Relative Importance Of Education Research Articles

The relative importance of education and health behaviour for health and wellbeing

BackgroundIndicators of socioeconomic position (SEP) and health behaviours (HB) are widely used predictors of health variations. Their relative importance is hard to establish, because HB takes a mediating role in the link between SEP and health. We aim to provide new knowledge on how SEP and HB are related to health and wellbeing.MethodsThe analysis considered 14,713 Norwegians aged 40–63. Separate regressions were performed using two outcomes for health-related quality of life (EQ-5D-5 L; EQ-VAS), and one for subjective wellbeing (Satisfaction with Life Scale). As predictors, we used educational attainment and a composite measure of HB – both categorized into four levels. We adjusted for differences in childhood financial circumstances, sex and age. We estimated the percentage share of each predictor in total explained variation, and the relative contributions of HB in the education-health association.ResultsThe reference case model, excluding HB, suggests consistent stepwise education gradients in health-related quality of life. The gap between the lowest and highest education was 0.042 on the EQ-5D-5 L, and 0.062 on the EQ-VAS. When including HB, the education effects were much attenuated, making HB take the lion share of the explained health variance. HB contributes 29% of the education-health gradient when health is measured by EQ-5D-5 L, and 40% when measured by EQ-VAS. For subjective wellbeing, we observed a strong HB-gradient, but no education gradient.ConclusionIn the institutional context of a rich egalitarian country, variations in health and wellbeing are to a larger extent explained by health behaviours than educational attainment.

Explaining subjective social status in two countries: The relative importance of education, occupation, income and childhood circumstances

In the literature on social inequalities in health, subjective socioeconomic position (SEP) is increasingly applied as a determinant of health, motivated by the hypothesis that having a high subjective SEP is health-enhancing. However, the relative importance of determinants of subjective SEP is not well understood. Objective SEP indicators, such as education, occupation and income, are assumed to determine individuals' position in the status hierarchy. Furthermore, an extensive literature has shown that past childhood SEP affects adult health. Does it also affect subjective SEP? In this paper, we estimate the relative importance of i) the common objective SEP indicators (education, occupation and income) in explaining subjective SEP, and ii) childhood SEP (childhood financial circumstances and parents' education) in determining subjective SEP, after controlling for objective SEP. Given that the relative importance of these factors is expected to differ across institutional settings, we compare data from two countries: Australia and Norway. We use data from an online survey based on adult samples, with N ≈ 1400 from each country. Ordinary least squares regression is conducted to assess how objective and childhood SEP indicators predict subjective SEP. We use Shapley value decomposition to estimate the relative importance of these factors in explaining subjective SEP. Income was the strongest predictor of subjective SEP in Australia; in Norway, it was occupation. Of the childhood SEP variables, childhood financial circumstances were significantly associated with subjective SEP, even after controlling for objective SEP. This association was the strongest in the Norwegian sample. Only the mother's education had a significant impact on subjective SEP. Our findings highlight the need to understand the specific mechanisms between objective and subjective SEP as determinants of inequalities in health, and to assess the role of institutional factors in influencing these complex relationships.

The Relative Importance of Education and Criminal Justice Costs and Benefits in Economic Evaluations: A Best-Worst Scaling Experiment.

ObjectivesMental and behavioural disorders (MBDs) and interventions targeting MBDs lead to costs and cost savings in the healthcare sector, but also in other sectors. The latter are referred to as intersectoral costs and benefits (ICBs). Interventions targeting MBDs often lead to ICBs in the education and criminal justice sectors, yet these are rarely included in economic evaluations. This study aimed to investigate the attitudes held by health economists and health technology assessment experts towards education and criminal justice ICBs in economic evaluations and to quantify the relative importance of these ICBs in the context of MBDs.MethodsAn online survey containing open-ended questions and two best–worst scaling object case studies was conducted in order to prioritise a list of 20 education ICBs and 20 criminal justice ICBs. Mean relative importance scores for each ICB were generated using hierarchical Bayes analysis.ResultsThirty-nine experts completed the survey. The majority of the respondents (68%) reported that ICBs were relevant, but only a few (32%) included them in economic evaluations. The most important education ICBs were “special education school attendance”, “absenteeism from school”, and “reduced school attainment”. The most important criminal justice ICBs were “decreased chance of committing a crime as a consequence/effect of mental health programmes/interventions”, “jail and prison expenditures”, and “long-term pain and suffering of victims/victimisation”.ConclusionsThis study identified the most important education and criminal justice ICBs for economic evaluations of interventions targeting MBDs and suggests that it could be relevant to include these ICBs in economic evaluations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s40273-020-00966-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Associations Between National Board Exam Performance and Residency Program Emphasis on Patient Safety and Interprofessional Teamwork.

