Sample records for average educational attainment

  1. Does Educational Achievement Help To Explain Income Inequality? Working Papers No. 208.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Checchi, Daniele

    This paper proposes to measure inequality in educational achievement by constructing a Gini index on educational attainment. It uses the proposed measure to analyze the relationship between inequality in world income and educational attainment (in terms of both the average attainment and the dispersion of attainment). Though theoretical…

  2. The relationship between STEM educational attainment and utility patent conferrals: A state-level analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liao, Yuqi

    The utility patent, as a legal record of invention, is widely believed to be a close proxy for innovation among firms, industries, and economies as a whole. One of the critical drivers of patenting -- and ultimately, innovation -- is education. The science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields in education are of special importance. There is, however, little empirical research to substantiate a connection between STEM education and innovation outcomes. Seeking to fill this gap, this paper finds that, in general, there is no evidence of a meaningful relationship between STEM educational attainment and utility patent conferrals. The relationship of interest, though generally not statistically significant, is stronger for temporary US visa holders than for US citizens or permanent US residents. However, I find a large and statistically significant association between STEM educational attainment and utility patent conferrals for states that have above-average college educational attainment or above-average advanced industries workforce concentration.

  3. Reading disability and adult attained education and income: evidence from a 30-year longitudinal study of a population-based sample.

    PubMed

    McLaughlin, Margaret J; Speirs, Katherine E; Shenassa, Edmond D

    2014-01-01

    This study examined the impact of childhood reading disability (RD) on adult educational attainment and income. Participants' (N = 1,344) RD was assessed at age 7, and adult educational attainment and income were assessed in midlife using categorical variables. Participants with RD at age 7 were 74% (95% CI: 0.18, 0.37) less likely to attain a higher level of education and 56% (95% CI: 0.32, 0.61) less likely to attain a higher level of income as an adult than participants with average or above reading achievement at age 7. Attained education was found to mediate the relationship between RD and attained income. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2012.

  4. Pubertal timing and educational careers: a longitudinal study.

    PubMed

    Koivusilta, L; Rimpelä, A

    2004-01-01

    Pubertal timing is related to several dimensions of adolescent development. No studies concern its associations with educational careers. To investigate whether pubertal timing predicts attained educational level and how school achievement, educational track and sociodemographic background in adolescence mediate this relationship. Survey data (1981, 1983, 1985) from samples of 12-16-year-old Finns (n = 7674) were linked with the respondents' attained education in 1998 (ages 27-33). Ages of menarche and of first ejaculation were indicators of pubertal timing. Among boys who by age 16 had experienced early, average or late pubertal timing, 13%, 12%, and 6% reached upper tertiary educational level, respectively. Boys with early or average puberty often came from high social strata and selected educational tracks with good prospects. In girls, sociodemographic factors rather than pubertal timing predicted attained educational level. Early or average onset of puberty plays a role in dividing boys into educational tracks after compulsory schooling. Support should be given to boys, whose delayed pubertal development makes them immature to making appropriate educational decisions and to boys who may have experienced early puberty but fail to exploit educational opportunities available for them.

  5. Groundwater arsenic and education attainment in Bangladesh.

    PubMed

    Murray, Michael P; Sharmin, Raisa

    2015-10-26

    Thousands of groundwater tube wells serving millions of Bangladeshis are arsenic contaminated. This study investigates the effect of these wells on the education attainment and school attendance of youths who rely on those wells for drinking water. The analysis combines data from the 2006 Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (2006 MICS) and the National Hydrochemical Survey (NHS) of Bangladeshi tube wells' contamination conducted between 1998 and 2000. The study uses multiple regression analysis to estimate the differences in education attainment and school attendance among the following: (i) youths who live where tube wells are safe, (ii) youths who live where tube wells are unsafe but who report drinking from an arsenic-free source, and (iii) youths who live where tube wells are unsafe but who do not report drinking from an arsenic-free source. Controlling for other determinants of education attainment and school attendance, young Bangladeshi males who live where tube wells are unsafe (by Bangladeshis standards) but who report drinking from arsenic-free sources are found to have the same education attainment (among 19- to 21-year-olds) and school attendance (among 6- to 10-year-olds), on average, as corresponding young Bangladeshi males who live where wells are safe. But young Bangladeshi males who live where tube wells are unsafe and who do not report drinking from an arsenic-free source attain, on average, a half-year less education (among 19- to 21-year-olds) and attend school, on average, five to seven fewer days a year (among 6- to 10-year-olds) than do other Bagladeshi males of those ages. The estimated effects for females are of the same sign but much smaller in magnitude. Bangladeshi public health measures to shift drinking from unsafe to safe wells not only advance good health but also increase males' education attainment.

  6. Measuring Education Inequality: Gini Coefficients of Education. Policy Research Working Paper.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thomas, Vinod; Wang, Yan; Fan, Xibo

    This paper aims at developing a measure for educational inequality for a large number of countries over time, using the concept of education Gini index based on school attainment data of the concerned population (or labor force). Education Gini could be used as one of the indicators of welfare, complementing average educational attainment, health…

  7. Globally Competitive, Locally Engaged: The Case of Kentucky

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McGuinness, Aims C., Jr.

    2008-01-01

    The Commonwealth of Kentucky, a state with among the lowest levels of per capita income and education attainment in the United States, embarked on an ambitious set of higher education reforms in 1997 aimed at elevating the state to the national average of educational attainment by 2020. At the time of their enactment, the Kentucky reforms were…

  8. The Effect of Migraine Headache on Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rees, Daniel I.; Sabia, Joseph J.

    2011-01-01

    Despite the fact that migraine headaches are common and debilitating, little is known about their effect on educational attainment. Using data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we estimate the relationship between migraine headache and three outcomes: high school grade point average, the probability of graduating…

  9. The Heterogeneous Impacts of Business Cycles on Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boffy-Ramirez, Ernest

    2017-01-01

    This study examines the impact of fluctuations in the unemployment rate before high school graduation on educational attainment measured 30 years later. I find evidence that important heterogeneity is masked by estimating average effects across the ability distribution. Using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this analysis…

  10. Trends in Educational Attainment by Race/Ethnicity, Nativity, and Sex in the United States, 1989–2005

    PubMed Central

    EVERETT, BETHANY G.; ROGERS, RICHARD G.; HUMMER, ROBERT A.; KRUEGER, PATRICK M.

    2012-01-01

    Despite the importance of education for shaping individuals’ life chances, little research has examined trends and differences in educational attainment for detailed demographic subpopulations in the United States. We use labor market segmentation and cohort replacement theories, linear regression methods, and data from the National Health Interview Survey to understand educational attainment by race/ethnicity, nativity, birth cohort, and sex between 1989 and 2005 in the United States. There have been significant changes in educational attainment over time. In support of the cohort replacement theory, we find that across cohorts, females have enjoyed greater gains in education than men, and for some race/ethnic groups, recent cohorts of women average more years of education than comparable men. And in support of labor market segmentation theories, foreign-born Mexican Americans continue to possess relatively low levels of educational attainment. Our results can aid policymakers in identifying vulnerable populations, and form the base from which to better understand changing disparities in education. PMID:22649275

  11. Genetic Influence on Intergenerational Educational Attainment

    PubMed Central

    Ayorech, Ziada; Krapohl, Eva; Plomin, Robert; von Stumm, Sophie

    2017-01-01

    Using twin (6,105 twin pairs) and genomic (5,825 unrelated individuals taken from the twin sample) analyses, we tested for genetic influences on the parent-offspring correspondence in educational attainment. Genetics accounted for nearly half of the variance in intergenerational educational attainment. A genomewide polygenic score (GPS) for years of education was also associated with intergenerational educational attainment: The highest and lowest GPS means were found for offspring in stably educated families (i.e., who had taken A Levels and had a university-educated parent; M = 0.43, SD = 0.97) and stably uneducated families (i.e., who had not taken A Levels and had no university-educated parent; M = −0.19, SD = 0.97). The average GPSs fell in between for children who were upwardly mobile (i.e., who had taken A Levels but had no university-educated parent; M = 0.05, SD = 0.96) and children who were downwardly mobile (i.e., who had not taken A Levels but had a university-educated parent; M = 0.28, SD = 1.03). Genetic influences on intergenerational educational attainment can be viewed as an index of equality of educational opportunity. PMID:28715641

  12. Genetic Influence on Intergenerational Educational Attainment.

    PubMed

    Ayorech, Ziada; Krapohl, Eva; Plomin, Robert; von Stumm, Sophie

    2017-09-01

    Using twin (6,105 twin pairs) and genomic (5,825 unrelated individuals taken from the twin sample) analyses, we tested for genetic influences on the parent-offspring correspondence in educational attainment. Genetics accounted for nearly half of the variance in intergenerational educational attainment. A genomewide polygenic score (GPS) for years of education was also associated with intergenerational educational attainment: The highest and lowest GPS means were found for offspring in stably educated families (i.e., who had taken A Levels and had a university-educated parent; M = 0.43, SD = 0.97) and stably uneducated families (i.e., who had not taken A Levels and had no university-educated parent; M = -0.19, SD = 0.97). The average GPSs fell in between for children who were upwardly mobile (i.e., who had taken A Levels but had no university-educated parent; M = 0.05, SD = 0.96) and children who were downwardly mobile (i.e., who had not taken A Levels but had a university-educated parent; M = 0.28, SD = 1.03). Genetic influences on intergenerational educational attainment can be viewed as an index of equality of educational opportunity.

  13. Life Cycles, Educational Attainment and Labor Markets.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Winsborough, H.H., Sweet, J.A.

    Two social changes are cited as particularly important to the projection of college enrollment trends. One is the rising educational attainment of the parents of future potential college attenders; the other is the fact that declines in fertility accompany declines in average family size. Overall, the illustration in this paper suggests that the…

  14. The Contribution of Adolescent Effortful Control to Early Adult Educational Attainment

    PubMed Central

    Véronneau, Marie-Hélène; Racer, Kristina Hiatt; Fosco, Gregory M.; Dishion, Thomas J.

    2014-01-01

    Effortful control has been proposed as a set of neurocognitive competencies that is relevant to self-regulation and educational attainment (Posner & Rothbart, 2007). This study tested the hypothesis that a multiagent report of adolescents’ effortful control (age 17) would be predictive of academic persistence and educational attainment (age 23–25), after controlling for other established predictors (family factors, problem behavior, grade point average, and substance use). Participants were 997 students recruited in 6th grade from 3 urban public middle schools (53% males; 42.4% European American; 29.2% African American). Consistent with the hypothesis, the unique association of effortful control with future educational attainment was comparable in strength to that of parental education and students’ past grade point average, suggesting that effortful control contributes to this outcome above and beyond well-established predictors. Path coefficients were equivalent across gender and ethnicity (European Americans and African Americans). Effortful control appears to be a core feature of the self-regulatory competencies associated with achievement of educational success in early adulthood. These findings suggest that the promotion of self-regulation in general and effortful control in particular may be an important focus not only for resilience to stress and avoidance of problem behavior, but also for growth in academic competence. PMID:25308996

  15. Women's empowerment and the goal of parity between the sexes in schooling in India.

    PubMed

    Afridi, Farzana

    2010-07-01

    Greater 'empowerment' of women in India, measured by their education and autonomy, is associated with a reduction in the extent to which their sons' educational attainment exceeds that of their daughters. Improving both father's and mother's education increases the educational attainment of daughters more than that of sons, but raising mother's education is associated with a significantly greater reduction of the difference in attainment between sons and daughters. In families in which the mother has completed primary education, the average difference between boys and girls in years spent in school is almost a third of a year lower than it is where the mother has less education. A one-standard-deviation increase in mother's autonomy is associated with an increase in daughter's schooling of more than half a month but has no correlation with son's education. The findings highlight the importance of women's empowerment for the intergenerational transfer of equality in educational attainment of the sexes.

