Children's Educational Attainment Research Articles

The impact of compulsory primary education law on the educational attainment of children: Evidence from Vietnam

AbstractThis study examines the short‐term impact of the compulsory primary education law (CPEL) on the educational attainment of children in Vietnam. This study uses the 1999 Vietnam Population and Housing Census and survival analysis to account for the right‐censoring problem in the educational outcomes of children. The study found that CPEL reduces the dropout rate of children by 12%. However, the effect is minor, especially when compared with the impact of family income and parents' education. This finding is similar to those of other studies, suggesting that in addition to CPEL, other family income support and parent‐oriented policies are crucial to improving children's educational attainment.

Covid-19 and Girl Child Educational Attainment in Selected Primary Schools in Kyamuhunga Sub-county, Bushenyi district-Western Uganda

Covid-19 and Girl Child Educational Attainment in Selected Primary Schools in Kyamuhunga Sub-county, Bushenyi district-Western Uganda

Child labour in cocoa growing regions of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire: an analysis of academic attainment in children engaged in hazardous labour.

ABSTRACT This paper examines the relationship between child labour and educational attainment and explores the distinction between harmful and non-harmful agricultural cocoa work. We conduct a secondary analysis of data on 3,338 children who reported attending school in 2018 across cocoa growing regions of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. To address differences between harmful and non-harmful child labour, we differentiated work completed by a child by hazardous activity engagement. These groups of child labour were then modelled against educational attainment, defined by a whether or not the child needed to repeat a class. We then conducted mediation analysis to assess whether injury mediates this relationship. Our results show that hazardous child labour increases the odds of repeating a class and work-related injury compared to non-hazardous labour. The effect of hazardous child labour on academic attainment was also found to be mediated by work-related injuries by 14%. Educational attainment is associated with hazardous labour activities and the odds of injury and not the act of participation in agricultural labour alone. Programmes based on strong measures of harmful work will foster better protection for children who are most at risk and may inform global debates around the benefits versus the risks of child labour.

Early educational attainment in children with major congenital anomaly in the UK

ObjectiveTo describe early educational attainment and special educational needs (SEN) provision in children with major congenital anomaly (CA) compared with peers.DesignAnalysis of educational data linked to the ongoing Born in...

Child mental health and educational attainment: Longitudinal evidence from the UK

There has been a recent spike in children's mental health problems and lost learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This study assesses the relationship between social, emotional and behavioural problems and academic attainment across the whole of mainstream schooling (ages 5–16). It uses a rich longitudinal dataset from the UK linked to national data on school records (N = 7,219), individual fixed effects, and repeated measures of mental health and attainment. It finds that within-individual changes in mental health across childhood predict changes in attainment, with hyperactivity and inattention the behaviours most strongly linked to adverse attainment outcomes. These difficulties are disproportionately seen in summer-born boys and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The negative relationship with attainment strengthens as children progress through school, and affects children with problems mild enough that they would never be diagnosed. Schools and health services can gain important insights about a child's educational trajectory based on brief behavioural information obtained from parents.

Educational attainment of children with congenital Heart disease in the United Kingdom.

Educational attainment in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) within the UK has not been reported, despite the possibility of school absences and disease-specific factors creating educational barriers. Children were prospectively recruited to the Born in Bradford birth cohort between March 2007 and December 2010. Diagnoses of CHD were identified through linkage to the congenital anomaly register and independently verified by clinicians. Multivariable regression accounted for relevant confounders. Our primary outcome was the odds of 'below expected' attainment in Maths, Reading and Writing at ages 4-11 years. Educational records of 139 children with non-genetic CHD were compared to 11188 age-matched children with no major congenital anomaly. Children with CHD had significantly higher odds of 'below expected' attainment in Maths at age 4-5 years (Odds Ratio 1.64, 95% CI 1.07-2.52), age 6-7 (OR 2.03, 95% CI 1.32-3.12), and age 10-11 (OR 2.28, 95% CI 1.01-5.14). Odds worsened with age, with similar results for Reading and Writing. The odds of receiving special educational needs support reduced with age for children with CHD relative to controls (age 4-5: OR 4.84 (2.06-11.40); age 6-7: OR 3.65 (2.41-5.53); age 10-11: OR 2.73 (1.84-4.06)). Attainment was similar for children with and without exposure to cardio-pulmonary bypass. Lower attainment was strongly associated with the number of pre-school hospital admissions. Children with CHD have lower educational attainment compared to their peers. Deficits are evident from school entry and increase throughout primary school.