Several aspects of medical training may contribute to the ultimate goal of producing excellent physicians whose patients will have the best possible outcomes. However, the relative importance of education, evaluation and feedback, duty hours, practice structure, and program culture in achieving this goal is unclear. This study assessed associations among in-training exam performance, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Resident Survey responses, and American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) national board exam performance. Residency training programs at a university teaching hospital were classified as having 5-year first-time ABMS pass rates above (n=12) or below (n=3) the national average for their specialty. These groups were compared by ACGME Resident Survey data and in-training exam performance. Surveys were collected from 484/543 eligible residents (89%), including 177 surveys from programs with below-average board pass rates and 307 surveys from programs with aboveaverage board pass rates. In-training exam performance was similar between groups. Aboveaverage programs had stronger agreement with statements that their culture reinforced patient safety (4.72 vs. 4.30, p=0.006) and that information was not lost during transitions of care (4.14 vs. 3.63, p=0.001). Although the occurrence of interprofessional teamwork was similar between groups, above-average programs had stronger agreement with the statement that interprofessional teamwork was effective (4.60 vs. 4.17, p=0.003). Residency programs emphasizing patient safety and effective interprofessional teamwork had above-average first-time national board pass rates.

The timing of childbearing: The role of human capital and personal preferences

As significant as the shift from quantity to quality in fertility decisions, a rise in the median age at first birth has been commonly observed in the more developed world. This paper attempts to understand the latter demographic trend from the empirical perspective. We first construct a conditional hazard model that incorporates determinants of birth spacing, with a primary emphasis on human capital and personal preference factors. We then examine the importance of these factors, using a rich data set comprised of a selected sample of women from various cohorts reported in the 1980 Taiwan Census. Our results show that, in addition to the age at marriage, human capital factors such as the woman’s education, job security and occupation are all significant in influencing the first spacing. The roles played by these human capital factors become even more important for the second spacing. In the third spacing, the relative importance of education and occupation still persists, while gender preferences become much stronger. Overall, while job security shortens the timing of childbearing, better education and occupation as well as more girls from previous births all lead to delays in births. As for preference factors, we find that elementary school teachers have a shorter birth-spacing compared to junior high school teachers, indicating possible personal preferences for children that are consistent with women’s job selection.

The relative importance of religion and education on university students’ views of evolution in the Deep South and state science standards across the United States

BackgroundThere is a negative relationship between education and religiosity and a positive relationship between education and acceptance of evolution, but how this manifests in college students who differ in degree of religiosity and prior educational experiences is unclear. We focused our study on the relative importance of education and religion on evolution understanding for college students at a large, public university in the Deep South.MethodsWe used a structural equation model incorporating both acceptance and knowledge of evolution to evaluate the relative influence of religion and education on evolution understanding of 2,999 surveyed students. We further focused on acceptance of evolution and academic level, college major, high school experience, religion, and religiosity. We conducted pre and post course evaluations in three biology classes, and finally we tested the relationships between the quality of K-12 state science standards and states’ religiosity and educational attainment.ResultsWe found that the degree of religiosity mattered significantly more than education when predicting students’ understanding of evolution. When we focused on acceptance of evolution only, students taught evolution or neither evolution nor creationism in high school had significantly higher acceptance than those taught both evolution and creationism or just creationism. Science majors always outscored non-science majors, and not religious students significantly outperformed religious students. Highly religious students were more likely to reject evolution even though they understood that the scientific community accepted the theory of evolution. Overall, students in two of three biology classes increased their acceptance of evolution, but only those students that seldom/never attended religious services improved. K-12 state science standard grades were significantly and negatively correlated with measures of state religiosity and significantly and positively correlated with measures of state educational attainment.ConclusionsReligiosity, rather than education, best explains views on evolution. In areas of the country where the vast majority of residents believe in God and the literal truth of the Bible, students may be hampered as they enter and progress through college. These same states tend to have lower state science standards and lower levels of educational attainment.

Mainstreaming Effects on Volunteering? The Case of Denmark

The aim of this article is to investigate whether and to what extent changes in the structural preconditions for volunteering have had an effect on the relative importance of ‘classic predictors’ of volunteering within two areas: (1) socio-economic and status variables that function as resources for civic engagement and (2) value orientations that guide volunteering. Arguably, upward changes in the level of human capital, such as education, or changes in values that put more emphasis on, for example, social responsibility, could be expected to lead to an increase in the relative importance of these variables because the groups who possess such resources or express such attitudes would be more likely to enter into the volunteer labour force. If this is the case, then we would expect to see increasing differences in the likelihood of volunteering between high- and low-status groups. On the other hand, it could be argued that it is the distribution and diffusion of such resources and values that matter. If, for instance, education has become more widespread and covers larger proportions of the population, it is also possible that the relative importance of education has diminished. In this case, we would see a mainstreaming effect on volunteering because this activity becomes more normal, independent of class and status. Finally, it is also possible that volunteering is relatively resistant to wider structural changes in society or at least experience a time lag in the effect of such changes. Based on an empirical analysis of Danish survey data from 1990 to 2008, we argue that the idea of a mainstreaming effect should be taken seriously.