  16. Why Black Girls Don't Matter: Exploring How Race and Gender Shape Academic Success in an Inner City School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rollock, Nicola

    2007-01-01

    The continued low academic attainment of Black pupils is now a well-established, familiar feature of the annual statistics of educational attainment. Black pupils tend to consistently perform below their white counterparts and below the national average. Key debates, examining how to address the difference in attainment gap, have tended to focus…

  17. [Aggregate shocks and investment in human capital: higher educational achievement during the lost decade in Mexico.

    PubMed

    Peña, Pablo A

    2013-01-01

    This article documents a negative aggregate response in the attainment of postsecondary education (more than 12 years of schooling) in Mexico to the recession of 1982-83 and the stagnation that followed. The response was not homogeneous across genders, regions or family backgrounds. Males experienced a drop in attainment and females experienced a slowdown in attainment growth. On average, states with greater pre-shock educational attainment experienced larger drops. There was no clear trend for the response by family background. However, a negative effect is found even between siblings. The evidence suggests a demand side story: the drop in household income seems to be the main determinant of the fall/slowing down in attainment. The conclusion is that the recession and the lack of growth that ensued had a sizeable and lasting negative impact on skill formation in Mexico.

  18. Mapping local variation in educational attainment across Africa

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Graetz, Nicholas; Friedman, Joseph; Osgood-Zimmerman, Aaron; Burstein, Roy; Biehl, Molly H.; Shields, Chloe; Mosser, Jonathan F.; Casey, Daniel C.; Deshpande, Aniruddha; Earl, Lucas; Reiner, Robert C.; Ray, Sarah E.; Fullman, Nancy; Levine, Aubrey J.; Stubbs, Rebecca W.; Mayala, Benjamin K.; Longbottom, Joshua; Browne, Annie J.; Bhatt, Samir; Weiss, Daniel J.; Gething, Peter W.; Mokdad, Ali H.; Lim, Stephen S.; Murray, Christopher J. L.; Gakidou, Emmanuela; Hay, Simon I.

    2018-03-01

    Educational attainment for women of reproductive age is linked to reduced child and maternal mortality, lower fertility and improved reproductive health. Comparable analyses of attainment exist only at the national level, potentially obscuring patterns in subnational inequality. Evidence suggests that wide disparities between urban and rural populations exist, raising questions about where the majority of progress towards the education targets of the Sustainable Development Goals is occurring in African countries. Here we explore within-country inequalities by predicting years of schooling across five by five kilometre grids, generating estimates of average educational attainment by age and sex at subnational levels. Despite marked progress in attainment from 2000 to 2015 across Africa, substantial differences persist between locations and sexes. These differences have widened in many countries, particularly across the Sahel. These high-resolution, comparable estimates improve the ability of decision-makers to plan the precisely targeted interventions that will be necessary to deliver progress during the era of the Sustainable Development Goals.

  19. Selection against variants in the genome associated with educational attainment.

    PubMed

    Kong, Augustine; Frigge, Michael L; Thorleifsson, Gudmar; Stefansson, Hreinn; Young, Alexander I; Zink, Florian; Jonsdottir, Gudrun A; Okbay, Aysu; Sulem, Patrick; Masson, Gisli; Gudbjartsson, Daniel F; Helgason, Agnar; Bjornsdottir, Gyda; Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur; Stefansson, Kari

    2017-01-31

    Epidemiological and genetic association studies show that genetics play an important role in the attainment of education. Here, we investigate the effect of this genetic component on the reproductive history of 109,120 Icelanders and the consequent impact on the gene pool over time. We show that an educational attainment polygenic score, POLY EDU, constructed from results of a recent study is associated with delayed reproduction (P < 10 -100 ) and fewer children overall. The effect is stronger for women and remains highly significant after adjusting for educational attainment. Based on 129,808 Icelanders born between 1910 and 1990, we find that the average POLY EDU has been declining at a rate of ∼0.010 standard units per decade, which is substantial on an evolutionary timescale. Most importantly, because POLY EDU only captures a fraction of the overall underlying genetic component the latter could be declining at a rate that is two to three times faster.

  20. Selection against variants in the genome associated with educational attainment

    PubMed Central

    Kong, Augustine; Frigge, Michael L.; Thorleifsson, Gudmar; Stefansson, Hreinn; Young, Alexander I.; Zink, Florian; Jonsdottir, Gudrun A.; Sulem, Patrick; Masson, Gisli; Gudbjartsson, Daniel F.; Helgason, Agnar; Bjornsdottir, Gyda; Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur; Stefansson, Kari

    2017-01-01

    Epidemiological and genetic association studies show that genetics play an important role in the attainment of education. Here, we investigate the effect of this genetic component on the reproductive history of 109,120 Icelanders and the consequent impact on the gene pool over time. We show that an educational attainment polygenic score, POLYEDU, constructed from results of a recent study is associated with delayed reproduction (P < 10−100) and fewer children overall. The effect is stronger for women and remains highly significant after adjusting for educational attainment. Based on 129,808 Icelanders born between 1910 and 1990, we find that the average POLYEDU has been declining at a rate of ∼0.010 standard units per decade, which is substantial on an evolutionary timescale. Most importantly, because POLYEDU only captures a fraction of the overall underlying genetic component the latter could be declining at a rate that is two to three times faster. PMID:28096410

  1. Primary and Secondary Education in the United States. OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 585

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tulip, Peter; Wurzburg, Gregory

    2007-01-01

    The average educational attainment of US students is weak by international comparison. For example, mean results of PISA test scores are below the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] average. This is despite substantial resources devoted to the schooling system. One partial explanation for this is that academic standards,…

  2. DNA methylation signatures of educational attainment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    van Dongen, Jenny; Bonder, Marc Jan; Dekkers, Koen F.; Nivard, Michel G.; van Iterson, Maarten; Willemsen, Gonneke; Beekman, Marian; van der Spek, Ashley; van Meurs, Joyce B. J.; Franke, Lude; Heijmans, Bastiaan T.; van Duijn, Cornelia M.; Slagboom, P. Eline; Boomsma, Dorret I.; BIOS consortium

    2018-03-01

    Educational attainment is a key behavioural measure in studies of cognitive and physical health, and socioeconomic status. We measured DNA methylation at 410,746 CpGs (N = 4152) and identified 58 CpGs associated with educational attainment at loci characterized by pleiotropic functions shared with neuronal, immune and developmental processes. Associations overlapped with those for smoking behaviour, but remained after accounting for smoking at many CpGs: Effect sizes were on average 28% smaller and genome-wide significant at 11 CpGs after adjusting for smoking and were 62% smaller in never smokers. We examined sources and biological implications of education-related methylation differences, demonstrating correlations with maternal prenatal folate, smoking and air pollution signatures, and associations with gene expression in cis, dynamic methylation in foetal brain, and correlations between blood and brain. Our findings show that the methylome of lower-educated people resembles that of smokers beyond effects of their own smoking behaviour and shows traces of various other exposures.

  3. Association of Socioeconomic and Geographic Factors With Google Trends for Tanning and Sunscreen.

    PubMed

    Seth, Divya; Gittleman, Haley; Barnholtz-Sloan, Jill; Bordeaux, Jeremy S

    2018-02-01

    Internet search trends are used to track both infectious diseases and noncommunicable conditions. The authors sought to characterize Google Trends search volume index (SVI) for the terms "sunscreen" and tanning ("tanning salon" and "tanning bed") in the United States from 2010 to 2015 and analyze association with educational attainment, average income, and percent white data by state. SVI is search frequency data relative to total search volume. Analysis of variance, univariate, and multivariate analyses were performed to assess seasonal variations in SVI and the association of state-level SVI with state latitudes and census data. Hawaii had the highest SVI for sunscreen searches, whereas Alaska had the lowest. West Virginia had the highest SVI for tanning searches, whereas Hawaii had the lowest. There were significant differences between seasonal SVI for sunscreen and tanning searches (p < .001). Sunscreen SVI by state was correlated with an increase in educational attainment and average income, and a decrease in latitude (p < .05) in a multivariate model. Tanning SVI was correlated with a decrease in educational attainment and average income, and an increase in latitude (p < .05). Internet search trends for sunscreen and tanning are influenced by socioeconomic factors, and could be a tool for skin-related public health.

  4. The association of education with long-term weight change in the EPIC-PANACEA cohort.

    PubMed

    Rohrmann, S; Steinbrecher, A; Linseisen, J; Hermann, S; May, A; Luan, J; Ekelund, U; Overvad, K; Tjønneland, A; Halkjær, J; Fagherazzi, G; Boutron-Ruault, M-C; Clavel-Chapelon, F; Agnoli, C; Tumino, R; Masala, G; Mattiello, A; Ricceri, F; Travier, N; Amiano, P; Ardanaz, E; Chirlaque, M-D; Sanchez, M-J; Rodríguez, L; Nilsson, L M; Johansson, I; Hedblad, B; Rosvall, M; Lund, E; Braaten, T; Naska, A; Orfanos, P; Trichopoulou, A; van den Berg, S; Bueno-de-Mesquita, H B; Bergmann, M M; Steffen, A; Kaaks, R; Teucher, B; Wareham, N J; Khaw, K-T; Crowe, F L; Illner, A-K; Slimani, N; Gallo, V; Mouw, T; Norat, T; Peeters, P H M

    2012-08-01

    Cross-sectionally, educational attainment is strongly associated with the prevalence of obesity, but this association is less clear for weight change during adult life. The objective of this study is to examine the association between educational attainment and weight change during adult life in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). EPIC is a cohort study with 361,467 participants and up to 10 years of follow-up. Educational attainment was categorized according to the highest obtained school level (primary school or less, vocational secondary training, other secondary education and university). Multivariate mixed-effects linear regression models were used to study education in relation to weight at age 20 years (self-reported), to annual change in weight between age 20 years and measured weight at recruitment, and to annual change in weight during follow-up time. Higher educational attainment was associated with on average a lower body mass index (BMI) at age 20 years and a lower increase in weight up to recruitment (highest vs lowest educational attainment in men: -60 g per year (95% confidence interval (CI) -80; -40), women -110 g per year (95% CI -130; -80)). Although during follow-up after recruitment an increase in body weight was observed in all educational levels, gain was lowest in men and women with a university degree (high vs low education -120 g per year (95% CI -150; -90) and -70 g per year (95% CI -90; -60), respectively). Existing differences in BMI between higher and lower educated individuals at early adulthood became more pronounced during lifetime, which possibly impacts on obesity-related chronic disease risk in persons with lower educational attainment.