Parental Incarceration and Children's Educational Attainment

Abstract This paper presents new evidence showing that parental incarceration increases children's education. I collect criminal records for 90,000 low-income parents who have been convicted of a crime in Colombia, and link the educational attainment of their children. I exploit exogenous variation resulting from the random assignment of judges and extend the standard framework to incorporate both conviction and incarceration decisions. I show that the effect of incarceration for a given conviction threshold can be identified. My results indicate that parental incarceration increases educational attainment by 0.78 years for the children of convicted parents on the margin of incarceration.

Growing up without health insurance: Evidence from rural China.

This paper examines the long-term effects of health insurance on children's educational attainment in a developing country. Utilizing the county-by-county rollout of the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme in rural China, we find that exposure to the health insurance program in early life leads to improved educational attainment in adulthood. Empirical tests suggest that a short-term increase in health care utilization is unlikely to be a potential channel. We provide some evidence for the channel that health insurance reduces household financial burdens and increases household expenditure on children's nutrition.

Advantageous Online Learning During Covid-19 Pandemic: Why Parents Disbelieve?

Parents' expectations for children's educational attainment must be restrained by Covid-19 in 2020. In Indonesia, the virus has interfered with all levels of school to reform the mode of learning. An immediate decision made by the Ministry of Education was to implement full online learning. This situation uncovers obstacles that children and parents undergo. Even though the advantages of the policies have been perceived and published, the stakeholders need to express the problems too. This paper will exhibit parents’ disbelief toward online learning. The survey using questionnaire had been administered to 200 parents of elementary level students of Muhammadiyah Schools in Surabaya, Indonesia. The results show parents’ disbelief issues. Online learning is believed as burdensome to parents and children. It is also ineffective in accommodating competencies such as academic, affective, spiritual competencies, as well as talents and interests. Interviews were then conducted to investigate the factors: parents own limited time to assist children in studying, numbers of the family own limited gadget facilities, and children need to meet their teacher directly to understand the lesson. Finally, the implication after parents’ disbelief is revealed. Parents were becoming more emotional to the children along with their demotivation to the online learning as well as the lower academic, affective, and spiritual competence.

Household Instability and Girls' Teen Childbearing.

More than one third of U.S. children spend part of their childhood living with extended family members. By age 18, nearly 40% of U.S. children experience a household change involving a nonparent. Research has found that having extended family or nonrelatives join or leave children's households negatively affects children's educational attainment. I argue that we need new ways of theorizing, conceptualizing, and measuring household changes and their effects on children. I use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and marginal structural models with inverse probability of treatment weighting to estimate the association between household changes involving parents and nonparents and teen childbearing among girls. I find that experiencing household changes involving nonparents and parents during childhood is associated with a significantly higher probability of having a child as a teenager than experiencing no changes. In addition, the association between changes involving parents and teen childbearing is statistically indistinguishable from the association between changes involving nonparents and teen childbearing, suggesting that household composition shifts involving nonparents can be as disruptive to girls as those involving parents.