Onderwijs als nieuwe sociale scheidslijn?: de gevolgen van onderwijsexpansie voor sociale mobiliteit, de waarde van diploma's en het relatieve belang van opleiding in Nederland

The increased educational participation has resulted in more social mobility and less social inequality in modern societies. So, educational achievement may have become a new social cleavage in society instead of social origin. Until now, it is unclear whether this actually has been the case, because educational expansion has resulted in credential inflation and probably also to a weakening of the impact of educational qualifications on occupational success. What consequence of educational expansion is dominant in the Netherlands, is unknown. This article focuses on the following questions: What development has occurred in (1) the intergenerational transmission of status positions from parents to their children, (2) the labour market value of credentials in terms of occupational success and (3) education as social cleavage instead of social origin? On the basis of data from the Family Survey Dutch Population 1992-2009, we have shown that the intergenerational transmission of status positions from parents to their offspring has decreased over time, but primarily among men. In addition, credential inflation has taken place in the labour market, which has resulted in a diminished effect of level of education on the occupational status achieved by individuals. Meritocratization in the labour market stagnates. The ultimate consequence is that the relative importance of education, compared to social origin, as a social cleavage has not increased in Dutch society.

Above the Bottom Line: Understanding Australian Screen Content Producers

The recently completed Australian Screen Producer Survey provides the most current and detailed picture of the culture, motivations and aspirations of a highly influential sector of the content production industries. Drawing upon the results of the survey, this article reflects on the historical and theoretical difficulties entailed in defining the producer as a professional category, before outlining some of the survey's key findings. In particular, it examines producers' demographic and sectoral profile, analyses their attitudes towards the relative importance of education and experience, and explores their underlying motivations. Amongst other findings, the survey reveals a tendency towards idealism among Australian producers that would appear to be at odds with the financial realities of the business. It therefore offers a variety of stakeholders (including government and educational institutions, as well as producers themselves) with the opportunity to reflect upon the future shape and direction of the Australian media industry.

Doping and the perfect body expert: social and cultural indicators of performance-enhancing drug use in Danish gyms

Most doping studies focus on the incidence of performance-enhancing drugs and devote little attention to the training sphere or the social factors involved in this process. In this study, Danish doping data from different social arenas of sport and physical exercise (7,039 respondents) form the basis for analyses of the relative importance of social indicators. More respondents from gyms admitted to having experimented with legal as well as banned performance-enhancing substances than did respondents among elite athletes, and the relative importance of education is only indicated among gym users with experience of anabolic-androgenic steroids compared to respondents within the sphere of competitive sport. These results are discussed in the light of findings from qualitative studies of the doping phenomenon. Two patterns of doping practices are discernible in the analysis: whereas aesthetic modification appears to be a primary goal behind certain training regimes and the potential use of pharmaceutical substances in gym and fitness culture, the desire to improve physical capacity appears to underlie the training regimes as well as the use of certain pharmaceutical substances in competitive sports. It is argued that the notion of the perfect body expert is useful in developing a theoretical understanding of the role of drug use within physical training spheres while conceiving different patterns of doping practices.

Structural Adjustment and the Sectoral and Geographical Mobility of Labour

Conventional methods for analysing worker flows often focus on gross flows or transition probabilities. This is not necessarily informative for identifying the scale of labour 'adjustment' in an economy in the sense of the expansion and decline of industries. We develop a method which relates the individual characteristics of workers to net, rather than gross flows. Our method also allows for interactions between the regional and sectoral mobility of labour. We apply this to the UK using data from the Labour Force Survey over a period of significant structural change, and quantify the relative importance of education and housing tenure on regional and sectoral mobility.