  5. Role of students’ context in predicting academic performance at a medical school: a retrospective cohort study

    PubMed Central

    Thiele, Tamara; Pope, Daniel; Singleton, A; Stanistreet, D

    2016-01-01

    Objectives This study examines associations between medical students’ background characteristics (postcode-based measures of disadvantage, high school attended, sociodemographic characteristics), and academic achievement at a Russell Group University. Design Retrospective cohort analysis. Setting Applicants accepted at the University of Liverpool medical school between 2004 and 2006, finalising their studies between 2010 and 2011. Participants 571 students (with an English home postcode) registered on the full-time Medicine and Surgery programme, who successfully completed their medical degree. Main outcome measures Final average at year 4 of the medical programme (represented as a percentage). Results Entry grades were positively associated with final attainment (p<0.001). Students from high-performing schools entered university with higher qualifications than students from low-performing schools (p<0.001), though these differences did not persist at university. Comprehensive school students entered university with higher grades than independent school students (p<0.01), and attained higher averages at university, though differences were not significant after controlling for multiple effects. Associations between school type and achievement differed between sexes. Females attained higher averages than males at university. Significant academic differences were observed between ethnic groups at entry level and university. Neither of the postcode-based measures of disadvantage predicted significant differences in attainment at school or university. Conclusions The findings of this study suggest that educational attainment at school is a good, albeit imperfect, predictor of academic attainment at medical school. Most attainment differences observed between students either decreased or disappeared during university. Unlike previous studies, independent school students did not enter university with the highest grades, but achieved the lowest attainment at university. Such variations depict how patterns may differ between subjects and higher-education institutions. Findings advocate for further evidence to help guide the implementation of changes in admissions processes and widen participation at medical schools fairly. PMID:26969642

  6. Role of students' context in predicting academic performance at a medical school: a retrospective cohort study.

    PubMed

    Thiele, Tamara; Pope, Daniel; Singleton, A; Stanistreet, D

    2016-03-11

    This study examines associations between medical students' background characteristics (postcode-based measures of disadvantage, high school attended, sociodemographic characteristics), and academic achievement at a Russell Group University. Retrospective cohort analysis. Applicants accepted at the University of Liverpool medical school between 2004 and 2006, finalising their studies between 2010 and 2011. 571 students (with an English home postcode) registered on the full-time Medicine and Surgery programme, who successfully completed their medical degree. Final average at year 4 of the medical programme (represented as a percentage). Entry grades were positively associated with final attainment (p<0.001). Students from high-performing schools entered university with higher qualifications than students from low-performing schools (p<0.001), though these differences did not persist at university. Comprehensive school students entered university with higher grades than independent school students (p<0.01), and attained higher averages at university, though differences were not significant after controlling for multiple effects. Associations between school type and achievement differed between sexes. Females attained higher averages than males at university. Significant academic differences were observed between ethnic groups at entry level and university. Neither of the postcode-based measures of disadvantage predicted significant differences in attainment at school or university. The findings of this study suggest that educational attainment at school is a good, albeit imperfect, predictor of academic attainment at medical school. Most attainment differences observed between students either decreased or disappeared during university. Unlike previous studies, independent school students did not enter university with the highest grades, but achieved the lowest attainment at university. Such variations depict how patterns may differ between subjects and higher-education institutions. Findings advocate for further evidence to help guide the implementation of changes in admissions processes and widen participation at medical schools fairly. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  7. Legitimizing Black Academic Failure: Deconstructing Staff Discourses on Academic Success, Appearance and Behaviour

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rollock, Nicola

    2007-01-01

    The continued lower academic attainment of Black (especially Black Caribbean) pupils is now well established. Yet, to date there has been no single coherent national Government strategy that has successfully closed the gap in educational attainment between either Black and White pupils or between Black pupils and the national average. Academic and…

  8. Growth in Perceived Control across 25 Years from the Late Teens to Midlife: The Role of Personal and Parents' Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vargas Lascano, Dayuma I.; Galambos, Nancy L.; Krahn, Harvey J.; Lachman, Margie E.

    2015-01-01

    This study examined trajectories of perceived control and their association with parents' education and personal educational experience (educational attainment and years of full-time postsecondary education) in 971 Canadian high school seniors tracked 7 times across 25 years. Latent growth models showed that, on average, perceived control…

  9. Differential Fertility, Intergenerational Educational Mobility, and Racial Inequality.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mare, Robert D.

    Recent commentary has suggested that the relatively high fertility of poorly educated women tends to dampen the average intellectual qualifications of the population. To evaluate this claim requires a model of population growth that takes account of fertility differences among women with varying levels of educational attainment and patterns of…

  10. Intraindividual neuropsychological test variability in healthy individuals with high average intelligence and educational attainment.

    PubMed

    Heyanka, Daniel J; Holster, Jessica L; Golden, Charles J

    2013-08-01

    Knowledge of patterns of neuropsychological performance among normal, healthy individuals is integral to the practice of clinical neuropsychology, because clinicians may not always account for intraindividual variability (IIV) before coming to diagnostic conclusions. The IIV was assessed among a sample of 46 healthy individuals with high average intelligence and educational attainment, utilizing a battery of neuropsychological tests, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) and Wechsler Memory Scale, Fourth Edition (WMS-IV). The data indicated substantial variability in neurocognitive abilities. All participants were found to demonstrate scores considered impaired by at least 2 standard deviations (SDs). Despite adjusting for outliers, no participant produced a "normal" testing profile with an intraindividual maximum discrepancy (MD) of less than 1 SD in either direction. When WAIS-IV Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) was considered, participants generally demonstrated cognitive test scores ranging from 2 SDs less than to 1.5 SDs greater than their FSIQ. Furthermore, after demographic corrections, the majority (59%) of participants demonstrated at least 1 impaired cognitive test score, as defined by being 1 to 1.5 SDs below the mean. Overall, results substantiate the need for clinicians to consider FSIQ and educational attainment in interpretation of neuropsychological testing results, given the relevant commonality of "abnormal" test scores within this population. This may ultimately reduce the likelihood of making false-positive conclusions of impairment when educational attainment and intelligence are high, thus improving diagnostic accuracy.

  11. Second Annual Review of the Master Plan for Postsecondary Education in Louisiana: 2011

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Louisiana Board of Regents, 2013

    2013-01-01

    In 2011, the Board of Regents (BoR), through the development and implementation of the Master Plan, advanced its vision for the future of postsecondary education by adopting the following three broad goals: (1) Increase the educational attainment of the State's adult population to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) States' average by…

  12. Third Annual Review of the Master Plan for Postsecondary Education in Louisiana: 2011

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Louisiana Board of Regents, 2014

    2014-01-01

    In 2011, the Board of Regents (BoR), through the development and implementation of the Master Plan, advanced its vision for the future of postsecondary education by adopting the following three broad goals: (1) Increase the educational attainment of the State's adult population to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) States' average by…

  13. OECD Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education: Romania 2017

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kitchen, Hannah; Fordham, Elizabeth; Henderson, Kirsteen; Looney, Anne; Maghnouj, Soumaya

    2017-01-01

    Romania's education system has made impressive strides over the past two decades, with an increasing share of students mastering the basic competencies that they need for life and work. But these average improvements mask significant disparities in learning outcomes and attainment, with an increasing share of students leaving education early…

  14. Coordinated Analysis of Age, Sex, and Education Effects on Change in MMSE Scores

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Objectives. We describe and compare the expected performance trajectories of older adults on the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) across six independent studies from four countries in the context of a collaborative network of longitudinal studies of aging. A coordinated analysis approach is used to compare patterns of change conditional on sample composition differences related to age, sex, and education. Such coordination accelerates evaluation of particular hypotheses. In particular, we focus on the effect of educational attainment on cognitive decline. Method. Regular and Tobit mixed models were fit to MMSE scores from each study separately. The effects of age, sex, and education were examined based on more than one centering point. Results. Findings were relatively consistent across studies. On average, MMSE scores were lower for older individuals and declined over time. Education predicted MMSE score, but, with two exceptions, was not associated with decline in MMSE over time. Conclusion. A straightforward association between educational attainment and rate of cognitive decline was not supported. Thoughtful consideration is needed when synthesizing evidence across studies, as methodologies adopted and sample characteristics, such as educational attainment, invariably differ. PMID:23033357

  15. Coordinated analysis of age, sex, and education effects on change in MMSE scores.

    PubMed

    Piccinin, Andrea M; Muniz-Terrera, Graciela; Clouston, Sean; Reynolds, Chandra A; Thorvaldsson, Valgeir; Deary, Ian J; Deeg, Dorly J H; Johansson, Boo; Mackinnon, Andrew; Spiro, Avron; Starr, John M; Skoog, Ingmar; Hofer, Scott M

    2013-05-01

    We describe and compare the expected performance trajectories of older adults on the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) across six independent studies from four countries in the context of a collaborative network of longitudinal studies of aging. A coordinated analysis approach is used to compare patterns of change conditional on sample composition differences related to age, sex, and education. Such coordination accelerates evaluation of particular hypotheses. In particular, we focus on the effect of educational attainment on cognitive decline. Regular and Tobit mixed models were fit to MMSE scores from each study separately. The effects of age, sex, and education were examined based on more than one centering point. Findings were relatively consistent across studies. On average, MMSE scores were lower for older individuals and declined over time. Education predicted MMSE score, but, with two exceptions, was not associated with decline in MMSE over time. A straightforward association between educational attainment and rate of cognitive decline was not supported. Thoughtful consideration is needed when synthesizing evidence across studies, as methodologies adopted and sample characteristics, such as educational attainment, invariably differ.

  16. Academic attainment and special educational needs in extremely preterm children at 11 years of age: the EPICure study.

    PubMed

    Johnson, S; Hennessy, E; Smith, R; Trikic, R; Wolke, D; Marlow, N

    2009-07-01

    To assess academic attainment and special educational needs (SEN) in extremely preterm children in middle childhood. Of 307 extremely preterm (< or =25 weeks) survivors born in the UK and Ireland in 1995, 219 (71%) were re-assessed at 11 years of age and compared to 153 classmates born at term, using standardised tests of cognitive ability and academic attainment and teacher reports of school performance and SEN. Multiple imputation was used to correct for selective dropout. Extremely preterm children had significantly lower scores than classmates for cognitive ability (-20 points; 95% CI -23 to -17), reading (-18 points; -22 to -15) and mathematics (-27 points; -31 to -23). Twenty nine (13%) extremely preterm children attended special school. In mainstream schools, 105 (57%) extremely preterm children had SEN (OR 10; 6 to 18) and 103 (55%) required SEN resource provision (OR 10; 6 to 18). Teachers rated 50% of extremely preterm children as having below average attainment compared with 5% of classmates (OR 18; 8 to 41). Extremely preterm children who entered compulsory education an academic year early due to preterm birth had similar academic attainment but required more SEN support (OR 2; 1.0 to 3.6). Extremely preterm survivors remain at high risk for learning impairments and poor academic attainment in middle childhood. A significant proportion require full-time specialist education and over half of those attending mainstream schools require additional health or educational resources to access the national curriculum. The prevalence and impact of SEN are likely to increase as these children approach the transition to secondary school.