The Tradeoff of Child Labor: Evidence from Indonesia

Using data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), this study examines the influence of child labor on wages and educational attainment in Indonesia. Several statistical methods, such as Propensity Score Matching (PSM), Quantile Regression, and robust Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models, are used to analyze the relationship between child labor, income, and education while controlling for confounding variables. The findings indicate that child labor is initially associated with reduced wages, but this association becomes insignificant when other variables, such as years of education, are considered. Longer educational periods mitigate the negative effects of child labor on wages. In addition, the analysis reveals a tradeoff between child labor and educational attainment, highlighting the impact of child labor on education. Access to economic resources, however, mitigates this tradeoff, highlighting the importance of economic factors in children's decision-making. The study highlights the significance of child protection measures and effective socioeconomic policies to guarantee children's access to education and enhance their opportunities. It provides valuable insights into the effects of child labor on education and the role of economic factors in determining how children allocate their time.

Isolated choroid plexus cysts and health and developmental outcomes in childhood and adolescence – A systematic review

ObjectivesChoroid plexus cysts (CPCs) are incidental findings on ultrasound examination of the fetal brain. It is not known if isolated CPCs are associated with any adverse health or neurodevelopmental outcomes during the life course. This systematic review aimed to collate and synthesize the evidence on whether or not isolated choroid plexus cysts are associated with an increased risk of adverse health or developmental outcomes during childhood and adolescence. MethodsA search strategy was developed specifically for this study and applied to four electronic databases Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Studies were assessed and selected for inclusion if there was a measurement of CPC (including single or multiple; unilateral or bilateral; isolated or presenting alongside other markers) during the antenatal or early neonatal period (<7 days) with follow-up of children and adolescents for health and developmental outcomes measured at any time from age 1 month onwards. Study quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale. Due to heterogeneity in the types of outcome measures included and the timing of measurement of outcomes across the studies, it was not possible to pool data across studies and a narrative description of findings was presented. ResultsEight studies (three cohorts and five case series) met the inclusion criteria. Different methods were used for outcome assessment, such as in-person assessment, parent questionnaires, medical records, and telephone interviews with parents. Six studies measured outcomes only once during the specified duration of follow-up; two studies carried out paediatric reviews of the children several times during follow-up. There were no differences in developmental outcomes or physical health between babies with CPCs reported in the three cohort studies, and no abnormalities were detected in the children that were followed up in four of the five case series studies. Most of the included studies were graded as low quality due to the small sample size, high risk of selection bias, unclear definitions of CPC or lack of a comparison group. ConclusionsThe studies conducted to date do not provide evidence of adverse physical health outcomes or neurodevelopmental delays in babies with CPCs. However, most of these studies were small and included a narrow range of outcomes. Further research is needed to explore the relative incidence of outcomes such as ASD, ADHD, epilepsy and educational attainment in children with CPCs.

Improved estimation of average treatment effects under covariate‐adaptive randomization methods

Estimation of the average treatment effect is one of the crucial problems in clinical trials for two or multiple treatments. The covariate‐adaptive randomization methods are often applied to balance treatment assignments across prognostic factors in clinical trials, such as the minimization and stratified permuted blocks method. We propose a model‐free estimator of average treatment effects under covariate‐adaptive randomization methods, which is least square adjustment for the estimator of outcome models. The proposed estimator is not only applicable to the case of binary treatment, but also can be extended to the case of multiple treatment. The proposed estimator is consistent and asymptotically normally distributed. Simulation studies show that the proposed estimator and Ye's estimator are comparable, and it performs better than Bugni's estimator when the outcome model is linear. The proposed estimator has some advantages over targeted maximum likelihood estimator, Bugni's estimator and Ye's estimator in terms of the standard error and root mean squared error when the outcome model is nonlinear. The proposed estimator is stable for the from of outcome model. Finally, we apply the proposed methodology to a dataset that studies the causal effect promotional videos mode on the school‐age children's educational attainment in Peru.

Conflict or harmony? The impact of family cultural diversity on children's educational attainment

Studies have shown that various aspects of family are important for children's educational outcomes, but the intangible family cultural environment has often been overlooked. In particular, culturally diverse families are becoming more common, but how family cultural diversity affects parental behavior and children's development remains unclear. Using data from a nationally representative survey in China, and employing propensity score matching and an instrumental variable approach to address potential endogeneity, we examine the impact of family cultural diversity on children's educational attainment. We find that the cultural difference between parents has a significant positive effect on their children's years of schooling. Family cultural diversity enhances children's educational attainment through promoting family harmony. The process of adapting to cultural differences in the family, rather than causing family conflict, promotes a harmonious atmosphere with effective communication, which is beneficial for children's educational outcomes.