Art Experiences and Attitude toward Art Education: A Descriptive Study of Missouri Public School Principals

Arthur Efland writes, what people believe about and its value is likely to affect whether it is taught or (1995, p. 25). A principal's beliefs about the value of and education have the potential to affect the status of visual within the school. As pedagogical leader, the principal fills a key role in regard to the implementation of visual education within the school. In a variety of implicit and explicit ways the principal establishes educational priorities, sending messages to the school and community about the relative importance of education as a part of the school curriculum. Through the management of the school district funds allocated to the school, the principal has a degree of control over the funding of the program. She or he makes important decisions about class scheduling, class size, and facility use, and often has a strong voice in the hiring of teachers for the building. The principal also evaluates the performance of the teacher, monitoring the planning and teaching of lessons. Other than the teacher who teaches visual art, the principal is the most important figure for the delivery of instruction in the school (National Art Education Association, 1992; National Art Education Association, n. d.). Cooperation between the teacher and the principal is essential if education is to flourish and grow. Miller (1980) found that Missouri teachers underestimated principals' attitudes toward when asked to respond in the way they thought their principal would to items on an attitude scale. In an examination of school programs that were attempting to implement comprehensive education reforms, Wilson (1997) found that, art specialists and classroom teachers working without the active support of a building administrator have little success in implementing a school-wide arts education program (Wilson, 1997, p. 130). The nature of principals' attitudes toward and education and an interest in how these attitudes are formed become important considerations for the teacher and others who advocate for visual in the school. There is general agreement that attitudes are in large part formed and shaped by experiences and that these attitudes, in turn, provide motivation for behavior (Morris & Stuckhardt, 1977). Dewey (1938/1959) reflected on the relationships among experience, attitude, and behavior, writing, every experience affects for better or worse the attitudes which help decide the quality of further experiences, by setting up certain preference and aversion, and making it easier or harder to act for this or that end (p.29-30). Furthermore, in discussing the educational qualities of experience, Dewey introduced and Eisner (1994) restated the idea that experiences can be educative, noneducative, or miseducative. Experiences would be considered educative if they enable further growth and expansion for the individual within a domain of learning. On the other hand experiences would be miseducative if they limit the individual's possibilities for further growth, or noneducative if they have essentially no impact on growth. If the principal's and education experiences have been trivial, negative, or nonexistent, it should not be surprising if he or she is predisposed to think of education in these same terms. On the other hand, following Dewey's logic, we might expect to find a history of educative experiences in the background of those principals who place a higher value on education. Gardner (1983) and Walters & Gardner (1984) investigated the idea that a particularly meaningful experience within a domain of learning can have a strong dramatic impact on an individual's self-image in relation to that domain of learning. The lasting consequences of this experience and the meaning that is attached to it in retrospect are important aspects of this concept that Gardner calls the crystallizing experience (Gardner, 1983). …

Lifelong learning-attitudes to practice in the rural context: a study using Bourdieu's perspective of habitus

This article compares and contrasts the views of educational policy makers and consumers within Lincolnshire, an English rural county, using Bourdieu's notion of ‘habitus’ as a vehicle for analysis. The article focuses on the relative importance of education as cultural capital in determining the motivational factors affecting participation in lifelong learning. The article considers lifelong learning in the context of ‘continuing education’. If lifelong learning is characterized into three discrete yet connected phases: the first, ‘full-time education’ from the age of 5 until leaving full-time education at age 16, 18 or 21; the second, the ‘transitional phase’ between school and work at age 16–21; the third, ‘continuing education’ beyond the age of 21; it is the policies and attitudes to this third phase described in this paper. Education for adults rather than simply the education of adults. Interviews with small groups of learners and an experienced manager of lifelong learning policies in Lincolnshire are used to illuminate clear differences between the continuing education providers' expectations of lifelong learning and those of the learners. The conclusions reaffirm the importance of community and cultural tradition in education and highlight the importance of family learning within the rural context.

Symposium on the Economic Status of African-Americans

The purpose of this symposium is to explore a number of controversial issues that divide economists and remain relevant to current debates on public policy. The central questions explored in these papers concern the economic progress of American blacks: Why did they progress economically when and to the degree that they did? What has been the relative importance of education, migration, family structure, job experience, shifts in aggregate demand, voluntary reductions in discrimination, and government anti-discrimination policies in the economic advance of blacks?

The Relative Importance of Education and Income as Predictors in Outdoor Recreation Participation. Terrence H. White. Journal of Leisure Research, Volume 7, Number 3, 1975, pp. 191-199. National Recreation and Park Association, 1601 North Kent Street, Arlington, Virginia 22209. $2.50

The Relative Importance of Education and Income as Predictors in Outdoor Recreation Participation. Terrence H. White. Journal of Leisure Research, Volume 7, Number 3, 1975, pp. 191-199. National Recreation and Park Association, 1601 North Kent Street, Arlington, Virginia 22209. $2.50

The Relative Importance of Education and Income as Predictors in Outdoor Recreation Participation

ABSTRACTThe relationship between work and leisure patterns is examined utilizing data on the occupational prestige and outdoor recreation participation levels for a national sample of Canadian hous...