  17. Parental, Residential, and Self-Belief Factors Influencing Academic Persistence Decisions of College Freshmen

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Walsh, Kelsey J.; Robinson Kurpius, Sharon E.

    2016-01-01

    Based on Tinto's model of academic persistence, this study explored background and personal factors that theoretically impact the academic persistence decisions of college freshmen. The factors studied were (a) parental educational attainment, (b) parental valuing of education, (c) high school grade point average, (d) residential status (on- vs.…

  18. The modifying influence of country development on the effect of individual educational attainment on self-rated health.

    PubMed

    van der Kooi, Anne L F; Stronks, Karien; Thompson, Caroline A; DerSarkissian, Maral; Arah, Onyebuchi A

    2013-11-01

    We investigated how much the Human Development Index (HDI), a global measure of development, modifies the effect of education on self-reported health. We analyzed cross-sectional World Health Survey data on 217,642 individuals from 49 countries, collected in 2002 to 2005, with random-intercept multilevel linear regression models. We observed greater positive associations between educational levels and self-reported good health with increasing HDI. The magnitude of this effect modification of the education-health relation tended to increase with educational attainment. For example, before adjustment for effect modification, at comparable HDI, on average, finishing primary school was associated with better general health (b = 1.49; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.18, 1.80). With adjustment for effect modification by HDI, the impact became 4.63 (95% CI = 3.63, 5.62) for every 0.1 increase in HDI. Among those who completed high school, these associations were, respectively, 5.59 (95% CI = 5.20, 5.98) and 9.95 (95% CI = 8.89, 11.00). The health benefits of educational attainment are greater in countries with greater human development. Health inequalities attributable to education are, therefore, larger in more developed countries.

  19. The UKCAT-12 study: educational attainment, aptitude test performance, demographic and socio-economic contextual factors as predictors of first year outcome in a cross-sectional collaborative study of 12 UK medical schools.

    PubMed

    McManus, I C; Dewberry, Chris; Nicholson, Sandra; Dowell, Jonathan S

    2013-11-14

    Most UK medical schools use aptitude tests during student selection, but large-scale studies of predictive validity are rare. This study assesses the United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT), and its four sub-scales, along with measures of educational attainment, individual and contextual socio-economic background factors, as predictors of performance in the first year of medical school training. A prospective study of 4,811 students in 12 UK medical schools taking the UKCAT from 2006 to 2008 as a part of the medical school application, for whom first year medical school examination results were available in 2008 to 2010. UKCAT scores and educational attainment measures (General Certificate of Education (GCE): A-levels, and so on; or Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA): Scottish Highers, and so on) were significant predictors of outcome. UKCAT predicted outcome better in female students than male students, and better in mature than non-mature students. Incremental validity of UKCAT taking educational attainment into account was significant, but small. Medical school performance was also affected by sex (male students performing less well), ethnicity (non-White students performing less well), and a contextual measure of secondary schooling, students from secondary schools with greater average attainment at A-level (irrespective of public or private sector) performing less well. Multilevel modeling showed no differences between medical schools in predictive ability of the various measures. UKCAT sub-scales predicted similarly, except that Verbal Reasoning correlated positively with performance on Theory examinations, but negatively with Skills assessments. This collaborative study in 12 medical schools shows the power of large-scale studies of medical education for answering previously unanswerable but important questions about medical student selection, education and training. UKCAT has predictive validity as a predictor of medical school outcome, particularly in mature applicants to medical school. UKCAT offers small but significant incremental validity which is operationally valuable where medical schools are making selection decisions based on incomplete measures of educational attainment. The study confirms the validity of using all the existing measures of educational attainment in full at the time of selection decision-making. Contextual measures provide little additional predictive value, except that students from high attaining secondary schools perform less well, an effect previously shown for UK universities in general.

  20. The UKCAT-12 study: educational attainment, aptitude test performance, demographic and socio-economic contextual factors as predictors of first year outcome in a cross-sectional collaborative study of 12 UK medical schools

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Most UK medical schools use aptitude tests during student selection, but large-scale studies of predictive validity are rare. This study assesses the United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT), and its four sub-scales, along with measures of educational attainment, individual and contextual socio-economic background factors, as predictors of performance in the first year of medical school training. Methods A prospective study of 4,811 students in 12 UK medical schools taking the UKCAT from 2006 to 2008 as a part of the medical school application, for whom first year medical school examination results were available in 2008 to 2010. Results UKCAT scores and educational attainment measures (General Certificate of Education (GCE): A-levels, and so on; or Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA): Scottish Highers, and so on) were significant predictors of outcome. UKCAT predicted outcome better in female students than male students, and better in mature than non-mature students. Incremental validity of UKCAT taking educational attainment into account was significant, but small. Medical school performance was also affected by sex (male students performing less well), ethnicity (non-White students performing less well), and a contextual measure of secondary schooling, students from secondary schools with greater average attainment at A-level (irrespective of public or private sector) performing less well. Multilevel modeling showed no differences between medical schools in predictive ability of the various measures. UKCAT sub-scales predicted similarly, except that Verbal Reasoning correlated positively with performance on Theory examinations, but negatively with Skills assessments. Conclusions This collaborative study in 12 medical schools shows the power of large-scale studies of medical education for answering previously unanswerable but important questions about medical student selection, education and training. UKCAT has predictive validity as a predictor of medical school outcome, particularly in mature applicants to medical school. UKCAT offers small but significant incremental validity which is operationally valuable where medical schools are making selection decisions based on incomplete measures of educational attainment. The study confirms the validity of using all the existing measures of educational attainment in full at the time of selection decision-making. Contextual measures provide little additional predictive value, except that students from high attaining secondary schools perform less well, an effect previously shown for UK universities in general. PMID:24229380

  1. Educational Mismatch and Mortality among Native-Born Workers in Sweden. a 19-Year Longitudinal Study of 2.5 Million Over-Educated, Matched and Under-Educated Individuals, 1990-2008

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Garcy, Anthony M

    2015-01-01

    This study tests the hypothesis that a disjuncture between an individual's attained level of education and that held by average workers in the individual's occupation leads to higher mortality among those with a prolonged mismatched status. Swedish register data are used in a 19-year longitudinal mortality follow-up study of all causes and…

  2. Educational homogamy lowers the odds of reproductive failure.

    PubMed

    Huber, Susanne; Fieder, Martin

    2011-01-01

    Assortative mating based on education is a common phenomenon. We investigated whether it affected parameters of reproductive performance such as childlessness, offspring number and age at first marriage. On the basis of the US census from 1980 (n = 670,631 married US couples), we find that the proportion of childless individuals is usually minimal in women married to a husband of the same educational level. This holds particularly true in the highest and the lowest educated women. Educational homogamy is also associated with a lower average age at first marriage. No obvious effect of educational homogamy on a woman's average offspring number is found, where mean offspring number generally increases both with decreasing woman's and decreasing husband's educational attainment. We conclude that educational homogamy reduces the likelihood of reproductive failure.

  3. Educational Homogamy Lowers the Odds of Reproductive Failure

    PubMed Central

    Huber, Susanne; Fieder, Martin

    2011-01-01

    Assortative mating based on education is a common phenomenon. We investigated whether it affected parameters of reproductive performance such as childlessness, offspring number and age at first marriage. On the basis of the US census from 1980 (n = 670,631 married US couples), we find that the proportion of childless individuals is usually minimal in women married to a husband of the same educational level. This holds particularly true in the highest and the lowest educated women. Educational homogamy is also associated with a lower average age at first marriage. No obvious effect of educational homogamy on a woman's average offspring number is found, where mean offspring number generally increases both with decreasing woman's and decreasing husband's educational attainment. We conclude that educational homogamy reduces the likelihood of reproductive failure. PMID:21818310

  4. Does more education cause lower BMI, or do lower-BMI individuals become more educated? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979.

    PubMed

    Benson, Rebecca; von Hippel, Paul T; Lynch, Jamie L

    2017-03-21

    More educated adults have lower average body mass index (BMI). This may be due to selection, if adolescents with lower BMI attain higher levels of education, or it may be due to causation, if higher educational attainment reduces BMI gain in adulthood. We test for selection and causation in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, which has followed a representative US cohort from age 14-22 in 1979 through age 47-55 in 2012. Using ordinal logistic regression, we test the selection hypothesis that overweight and obese adolescents were less likely to earn high school diplomas and bachelor's degrees. Then, controlling for selection with individual fixed effects, we estimate the causal effect of degree completion on BMI and obesity status. Among 18-year-old women, but not among men, being overweight or obese predicts lower odds of attaining higher levels of education. At age 47-48, higher education is associated with lower BMI, but 70-90% of the association is due to selection. Net of selection, a bachelor's degree predicts less than a 1 kg reduction in body weight, and a high school credential does not reduce BMI. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Genetic variants linked to education predict longevity

    PubMed Central

    Marioni, Riccardo E.; Ritchie, Stuart J.; Joshi, Peter K.; Hagenaars, Saskia P.; Fischer, Krista; Adams, Mark J.; Hill, W. David; Davies, Gail; Nagy, Reka; Amador, Carmen; Läll, Kristi; Metspalu, Andres; Liewald, David C.; Wilson, James F.; Hayward, Caroline; Esko, Tõnu; Porteous, David J.; Gale, Catharine R.; Deary, Ian J.

    2016-01-01

    Educational attainment is associated with many health outcomes, including longevity. It is also known to be substantially heritable. Here, we used data from three large genetic epidemiology cohort studies (Generation Scotland, n = ∼17,000; UK Biobank, n = ∼115,000; and the Estonian Biobank, n = ∼6,000) to test whether education-linked genetic variants can predict lifespan length. We did so by using cohort members’ polygenic profile score for education to predict their parents’ longevity. Across the three cohorts, meta-analysis showed that a 1 SD higher polygenic education score was associated with ∼2.7% lower mortality risk for both mothers (total ndeaths = 79,702) and ∼2.4% lower risk for fathers (total ndeaths = 97,630). On average, the parents of offspring in the upper third of the polygenic score distribution lived 0.55 y longer compared with those of offspring in the lower third. Overall, these results indicate that the genetic contributions to educational attainment are useful in the prediction of human longevity. PMID:27799538

  6. Genetic variants linked to education predict longevity.

    PubMed

    Marioni, Riccardo E; Ritchie, Stuart J; Joshi, Peter K; Hagenaars, Saskia P; Okbay, Aysu; Fischer, Krista; Adams, Mark J; Hill, W David; Davies, Gail; Nagy, Reka; Amador, Carmen; Läll, Kristi; Metspalu, Andres; Liewald, David C; Campbell, Archie; Wilson, James F; Hayward, Caroline; Esko, Tõnu; Porteous, David J; Gale, Catharine R; Deary, Ian J

    2016-11-22

    Educational attainment is associated with many health outcomes, including longevity. It is also known to be substantially heritable. Here, we used data from three large genetic epidemiology cohort studies (Generation Scotland, n = ∼17,000; UK Biobank, n = ∼115,000; and the Estonian Biobank, n = ∼6,000) to test whether education-linked genetic variants can predict lifespan length. We did so by using cohort members' polygenic profile score for education to predict their parents' longevity. Across the three cohorts, meta-analysis showed that a 1 SD higher polygenic education score was associated with ∼2.7% lower mortality risk for both mothers (total n deaths = 79,702) and ∼2.4% lower risk for fathers (total n deaths = 97,630). On average, the parents of offspring in the upper third of the polygenic score distribution lived 0.55 y longer compared with those of offspring in the lower third. Overall, these results indicate that the genetic contributions to educational attainment are useful in the prediction of human longevity.