Gender Heterogeneity and Inter-generational Transmission of Learning Ability in India

This article examines the role of gender heterogeneity in inter-generational transmission of learning efficiency, a proxy for scholastic ability. We use primary survey data of 1000 elementary students collected from 125 public schools in Uttar Pradesh in 2019. Efficiency scores calculated from data envelopment analysis by considering students’ academic test scores in various courses are used as a proxy for learning ability. First, we find strong evidence of inter-generational transmission of schooling of father, mother, and average parents to their children. Second, the study finds that a mother’s educational attainment in children’s learning efficiency is relatively more significant than that of the father. In addition, we observe the gender heterogeneous effect of parents’ education on children’s learning efficiency, where transmission effects in the case of girls show improvement if parents’ level of education increases. As a policy implication, the study highlights the importance of girls’ education, which not only narrows the gender gap in education but also facilitates the inter-generational transmission of learning, benefitting the family and society.

The Expanded Child Tax Credit and Educational Attainment in Rural, Majority-Minority Communities

&lt;p&gt;&lt;big&gt;Despite the status of the United States as one of the world&amp;rsquo;s economic superpowers, the country is plagued by child poverty. The issue of child poverty is most prominent in rural, majority-minority communities, where years of limited opportunity, often created by systematic oppression, have created a vicious cycle of economic despair. There are a number of policies that have been explored which could limit the effects of child poverty, most notably the Expanded Child Tax Credit (ECTC), which was introduced as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021. This paper uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to thoroughly examine this policy (ECTC) and its potential to both cut child poverty in the short term and increase educational attainment and economic mobility in the long term for recipients. The ECTC program ended in 2022 and only lasted in a short period. By examining the impacts of a similar and long-standing but less accessible and generous program, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), on educational attainment in specific communities we can theorize and determine the significance the Expanded CTC would have. We use EITC program as a proxy of ECTC and reach inference of the long-term impact of ECTC program on children&amp;rsquo;s education attainment. The result of this research indicates a number of benefits of the Expanded Child Tax Credit, including its potential to cut child poverty and increase educational attainment, its impact on future economic prosperity in rural, majority-minority communities, and the policy&amp;rsquo;s ability to decrease economic disparities between non-metro and metropolitan areas.&lt;/big&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Children's Transitions to Adulthood and Midlife Parents' Depressive Symptoms and Activities of Daily Living Conditions in the United States.

Parents and children are close over the life course. However, these relationships often change as parents age and children enter adulthood. Today, the entrance into adulthood for children has become delayed and increasingly unstable. Such changes may interrupt the child's acquisition of resources used to support themselves and their midlife parents, having implications for parents' mental and physical health. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of adult children's transitions to adulthood on parents' mental and physical health. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) and the Add Health Parent Study (AHPS), we investigated how certain transitions to adulthood (e.g., education, marriage, residential independence, employment, parenthood, and incarceration) for children were linked to the mental and physical health of their midlife parents. In sum, we found that children's educational attainment was linked to fewer activities of daily living (ADL) limitations and depressive symptoms among parents. Children's marriage and employment were also associated with fewer ADL limitations among parents. Our findings reveal that adult children's circumstances are associated with the mental and physical health of their midlife parents.

Hazardous Child Labour, Psychosocial Functioning, and School Dropouts among Children in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS).

