SOCIAL ORIGINS, COGNITIVE ABILITY, EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT AND SOCIAL CLASS POSITION IN BRITAIN: A BIRTH COHORT AND LIFE-COURSE PERSPECTIVE

(2019) - Erzsébet Bukodi, Mollie Bourne, Bastian Betthäuser, John H Goldthorpe

Journal: DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL POLICY AND INTERVENTION
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Tags:: #paper #NCDS #CognitiveAbility #Attainment #SocialClass
Cite Key:: [@Bukodi2019]

Abstract

Children of similar cognitive ability have very different chances of educational success, depending on their parents’ economic, socio-cultural and educational resources. o For children born in the early 1990s, parents’ economic resources are somewhat less important while parents’ socio-cultural and educational resources are more important in affecting their educational attainment than for children born in the late 1950s or the early 1970s. o About half of the difference in educational attainment between children from advantaged and disadvantaged parental backgrounds is due to a difference in their cognitive ability, while the other half is due to other factors. o Obtaining formal qualifications is only one channel for upward mobility for highability individuals of disadvantaged backgrounds; there are other channels that are more directly related to cognitive ability, such as job training programmes, promotions or becoming self-employed in higher-level occupations.

Notes

“Children of similar cognitive ability have very different chances of educational success, depending on their parents’ economic, socio-cultural and educational resources” (Bukodi et al., 2019, p. 3)