  7. Agricultural Workers in Central California. Volume 1: In 1989; Volume 2: Phase II, 1990-91. California Agricultural Studies, 90-8 and 91-5.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alvarado, Andrew J.; And Others

    Two surveys developed profiles of seasonal agricultural workers and their working conditions in central California. In 1989, a random sample of 347 seasonal workers was interviewed. The sample was 30 percent female and 87 percent Mexican-born. Average age was 35 years and average educational attainment was 5.9 years. Most had parents, spouses, or…

  8. Cochlear implanted pupils in Scottish schools: 4-year school attainment data (2000-2004).

    PubMed

    Thoutenhoofd, Ernst

    2006-01-01

    The Achievements of Deaf Pupils in Scotland (ADPS) project has been tracking the educational attainment of deaf pupils in Scotland's schools since 2000. At the time of writing, the database contains records for 1,752 deaf pupils (2000-2005). Here 4-year aggregate educational attainment data are reported for a subset of 152 school-aged deaf pupils with cochlear implants notified to the ADPS database between June 2000 and June 2004. The data describe primary and secondary school results in reading, writing, and math for this subgroup, as well as placement and communication characteristics. The educational attainment of the group of deaf pupils with cochlear implants is clearly marked when the deaf pupil population is disaggregated for hearing loss, achieving comparatively higher average attainment in both 5-14 Curriculum National Tests (Mathematics in particular) and Standard Grades. Therefore the gap in performance relative to the national population data is reduced for those deaf pupils, although it still widens at higher levels of achievement for the National Tests. Although most pupils with cochlear implants are placed in the mainstream, there is no pattern of migration toward mainstream schools. Some deaf pupils with cochlear implants moved out of mainstream to other types of placement, and this has implications for health-economic cost-utility assessments of cochlear implantation that favor mainstream education by drawing upon the relative cost of different placement types. These findings suggest that the ADPS program of research can contribute school outcome data as valuable real-life outcome measures in wider assessments of the benefit of cochlear implants to deaf children and deaf young people.

  9. The Socioeconomic Impact of Hearing Loss in US Adults

    PubMed Central

    Emmett, Susan D.; Francis, Howard W.

    2014-01-01

    Objective To evaluate the associations between hearing loss and educational attainment, income, and unemployment/underemployment in US adults. Study design National cross-sectional survey. Setting Ambulatory examination centers. Patients Adults aged 20-69 years who participated in the 1999-2002 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) audiometric evaluation and income questionnaire (n = 3379). Intervention(s) Pure tone audiometry, with hearing loss defined by World Health Organization criteria of bilateral pure tone average >25 decibels (0.5,1,2,4 kHz). Main outcome measure(s) Low educational attainment, defined as not completing high school; low income, defined as family income less than $20,000/year, and unemployment or underemployment, defined as not having a job or working less than 35 hours per week. Results Individuals with hearing loss had 3.21 times higher odds of low educational attainment (95% CI: 2.20-4.68) compared to normal-hearing individuals. Controlling for education, age, sex, and race, individuals with hearing loss had 1.58 times higher odds of low income (95% CI: 1.16-2.15) and 1.98 times higher odds of being unemployed or underemployed (95% CI: 1.38-2.85) compared to normal-hearing individuals. Conclusions Hearing loss is associated with low educational attainment in US adults. Even after controlling for education and important demographic factors, hearing loss is independently associated with economic hardship, including both low income and unemployment/underemployment. The societal impact of hearing loss is profound in this nationally representative study and should be further evaluated with longitudinal cohorts. PMID:25158616

  10. Adolescents' academic achievement and life satisfaction: the role of parents' education.

    PubMed

    Crede, Julia; Wirthwein, Linda; McElvany, Nele; Steinmayr, Ricarda

    2015-01-01

    Drawing on the background of positive psychology, there has only recently been a focus on adolescents' life satisfaction (LS) in the context of education. Studies examining the relationship between adolescents' academic achievement and LS have shown conflicting results and the reasons are not fully understood. The present study investigated the role of parents' education as a potential moderator of the relationship between adolescents' academic achievement and LS. A sample of German high school students (N = 411) reported parents' educational attainment, as an indicator of family socio-economic status, and students' academic achievement was operationalized by grade point average in five subjects. Results indicated that only mothers' education functioned as a moderator of the relationship between academic achievement and students' LS. The association between academic achievement and LS was only found in the group of students whose mothers had achieved the same or a higher education (at least high school diploma) as their own children. Fathers' educational attainment, however, was not a significant moderator of the respective relationship. Directions for future research and the differential influences of fathers' and mothers' education are discussed with regard to potential underlying processes.

  11. Making sense of the labor market height premium: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey.

    PubMed

    Case, Anne; Paxson, Christina; Islam, Mahnaz

    2009-03-01

    We use data from the British Household Panel Survey to examine the labor market premium in height. Most of the premium is explained by higher average educational attainment and sorting into higher-status occupations and industries by those who are taller.

  12. Buying into the Computer Age: A Look at Hispanic Families.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilhelm, Anthony

    Ownership rates of advanced communication technologies among Hispanic families are lower than the national average. Going beyond socioeconomic (i.e., family income, educational attainment, and occupation) indicators as key predictors of the so-called technology gap, this paper relies on qualitative analysis of Hispanic families' attitudes and…

  13. Implementation of learning outcome attainment measurement system in aviation engineering higher education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salleh, I. Mohd; Mat Rani, M.

    2017-12-01

    This paper aims to discuss the effectiveness of the Learning Outcome Attainment Measurement System in assisting Outcome Based Education (OBE) for Aviation Engineering Higher Education in Malaysia. Direct assessments are discussed to show the implementation processes that become a key role in the successful outcome measurement system. A case study presented in this paper involves investigation on the implementation of the system in Aircraft Structure course for Bachelor in Aircraft Engineering Technology program in UniKL-MIAT. The data has been collected for five semesters, starting from July 2014 until July 2016. The study instruments used include the report generated in Learning Outcomes Measurements System (LOAMS) that contains information on the course learning outcomes (CLO) individual and course average performance reports. The report derived from LOAMS is analyzed and the data analysis has revealed that there is a positive significant correlation between the individual performance and the average performance reports. The results for analysis of variance has further revealed that there is a significant difference in OBE grade score among the report. Independent samples F-test results, on the other hand, indicate that the variances of the two populations are unequal.

  14. Are status inconsistency, work stress and work-family conflict associated with depressive symptoms? Testing prospective evidence in the lidA study.

    PubMed

    Peter, Richard; March, Stefanie; du Prel, Jean-Baptist

    2016-02-01

    Depressive symptoms are common and economically relevant. Women suffer more often than men do. We analyze associations between social status inconsistency, psychosocial factors, and depressive symptoms stratified by gender. In the present study, 3340 employees of two age cohorts (1959, 1965) working in two waves (2011, 2014) of the prospective German lidA-study and who gave written consent to link register data regarding their employment histories were included. Gender-specific influences of social status inconsistency (deviation of observed income from expected average income based on acquired education) on depressive symptoms and mediation of these associations by work stress in terms of effort-reward-imbalance (ERI) and work-family-conflict (WFC) were analyzed with confirmatory cross-lagged path models. Among men, consistent status (i.e., average income in a specific educational group) increased the frequency of depressive symptoms. No association between negative SSI (i.e., income below the average income given a specific educational attainment) or positive SSI (i.e., income above the average income given a specific educational attainment) and depressive symptoms was observed among men or women. ERI and WFC were longitudinally associated with the outcome and differed slightly regarding gender, i.e., showing stronger effects of ERI for women and of WFC for men. Mediation of the association between social status and depressive symptoms was observed for men and for consistent status (path: consistent status → ERI → depressive symptoms) but not for SSI. ERI and WFC increase the risk of future episodes with depressive symptoms in men and in women irrespective of SSI, occupational position, full- or part-time work, regional factors or individual characteristics. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  15. The socioeconomic impact of hearing loss in U.S. adults.

    PubMed

    Emmett, Susan D; Francis, Howard W

    2015-03-01

    To evaluate the associations between hearing loss and educational attainment, income, and unemployment/underemployment in U.S. adults. National cross-sectional survey. Ambulatory examination centers. Adults aged 20 to 69 years who participated in the 1999 to 2002 cycles of the NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) audiometric evaluation and income questionnaire (N = 3,379). Pure-tone audiometry, with hearing loss defined by World Health Organization criteria of bilateral pure-tone average of more than 25 dB (0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz). Low educational attainment, defined as not completing high school; low income, defined as family income less than $20,000 per year; and unemployment or underemployment, defined as not having a job or working less than 35 hours per week. Individuals with hearing loss had 3.21 times higher odds of low educational attainment (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 2.20-4.68) compared with normal-hearing individuals. Controlling for education, age, sex, and race, individuals with hearing loss had 1.58 times higher odds of low income (95% CI, 1.16-2.15) and 1.98 times higher odds of being unemployed or underemployed (95% CI, 1.38-2.85) compared with normal-hearing individuals. Hearing loss is associated with low educational attainment in U.S. adults. Even after controlling for education and important demographic factors, hearing loss is independently associated with economic hardship, including both low income and unemployment/underemployment. The societal impact of hearing loss is profound in this nationally representative study and should be further evaluated with longitudinal cohorts. Received institutional review board approval (National Center for Health Statistics Institutional Review Board Protocol no. 98-12).

  16. Education Gains Attributable to Fertility Decline: Patterns by Gender, Period, and Country in Latin America and Asia.

    PubMed

    Li, Jing; Dow, William H; Rosero-Bixby, Luis

    2017-08-01

    We investigate the heterogeneity across countries and time in the relationship between mother's fertility and children's educational attainment-the quantity-quality (Q-Q) trade-off-by using census data from 17 countries in Asia and Latin America, with data from each country spanning multiple census years. For each country-year, we estimate micro-level instrumental variables models predicting secondary school attainment using number of siblings of the child, instrumented by the sex composition of the first two births in the family. We then analyze correlates of Q-Q trade-off patterns across countries. On average, one additional sibling in the family reduces the probability of secondary education by 6 percentage points for girls and 4 percentage points for boys. This Q-Q trade-off is significantly associated with the level of son preference, slightly decreasing over time and with fertility, but it does not significantly differ by educational level of the country.

