuated for smarter children. The results suggest that less educated parents are either less efficient to instill social norms or their children less able to acquire them.

Characterizing Declines in Pediatric Antidepressant Use After New Risk Disclosures

Steep declines in pediatric antidepressant use were documented following the 2004 release of new safety information associating antidepressants with a risk of suicidality. The authors examine whether declines in pediatric antidepressant use were steeper among individuals with certain clinical or family characteristics. The authors find that declines in antidepressant use were associated with new (as compared with ongoing) treatment episodes. Although rates of antidepressant use were higher among children of college-educated parents prior to risk disclosures, these children were more likely to forgo antidepressant medication than children of less educated parents after risk disclosures. The authors find that both children with and without psychiatric impairment experienced declines in antidepressant medication use following the risk warnings, although the decline occurred more quickly in the latter group. The authors' findings highlight the need for additional data to assess the effects of risk disclosures on treatment patterns and health outcomes.

Learning to Participate: Effect of Child Age and Parental Education on Participation in Pediatric Visits

Children's participation in health care improves outcomes, yet little is known about factors that affect participation. We examine how child age and parental education affect participation. Visit videotapes were coded to reflect key visit tasks: information giving, information gathering, and relationship building. Multivariable models were used to analyze how participation was associated with child age and parental education. For each year of child age, physicians did 3% more information gathering, incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 1.03, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.01–1.06, but reduced relationship building by 4%, IRR = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.94–0.97. Children of college-graduate parents spoke twice as much information-giving talk, IRR = 2.11, 95% CI = 1.07–4.17, and nearly 5 times as much relationship-building talk, IRR = 4.74, 95% CI = 1.45–15.52, as children with less educated parents. Results suggest physicians might attend to relationship building with older children and work to improve participation of children of less educated parents.

Prevalence of disorders of the autism spectrum in a population cohort of children in South Thames: the Special Needs and Autism Project (SNAP)

Recent reports have suggested that the prevalence of autism and related spectrum disorders (ASDs) is substantially higher than previously recognised. We sought to quantify prevalence of ASDs in children in South Thames, UK. Within a total population cohort of 56 946 children aged 9-10 years, we screened all those with a current clinical diagnosis of ASD (n=255) or those judged to be at risk for being an undetected case (n=1515). A stratified subsample (n=255) received a comprehensive diagnostic assessment, including standardised clinical observation, and parent interview assessments of autistic symptoms, language, and intelligence quotient (IQ). Clinical consensus diagnoses of childhood autism and other ASDs were derived. We used a sample weighting procedure to estimate prevalence. The prevalence of childhood autism was 38.9 per 10,000 (95% CI 29.9-47.8) and that of other ASDs was 77.2 per 10,000 (52.1-102.3), making the total prevalence of all ASDs 116.1 per 10,000 (90.4-141.8). A narrower definition of childhood autism, which combined clinical consensus with instrument criteria for past and current presentation, provided a prevalence of 24.8 per 10,000 (17.6-32.0). The rate of previous local identification was lowest for children of less educated parents. Prevalence of autism and related ASDs is substantially greater than previously recognised. Whether the increase is due to better ascertainment, broadening diagnostic criteria, or increased incidence is unclear. Services in health, education, and social care will need to recognise the needs of children with some form of ASD, who constitute 1% of the child population.

Maternal report of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms in preschool children.

Two hundred and fifty-three mothers were surveyed regarding attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in their preschool children (aged 2-6 years). Twenty-four children (9.5%) met DSM-IV criteria (criterion A only) for ADHD based solely on parent report. Mean ratings of the three core symptoms of ADHD (hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattentiveness) were in the mid-range on a 1-7 point scale, with mothers indicating their children were most likely to be impulsive. Positive parental endorsement of the 18 individual DSM-IV symptoms of ADHD ranged from 4% for 'loses things necessary for tasks', to 28.4% for 'is on the go or acts as if driven by a motor'. Males and children of less-educated parents were more likely to receive endorsement of ADHD symptoms. There were no differences with respect to age of the child or birth order (first vs later born). Global ratings of hyperactivity and inattentiveness predicted overall ratings of ADHD but when classification rates were examined, high global ratings were not predictive of diagnosis. These results lend support to the notion that relying solely on parents' verbal reports of isolated ADHD symptoms may lead to over-identification of the disorder. Thus, using full DSM-IV diagnostic criteria and including standardized behaviour rating scales across multiple informants and settings, is recommended.