Child labour is a common financial coping strategy in poor households, especially in low-and middle-income countries with many children working under hazardous conditions. Little is known about the linkages between hazardous work conditions and psycho-social and educational outcomes. We analysed the Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (BMICS) round 6 to assess the association between the exposure variables, including child labour, hazardous child labour (HZCL) and hazardous work, and outcome variables, including psychosocial functioning difficulty and school dropout, in children aged 5 to 17 years. We conducted bivariable and multivariable analyses to examine the association. In the adjusted analyses, children engaged in HZCL had increased odds of psychosocial functioning difficulty (aOR: 1.41; 95% CI: 1.16-1.72) and school dropout (aOR: 5.65; 95% CI: 4.83-6.61) among 5-14-year-olds compared to children who did not engage in child labour and hazardous work. Other independent factors associated with psychosocial functioning difficulty and school dropout included being male, living in a deprived neighbourhood, being exposed to violent punishment, the caregiver's attitude towards physical punishment, the mother's functional difficulty and lower maternal education. The linkages between hazardous work and psychosocial functioning difficulty appear more prominent among children not in school. Further, the evidence on the relationship between hazardous work and school dropout is stronger among children with psychosocial functioning difficulty. Policies and programmes that target the most hazardous forms of work are likely to have the greatest benefits for children's mental health, social well-being and educational attainment.

Parental unemployment and children's educational attainment: How big is the role of aspirations?

Children exposed to parental unemployment have been found to lag behind in school, but research has struggled to pin down the underlying explanation. One hypothesis is that parental unemployment may dampen children's aspirations to do well and go far in school. Yet, few studies on parental unemployment have relied on actual measures of children's aspirations or devised a formal analysis of this mechanism. Using the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Waves 1-12, N=1067), I investigate the role of educational aspirations in children's General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) attainment. I compare adolescents exposed to parental unemployment before or only after the typical age at which GCSE exams are taken. In adjusted models, children exposed to parental unemployment before their GCSEs are around 6 percentage points less likely to attain any GCSE qualification by age 17. On average, children have high educational aspirations, although intentions to enrol in college or university are relatively lower among children exposed to an early spell of parental unemployment. Nevertheless, a hypothetical intervention setting these aspirations to the same level for all children only accounts for a modest portion of the educational penalty tied to an early spell of parental unemployment. Several sensitivity and robustness tests support this conclusion. This note seeks to stimulate more research on the mechanisms underpinning the intergenerational effects of unemployment. Findings cast doubts on the idea that children's aspirations, the target of broader policy discourse and interventions, are a crucial part of the equation.

Parental supervision positively impacts children's economic prospects two decades later: A prospective longitudinal study.

Upward income mobility is associated with better health outcomes and reduced stress. However, opportunities are unequally distributed, particularly so for those in rural communities and whose family have lower educational attainment. To test the impact of parental supervision on their children's income two decades later adjusting for parental economic and educational status. This study is a longitudinal, representative cohort study. From 1993-2000, annual assessments of 1,420 children were completed until age 16, then followed up at age 35, 2018-2021, for further assessment. Models tested direct effects of parental supervision on child income, and indirect effects via child educational attainment. This study is an ongoing longitudinal population-based study of families in 11 predominately rural counties of the Southeastern U.S. About 8% of the residents and sample are African American and fewer than 1% are Hispanic. American Indians make up 4% of the population in study but were oversampled to make up 25% of the sample. 49% of the 1,420 participants are female. 1258 children and parents were assessed for sex, race/ethnicity, household income, parent educational attainment, family structure, child behavioral problems, and parental supervision. The children were followed up at age 35 to assess their household income and educational attainment. Parental educational attainment, income, and family structure were strongly associated with their children's household income at age 35 (e.g., r = .392, p < .05). Parental supervision of the child was associated with increased household income for the child at age 35, adjusting for SES of the family of origin. Children of parents who did not engage in adequate supervision earned approximately $14,000 less/year (i.e., ~13% of the sample's median household income) than those who did. The association of parental supervision and child income at 35 was mediated by the child's educational attainment. This study suggests adequate parental supervision during early adolescence is associated with children's economic prospects two decades later, in part by improving their educational prospects. This is particularly important in areas such as rural Southeast U.S.