  17. Parental interest in children's education, children's self-esteem and locus of control, and later educational attainment: twenty-six year follow-up of the 1970 British Birth Cohort.

    PubMed

    Flouri, Eirini

    2006-03-01

    Few studies have investigated if mother's interest and father's interest in child's education are linked to educational attainment via their impact on child's self-esteem and locus of control. (1) To investigate (after controlling for known confounding factors) the long-term effect of mother's and father's interest in child's education at age 10 and child's locus of control and self-esteem at age 10 in educational attainment at age 26; and (2) to explore if mother's interest and father's interest in child's education are linked to child's educational attainment via their effect in increasing child's self-esteem and internal locus of control. The study used longitudinal data from sweeps of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). The initial sample was those 1,737 men and 2,033 women with valid data on age 10 self-esteem, locus of control, father's interest, mother's interest, and age 26 educational attainment. Of these, 1,326 men and 1,578 women were included in the final analysis. The birth to age 10 factors that were controlled for were birth weight, parental social class, socio-economic disadvantage, emotional/behavioural problems, cognitive ability, and mother's educational attainment. At the multivariate level, internal locus of control and mother's interest (but not self-esteem) were significantly related to educational attainment in both men and women. Father's interest was a significant predictor of educational attainment only in women. Parent's interest was not linked to educational attainment via its impact on child's self-esteem or locus of control. Self-esteem predicted educational attainment in both genders by increasing internal locus of control, and fathers' interest predicted educational attainment in men by increasing mother's involvement. Although mothers' and fathers' interest in their children's education were not linked to educational attainment via their impact on children's self-esteem or locus of control, they were significant predictors of educational attainment especially in daughters.

  18. Slender women and overweight men: gender differences in the educational gradient in body weight in South Korea.

    PubMed

    Lee, Yeonjin

    2017-11-21

    Little is known about the gender-specific mechanisms through which education is associated with weight status in societies that have experienced a rapid rise in their obesity rates. This study extends previous literature by examining how the link between education and weight status operates within the structure of gender relations in South Korea where huge gender differences have been observed in the educational inequalities in weight status. Using the Korean National Health Survey (N = 17,947) conducted in 2008-2012 conditional quantile regression models were estimated to assess the associations between education and body weight distribution. The mean difference in the predicted probabilities of perceiving body image as average was compared by educational attainment for women and men while setting all other covariates at their means. Highly educated women were more likely to utilize their human capital to obtain slender body shape and the relationship was not mediated by economic resources. In contrast, education was positively associated with being overweight and obesity among men, for whom behaviors promoting healthy weight often conflict with a collective ideology at work that strongly supports long work hours and heavy alcohol consumption. Furthermore, Korean men were more likely to under-perceive their body size than Korean women, that is, overweight men tend to consider themselves to be of 'average' weight, regardless of their educational attainment. Current study found that gender inequalities in social status in South Korea operate to affect the relationship between education and weight status among men and women in unique ways. Weight status can be socially patterned by the interplay between education, economic, and behavioral resources within the structure of gender relations.

  19. The Relationship between Curricular Physical Activity and College Retention after the First Year

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bounds, Laura E.

    2014-01-01

    College retention has become increasingly important for many reasons. Individuals who attain bachelor's degrees, on average, have higher earning power and more career options than individuals with only a high school degree. Higher education institutes also benefit when students are retained and graduate. With the most recent budget crisis, higher…

  20. Urban Density and Pupil Attainment. CEE DP 80

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gibbons, Stephen; Silva, Olmo

    2007-01-01

    We explore the association between urban density and pupil attainment using three cohorts of pupils in schooling in England. Although--as widely recognised--attainment in dense urban places is low on average, this is not because urban environments disadvantage pupils, but because the most disadvantaged pupils with low average attainments attend…

  1. Trends in Life Expectancy and Lifespan Variation by Educational Attainment: United States, 1990-2010.

    PubMed

    Sasson, Isaac

    2016-04-01

    The educational gradient in life expectancy is well documented in the United States and in other low-mortality countries. Highly educated Americans, on average, live longer than their low-educated counterparts, who have recently seen declines in adult life expectancy. However, limiting the discussion on lifespan inequality to mean differences alone overlooks other dimensions of inequality and particularly disparities in lifespan variation. The latter represents a unique form of inequality, with higher variation translating into greater uncertainty in the time of death from an individual standpoint, and higher group heterogeneity from a population perspective. Using data from the National Vital Statistics System from 1990 to 2010, this is the first study to document trends in both life expectancy and S25--the standard deviation of age at death above 25--by educational attainment. Among low-educated whites, adult life expectancy declined by 3.1 years for women and by 0.6 years for men. At the same time, S25 increased by about 1.5 years among high school-educated whites of both genders, becoming an increasingly important component of total lifespan inequality. By contrast, college-educated whites benefited from rising life expectancy and record low variation in age at death, consistent with the shifting mortality scenario. Among blacks, adult life expectancy increased, and S25 plateaued or declined in nearly all educational attainment groups, although blacks generally lagged behind whites of the same gender on both measures. Documenting trends in lifespan variation can therefore improve our understanding of lifespan inequality and point to diverging trajectories in adult mortality across socioeconomic strata.

  2. Adolescents’ academic achievement and life satisfaction: the role of parents’ education

    PubMed Central

    Crede, Julia; Wirthwein, Linda; McElvany, Nele; Steinmayr, Ricarda

    2015-01-01

    Drawing on the background of positive psychology, there has only recently been a focus on adolescents’ life satisfaction (LS) in the context of education. Studies examining the relationship between adolescents’ academic achievement and LS have shown conflicting results and the reasons are not fully understood. The present study investigated the role of parents’ education as a potential moderator of the relationship between adolescents’ academic achievement and LS. A sample of German high school students (N = 411) reported parents’ educational attainment, as an indicator of family socio-economic status, and students’ academic achievement was operationalized by grade point average in five subjects. Results indicated that only mothers’ education functioned as a moderator of the relationship between academic achievement and students’ LS. The association between academic achievement and LS was only found in the group of students whose mothers had achieved the same or a higher education (at least high school diploma) as their own children. Fathers’ educational attainment, however, was not a significant moderator of the respective relationship. Directions for future research and the differential influences of fathers’ and mothers’ education are discussed with regard to potential underlying processes. PMID:25691877

  3. The causal effect of childhood measles vaccination on educational attainment: A mother fixed-effects study in rural South Africa.

    PubMed

    Anekwe, Tobenna D; Newell, Marie-Louise; Tanser, Frank; Pillay, Deenan; Bärnighausen, Till

    2015-09-11

    Because measles vaccination prevents acute measles disease and morbidities secondary to measles, such as undernutrition, blindness, and brain damage, the vaccination may also lead to higher educational attainment. However, there has been little evidence to support this hypothesis at the population level. In this study, we estimate the causal effect of childhood measles vaccination on educational attainment among children born between 1995 and 2000 in South Africa. We use longitudinal data on measles vaccination status and school grade attainment among 4783 children. The data were collected by the Wellcome Trust Africa Centre Demographic Information System (ACDIS), which is one of Africa's largest health and demographic surveillance systems. ACDIS is located in a poor, predominantly rural, Zulu-speaking community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Using mother fixed-effects regression, we compare the school grade attainment of siblings who are discordant in their measles vaccination status but share the same mother and household. This fixed-effects approach controls for confounding due to both observed and unobserved factors that do not vary between siblings, including sibling-invariant mother and household characteristics such as attitudes toward risk, conscientiousness, and aspirations for children. We further control for a range of potential confounders that vary between siblings, such as sex of the child, year of birth, mother's age at child's birth, and birth order. We find that measles vaccination on average increases school grade attainment by 0.188 grades (95% confidence interval, 0.0424-0.334; p=0.011). Measles vaccination increased educational attainment in this poor, largely rural community in South Africa. For every five to seven children vaccinated against measles, one additional school grade was gained. The presence of a measles vaccination effect in this community is plausible because (i) measles vaccination prevents measles complications including blindness, brain damage, and undernutrition; (ii) a large number of number of children were at risk of contracting measles because of the comparatively low measles vaccination coverage; and (iii) significant measles transmission occurred in the community where this study took place during the study observation period. Our results demonstrate for the first time that measles vaccination affects human development not only through its health effects but also through its effects on education. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  4. Educational achievements of children of parents with multiple sclerosis: A nationwide register-based cohort study.

    PubMed

    Moberg, J Y; Magyari, M; Koch-Henriksen, N; Thygesen, L C; Laursen, B; Soelberg Sørensen, P

    2016-11-01

    Little is known about the impact of parental multiple sclerosis (MS) on offspring's educational attainment. The objective of the study was to examine educational achievements in offspring of parents with MS compared with matched children of parents without MS in a nationwide register-based cohort study. Children of all Danish-born residents with onset between 1950 and 1986 were identified by linking the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry with the Civil Registration System. Twins, children with MS, and emigrated persons were excluded. The reference cohort consisted of randomly drawn individuals from the Civil Registration System without parental MS matched 8:1 to the MS offspring by sex and year of birth. Information about education was linked to the cohorts from nationwide educational registries. We included 4177 children of MS parents and 33,416 reference persons. Children of MS parents achieved statistically significant higher average grades than the reference cohort in their final exam of basic school with a mean grade difference of 0.46 (95 % CI 0.22-0.69; p = 0.0002). We found no difference in achievement of educational level above basic school (OR 1.04; 95 % CI 0.98-1.10; p = 0.20). There was a trend toward more MS offspring attaining health-related educations (OR 1.10; 95 % CI 1.00-1.21; p = 0.06). In conclusion, children of MS parents showed a small advantage in grade point average in final examinations in basic school, and they more often tended toward health-related educations. This study revealed no negative consequences of parental MS on grades and highest educational level achieved.

  5. Maternal Educational Attainment at Birth Promotes Future Self-Rated Health of White but Not Black Youth: A 15-Year Cohort of a National Sample

    PubMed Central

    Caldwell, Cleopatra Howard; Mincy, Ronald B.

    2018-01-01

    Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) is essential for maintaining health, and self-rated health (SRH) is not an exception to this rule. This study explored racial differences in the protective effects of maternal educational attainment at birth against poor SRH of the youth 15 years later. Methods: Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), this 15-year longitudinal study followed 1934 youths from birth to age 15. This sample was composed of White (n = 497, 25.7%), and Black (n = 1437, 74.3%) youths. The independent variable was maternal educational attainment at birth. SRH at age 15 was the dependent variable. Family structure was the covariate. Race was the focal moderator. We ran logistic regression models in the pooled sample, as well as stratified models based on race. Results: In the pooled sample, maternal educational attainment and family structure were not predictive of SRH for the youths at age 15. Race interacted with maternal educational attainment, indicating a stronger association between maternal educational attainment at birth on youth SRH for Whites compared to Blacks. In race stratified models, maternal educational attainment at birth was protective against poor SRH for White but not Black youths. Conclusion: White but not Black youths gain less SRH from their maternal educational attainment. Enhancing education attainment may not have identical effects across racial groups. The health status of Blacks may be less responsive to improvements in maternal educational attainment. Policies should go beyond investing in educational attainment by empowering Black families to better use the educational attainment that they gain. Policies and programs should reduce the costs of upward social mobility for minority families. PMID:29723957

  6. Maternal Educational Attainment at Birth Promotes Future Self-Rated Health of White but Not Black Youth: A 15-Year Cohort of a National Sample.

