Children’s educational attainment and the aspirations, attitudes and behaviours of parents and children through childhood in the UK

(2011) - Alissa Goodman, Elizabeth Washbrook, Paul Gregg

Journal: Longitudinal and Life Course Studies
Link::
DOI:: 10.14301/llcs.v2i1.147
Links::
Tags:: #paper #Education #Attainment #Aspirations #attitudes
Cite Key:: [@Goodman2011]

Abstract

Notes

“Whilst gaps in achievement at age 16 by family income have started to close over the last decade (Gregg and Macmillan 2010) these gaps remain large, and since educational qualifications are such a strong determinant of later life income and opportunities, such achievement gaps create a major obstacle to social mobility, which is of strong public concern” (Goodman et al., 2011, p. 1)

“The influential work of Feinstein (2003, 2004) has shown how attainment gaps appear early in childhood but then continue to widen through childhood.” (Goodman et al., 2011, p. 2)

“a number of studies have highlighted how increasing the school leaving age results in substantial earnings gains for those forced to continue education, who are largely drawn from lower social backgrounds (e.g. Meghir and Palme 2005 or Harman and Walker 1995).” (Goodman et al., 2011, p. 2)

“index of socio-economic position (SEP)” (Goodman et al., 2011, p. 6)

“The index seeks to capture the longer -term material resources of the household, and is constructed from the following variables: • Log equivalised household income (averaged across as many points in time as possible, depending on the survey used) • Reported experience of financial difficulties • Mother’s and father’s occupational class • Housing tenure The index is constructed using principalcomponents analysis, and individuals are then placed into quintiles (fifths) of the population ranked by this measure” (Goodman et al., 2011, p. 6)

“The finding that family income and poverty have strong consequences for child development, though to varying degrees and across different contexts, is well established (Blow et al 2006; Brooks-Gunn and Duncan 1997; Duncan and Brooks-Gunn 1997; Duncan and Brooks-Gunn 2000; Gregg and Machin 1998; Haverman and Wolfe 1995; Mayer 1997; Sylva et al 2008)” (Goodman et al., 2011, p. 7)

“Bronfenbrenner and Morris (1998, 996) state that, “Throughout the life course, human development takes place through processes of progressively more complex reciprocal interaction between an active, evolving bio-psychological human organism and the persons, objects, and symbols in its immediate external environment. To be effective, the interaction must occur on a fairly regular basis over extended periods of time. Such enduring forms of interaction in the immediate environment are referred to as proximal processes.”” (Goodman et al., 2011, p. 7)

“Under the social capital theory, social relationships and networks create a resource which families can draw upon (Croll 2004).” (Goodman et al., 2011, p. 7)

“Cultural capital reflects the idea that “cultural experiences in the home facilitate children's adjustment to school and academic achievement, thereby transforming cultural resources into what [Bourdieu] calls cultural capital” (Lareau 1987, 74)” (Goodman et al., 2011, p. 7)