    PubMed

    Assari, Shervin; Caldwell, Cleopatra Howard; Mincy, Ronald B

    2018-05-01

    Socioeconomic status (SES) is essential for maintaining health, and self-rated health (SRH) is not an exception to this rule. This study explored racial differences in the protective effects of maternal educational attainment at birth against poor SRH of the youth 15 years later. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), this 15-year longitudinal study followed 1934 youths from birth to age 15. This sample was composed of White ( n = 497, 25.7%), and Black ( n = 1437, 74.3%) youths. The independent variable was maternal educational attainment at birth. SRH at age 15 was the dependent variable. Family structure was the covariate. Race was the focal moderator. We ran logistic regression models in the pooled sample, as well as stratified models based on race. In the pooled sample, maternal educational attainment and family structure were not predictive of SRH for the youths at age 15. Race interacted with maternal educational attainment, indicating a stronger association between maternal educational attainment at birth on youth SRH for Whites compared to Blacks. In race stratified models, maternal educational attainment at birth was protective against poor SRH for White but not Black youths. White but not Black youths gain less SRH from their maternal educational attainment. Enhancing education attainment may not have identical effects across racial groups. The health status of Blacks may be less responsive to improvements in maternal educational attainment. Policies should go beyond investing in educational attainment by empowering Black families to better use the educational attainment that they gain. Policies and programs should reduce the costs of upward social mobility for minority families.

  7. Educational attainment, perceived control and the quality of women's diets.

    PubMed

    Barker, Mary; Lawrence, Wendy; Crozier, Sarah; Robinson, Siân; Baird, Janis; Margetts, Barrie; Cooper, Cyrus

    2009-06-01

    Data from the Southampton Women's Survey have established that women of lower educational attainment have poorer quality diets than those of higher educational attainment. This relationship is strong and graded such that for every increase in level of educational qualification, there is an increase in the likelihood that a woman will have a better quality diet. It is not wholly explained by socio-economic status. Qualitative research carried out in Southampton suggests that women of lower educational attainment may have a poorer diet because they feel they lack control over the food choices they make for themselves and their families. We set out to investigate the relationship between educational attainment, perceived control and quality of diet in a sample of women from Southampton. Cross-sectional study using structured interviews in which women's diet, educational attainment and perceived control were assessed. 19 Children's Centres and baby clinics in Southampton, UK. 372 women, median age 28 years. Quality of diet assessed by prudent diet score produced from principal components analysis of 20-item food frequency questionnaire, and perceived control assessed by a validated questionnaire. Women of lower educational attainment tended to have lower prudent diet scores and lower perceived control scores than women of higher educational attainment. Having a lower prudent diet score was associated with consuming fewer vegetables and vegetable dishes, less wholemeal bread and vegetarian food, and more chips and roast potatoes, meat pies, Yorkshire puddings and pancakes, crisps and snacks, white bread and added sugar. In a regression model both lower educational attainment and lower perceived control were associated with lower prudent diet scores, independent of the effects of confounding factors. However there was an interaction effect such that lower perceived control was only related to prudent diet score in the group of women of lower educational attainment. Women of lower educational attainment perceive themselves to have less control over their lives than women of higher educational attainment, and this perceived lack of control is reflected in their diets being of poorer quality. Our findings suggest that level of perceived control over life is a more important predictor of quality of diet in women of lower educational attainment than in those of higher educational attainment. It may be that psychological and social difficulties disproportionately affect the diets of women of lower educational attainment. We are currently exploring variations in quality of diet among women of lower educational attainment in relation to a range of psychological and social factors.

  8. The Gender and Race Composition of Jobs and the Male/Female, White/Black Pay Gaps.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tomaskovic-Devey, Donald

    1993-01-01

    Analysis of North Carolina survey data indicates that females' average hourly wages were 71% of males', and blacks' wages were 78% of whites'. Human capital factors (educational attainment and occupational experience) explained 31% and 3% of the racial and gender gaps, respectively. Job gender composition explained 56% of the gender gap; job…

  9. Minimal Brain Dysfunction in Childhood: 1. Outcome in Late Adolescence and Early Adult Years. Final Version.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Milman, Doris H.

    Seventy-three patients, diagnosed in childhood as having either maturational lag or organic brain syndrome, were followed for an average of 12 years into late adolescence and early adult life for the purpose of discovering the outcome with respect to ultimate psychiatric status, educational attainment, social adjustment, and global adjustment. At…

  10. The Secret of Our Success

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rowland, Maggi

    2008-01-01

    Stoke-on-Trent is one of the most deprived areas of the UK. It has been described as an area with low aspirations. This is reflected in educational attainment levels among school leavers: GCSE results across the city, including English and Maths, remain significantly below the national average. Stoke-on-Trent College has a huge role to play in…

  11. Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning in Predicting University Students' Academic Achievement in Turkey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Çetin, Baris

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine whether perceived levels of self-regulated learning and metacognition predicted the ultimate grade point average (GPA) attained by 206 female and 70 male college seniors (aged 21 to 27) finishing their elementary education teaching certification studies at a university in Turkey. Data regarding individual…

  12. Civil Conflict and Human Capital Accumulation: The Long-Term Effects of Political Violence in Peru

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leon, Gianmarco

    2012-01-01

    This paper provides empirical evidence of the persistent effect of exposure to political violence on human capital accumulation. I exploit the variation in conflict location and birth cohorts to identify the long- and short-term effects of the civil war on educational attainment. Conditional on being exposed to violence, the average person…

  13. Early Childhood Behavior Problems and the Gender Gap in Educational Attainment in the United States

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Owens, Jayanti

    2016-01-01

    Why do men in the United States today complete less schooling than women? One reason may be gender differences in early self-regulation and prosocial behaviors. Scholars have found that boys' early behavioral disadvantage predicts their lower average academic achievement during elementary school. In this study, I examine longer-term effects: Do…

  14. Schooling and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Bangladesh.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maitra, Pushkar

    2003-01-01

    Examines educational attainment in Bangladesh using two different variables: current school enrollment and highest level of schooling attained. Finds that educational attainment of children is higher for females than for males and is positively associated with household income and parents' level of education (especially that of mothers). (Contains…

  15. Educational mismatch and mortality among native-born workers in Sweden. A 19-year longitudinal study of 2.5 million over-educated, matched and under-educated individuals, 1990-2008.

    PubMed

    Garcy, Anthony M

    2015-11-01

    This study tests the hypothesis that a disjuncture between an individual's attained level of education and that held by average workers in the individual's occupation leads to higher mortality among those with a prolonged mismatched status. Swedish register data are used in a 19-year longitudinal mortality follow-up study of all causes and specific causes of mortality. Participants were all men and women born between 1926 and 1985 who were alive on 1 September 1990, who had concurrent information on their attained level of education and the specific occupation or industry they were employed in during this period for at least a consecutive year. An objective measure of educational and occupational mismatch was constructed from these data. Those with a stable, over-educated matched, or under-educated employment status are included in the final analysis (N = 2,482,696). Independent of social, family, employers' characteristics and prior health problems, the findings from a multivariate, stratified Cox regression analysis suggest there is excessive mortality among the over-educated, and a protective effect of under-education among native-born Swedish men and women. © 2015 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.

  16. Socioeconomic Status Associated With Urinary Sodium and Potassium Excretion in Japan: NIPPON DATA2010.

    PubMed

    Miyagawa, Naoko; Okuda, Nagako; Nakagawa, Hideaki; Takezaki, Toshiro; Nishi, Nobuo; Takashima, Naoyuki; Fujiyoshi, Akira; Ohkubo, Takayoshi; Kadota, Aya; Okamura, Tomonori; Ueshima, Hirotsugu; Okayama, Akira; Miura, Katsuyuki

    2018-01-01

    Although socioeconomic status (SES) may affect food and nutrient intakes, few studies have reported on sodium (Na) and potassium (K) intakes among individuals with various SESs in Japan. We investigated associations of SES with Na and K intake levels using urinary specimens in a representative Japanese population. This was a cross-sectional study of 2,560 men and women (the NIPPON DATA2010 cohort) who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Survey Japan in 2010. Casual urine was used to calculate estimated excretion in 24-hour urinary Na (E24hr-Na) and K (E24hr-K). The urinary sodium-to-potassium (Na/K) ratio was calculated from casual urinary electrolyte values. An analysis of covariance was performed to investigate associations of aspects of SES, including equivalent household expenditure (EHE), educational attainment, and job category, with E24hr-Na, E24hr-K, and the Na/K ratio for men and women separately. A stratified analysis was performed on educational attainment and the job category for younger (<65 years) and older (≥65 years) participants. In men and women, average E24hr-Na was 176.2 mmol/day and 172.3, average E24hr-K was 42.5 and 41.3, and the average Na/K ratio was 3.61 and 3.68, respectively. Lower EHE was associated with a higher Na/K ratio in women and lower E24hr-K in men and women. A shorter education was associated with a higher Na/K ratio in women and younger men, and lower E24hr-K in older men and women. Lower EHE and a shorter education were associated with a lower K intake and higher Na/K ratio estimated from casual urine specimens in Japanese men and women.

  17. Religious Background and Educational Attainment: The Effects of Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sander, William

    2010-01-01

    The effects of Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism on educational attainment in the United States are examined. OLS estimates of educational attainment and Probit estimates of college attainment are undertaken. It is shown that Islam and Judaism have similar positive effects on attainment relative to Protestants and Catholics. The effect of Buddhism is…

  18. Race, Wages, and Assimilation among Cuban Immigrants. Working Paper.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zavodny, Madeline

    This study uses data from the 1980 and 1990 Census and the 1994-2000 Current Population Survey to examine the determinants of earnings among male Cuban immigrants in the United States by race. Nonwhite Cuban immigrants earn about 15 percent less than Whites, on average. Much of the racial wage gap is due to differences in educational attainment,…

  19. Rising to the Challenge: Widening Participation and Raising Achievement in Sixth Form Colleges. LSDA Research Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Davies, Peter

    The key features of student achievement were examined at twelve sixth form colleges (SFCs) in the United Kingdom with an emphasis on strategies to maintain and improve performance. It was found that students at SFCs have on average higher prior attainment and suffer less deprivation than their counterparts in General Further Education and Tertiary…

  20. Rural Education at a Glance, 2017 Edition. Economic Information Bulletin 171

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    US Department of Agriculture, 2017

    2017-01-01

    Education is closely linked with economic outcomes. This report highlights key trends in educational attainment among rural Americans and the relationship between educational attainment and economic prosperity for rural people and places. Rural Americans are increasingly educated, but gains in educational attainment vary across demographic groups.…

  1. The Relationship of Educational Attainment with Pulmonary Emphysema and Airway Wall Thickness.

    PubMed

    Gjerdevik, Miriam; Grydeland, Thomas B; Washko, George R; Coxson, Harvey O; Silverman, Edwin K; Gulsvik, Amund; Bakke, Per S

    2015-06-01

    Low educational attainment is a risk factor of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). There is limited knowledge on the relationship between educational level and computed tomography measures of emphysema and airway wall thickness (AWT). We hypothesized that low educational attainment is associated with increased emphysema and AWT in ever-smokers with and without COPD. We included 462 and 485 ever-smokers with and without COPD in a cross-sectional study, aged 40-86 years. The sample was divided into groups reflecting educational attainment: primary, secondary, and university. We performed linear regression to examine associations between educational attainment and both emphysema and AWT separately for those with and without COPD. We adjusted for sex, age, smoking status, age of onset of smoking, pack-years, height, and body mass index. Compared with university education, in subjects with COPD, primary education was associated with a 68.1% (95% confidence interval = 14.2-147.6%; P = 0.01) relative increase in emphysema and secondary education was associated with a 50.6% (95% confidence interval = 5.7-114.6%; P = 0.02) relative increase. There was a nonsignificant trend toward an association between lower educational attainment and increased emphysema among those without COPD (P = 0.18), yet greater age appeared to modify this association (P = 0.01). We did not detect significant linear relationships between educational attainment and AWT in subjects with or without COPD. Lower educational attainment was associated with increased emphysema among adults with COPD. Among those without COPD, this association was more pronounced with increasing age. No significant linear relationship between educational attainment and AWT was found. Clinicians treating adults with emphysema should keep in mind that factors related to low education beyond that of smoking and occupational dust exposure might be of importance to the disease.

  2. Childbearing impeded education more than education impeded childbearing among Norwegian women.

    PubMed

    Cohen, Joel E; Kravdal, Øystein; Keilman, Nico

    2011-07-19

    In most societies, women at age 39 with higher levels of education have fewer children. To understand this association, we investigated the effects of childbearing on educational attainment and the effects of education on fertility in the 1964 birth cohort of Norwegian women. Using detailed annual data from ages 17 to 39, we estimated the probabilities of an additional birth, a change in educational level, and enrollment in the coming year, conditional on fertility history, educational level, and enrollment history at the beginning of each year. A simple model reproduced a declining gradient of children ever born with increasing educational level at age 39. When a counterfactual simulation assumed no effects of childbearing on educational progression or enrollment (without changing the estimated effects of education on childbearing), the simulated number of children ever born decreased very little with increasing completed educational level, contrary to data. However, when another counterfactual simulation assumed no effects of current educational level and enrollment on childbearing (without changing the estimated effects of childbearing on education), the simulated number of children ever born decreased with increasing completed educational level nearly as much as the decrease in the data. In summary, in these Norwegian data, childbearing impeded education much more than education impeded childbearing. These results suggest that women with advanced degrees have lower completed fertility on the average principally because women who have one or more children early are more likely to leave or not enter long educational tracks and never attain a high educational level.

  3. Childbearing impeded education more than education impeded childbearing among Norwegian women

    PubMed Central

    Cohen, Joel E.; Kravdal, Øystein; Keilman, Nico

    2011-01-01

    In most societies, women at age 39 with higher levels of education have fewer children. To understand this association, we investigated the effects of childbearing on educational attainment and the effects of education on fertility in the 1964 birth cohort of Norwegian women. Using detailed annual data from ages 17 to 39, we estimated the probabilities of an additional birth, a change in educational level, and enrollment in the coming year, conditional on fertility history, educational level, and enrollment history at the beginning of each year. A simple model reproduced a declining gradient of children ever born with increasing educational level at age 39. When a counterfactual simulation assumed no effects of childbearing on educational progression or enrollment (without changing the estimated effects of education on childbearing), the simulated number of children ever born decreased very little with increasing completed educational level, contrary to data. However, when another counterfactual simulation assumed no effects of current educational level and enrollment on childbearing (without changing the estimated effects of childbearing on education), the simulated number of children ever born decreased with increasing completed educational level nearly as much as the decrease in the data. In summary, in these Norwegian data, childbearing impeded education much more than education impeded childbearing. These results suggest that women with advanced degrees have lower completed fertility on the average principally because women who have one or more children early are more likely to leave or not enter long educational tracks and never attain a high educational level. PMID:21730138

  4. Investigating the Relationship between the Quality of Education and Level of Educational Attainment in Turkish Provinces

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gumus, Sedat

    2012-01-01

    Research in comparative and international education indicates that the quality of education, as measured by standardized tests, and the level of educational attainment have a significant impact on individual earning and national economic growth. However, the relationship between the quality of education and the level of educational attainment has…

  5. 40 CFR 51.907 - For an area that fails to attain the 8-hour NAAQS by its attainment date, how does EPA interpret...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... to 1-year extensions of the attainment date if: (a) For the first 1-year extension, the area's 4th... extension, the area's 4th highest daily 8-hour value, averaged over both the original attainment year and... section, the area's 4th highest daily 8-hour average shall be from the monitor with the highest 4th...

  6. 40 CFR 51.907 - For an area that fails to attain the 8-hour NAAQS by its attainment date, how does EPA interpret...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... to 1-year extensions of the attainment date if: (a) For the first 1-year extension, the area's 4th... extension, the area's 4th highest daily 8-hour value, averaged over both the original attainment year and... section, the area's 4th highest daily 8-hour average shall be from the monitor with the highest 4th...

  7. 40 CFR 51.907 - For an area that fails to attain the 8-hour NAAQS by its attainment date, how does EPA interpret...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... to 1-year extensions of the attainment date if: (a) For the first 1-year extension, the area's 4th... extension, the area's 4th highest daily 8-hour value, averaged over both the original attainment year and... section, the area's 4th highest daily 8-hour average shall be from the monitor with the highest 4th...

  8. Mental Health Problems and Educational Attainment in Adolescence: 9-Year Follow-Up of the TRAILS Study

    PubMed Central

    Veldman, Karin; Bültmann, Ute; Stewart, Roy E.; Ormel, Johan; Verhulst, Frank C.; Reijneveld, Sijmen A.

    2014-01-01

    Background This study examines if mental health problems at age 11 and changes in mental health problems between age 11 and 16 predict educational attainment of adolescents at age 19, overall and stratified by gender. Methods Data from 1711 adolescents (76.8% from initial cohort) of the Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS), a Dutch prospective cohort study with 9year follow-up, were used. Mental health problems (externalizing, internalizing and attention problems) were measured by the Youth Self Report and the Child Behavior Checklist at ages 11 and 16. Difference scores for mental health problems between age 11 and 16 were calculated. Educational attainment was assessed at age 19. Results Externalizing, internalizing and attention problems at age 11 were significantly associated with low educational attainment at age 19 (crude model). When adjusted for demographic variables and the other mental health problems, only the association for attention problems remained significant (odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval: 3.19, 2.11–4.83). Increasing externalizing problems between age 11 and 16 also predicted low educational attainment at age 19 (OR 3.12, 1.83–5.32). Among girls, increasing internalizing problems between age 11 and 16 predicted low educational attainment (OR 2.21, 1.25–3.94). For boys, no significant association was found for increasing internalizing problems and low educational attainment. For increasing attention problems between age 11 and 16 no significant association with low educational attainment was found. Conclusions Externalizing, internalizing and attention problems at age 11 and an increase of these problems during adolescence predicted low educational attainment at age 19. Early treatment of these mental health problems may improve educational attainment, and reduce socioeconomic health differences in adulthood. PMID:25047692

  9. Navigating the Labyrinth toward College Student Government Presidency: A Phenomenological Study of Women Who Run for Student Government President

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zimmerman, Hilary

    2017-01-01

    In recent years in the United States, women have been outpacing men on important college outcomes such as grade point average and degree attainment. While women have made strides in the last few decades, there are still important areas of higher education in which women are significantly underrepresented. In student government, women are vastly…

  10. Expanding Opportunity for All: How Can We Increase Community College Student Completion? A Choicework Discussion Starter

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Public Agenda, 2015

    2015-01-01

    Although over 80 percent of the 1.5 million students who enter community colleges each year indicate they intend to attain a bachelor's degree or higher, less than 40 percent earn any form of college credential within six years. This discussion starter is designed to help both higher education professionals and the average citizen work through how…

  11. Educational attainment and longevity: results from the REGARDS U.S. national cohort study of blacks and whites.

    PubMed

    Kaplan, Robert M; Howard, Virginia J; Safford, Monika M; Howard, George

    2015-05-01

    Educational attainment may be an important determinant of life expectancy. However, few studies have prospectively evaluated the relationship between educational attainment and life expectancy using adjustments for other social, behavioral, and biological factors. The data were from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study that enrolled 30,239 black and white adults (≥45 years) between 2003 and 2007. Demographic and cardiovascular risk information was collected and participants were followed for health outcomes. Educational attainment was categorized as less than high school education, high school graduate, some college, or college graduate. Proportional hazards analysis was used to characterize survival by level of education. Educational attainment and follow-up data were available on 29,657 (98%) of the participants. Over 6.3 years of follow-up, 3673 participants died. There was a monotonically increasing risk of death with lower levels of educational attainment. The same monotonic relationship held with adjustments for age, race, sex, cardiovascular risk factors, and health behaviors. The unadjusted hazard ratio for those without a high school education in comparison with college graduates was 2.89 (95% CI = 2.64-3.18). Although adjustment for income, health behaviors, and cardiovascular risk factors attenuated the relationship, the same consistent pattern was observed after adjustment. The relationship between educational attainment and longevity was similar for black and white participants. The monotonic relationship between educational attainment and longevity was observed for all age groups, except for those aged 85 years or more. Educational attainment is a significant predictor of longevity. Other factors including age, race, income, health behaviors, and cardiovascular risk factors only partially explain the relationship. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  12. Specific psychological variables predict quality of diet in women of lower, but not higher, educational attainment

    PubMed Central

    Lawrence, Wendy; Schlotz, Wolff; Crozier, Sarah; Skinner, Timothy C; Haslam, Cheryl; Robinson, Sian; Inskip, Hazel; Cooper, Cyrus; Barker, Mary

    2013-01-01

    Our previous work found that perceived control over life was a significant predictor of the quality of diet of women of lower educational attainment. In this paper, we explore the influence on quality of diet of a range of psychological and social factors identified during focus group discussions, and specify the way this differs in women of lower and higher educational attainment. We assessed educational attainment, quality of diet, and psycho-social factors in 378 women attending Sure Start Children’s Centres and baby clinics in Southampton, UK. Multiple-group path analysis showed that in women of lower educational attainment, the effect of general self-efficacy on quality of diet was mediated through perceptions of control and through food involvement, but that there were also direct effects of social support for healthy eating and having positive outcome expectancies. There was no effect of self-efficacy, perceived control or outcome expectancies on the quality of diet of women of higher educational attainment, though having more social support and food involvement were associated with improved quality of diet in these women. Our analysis confirms our hypothesis that control-related factors are more important in determining dietary quality in women of lower educational attainment than in women of higher educational attainment. PMID:21078352

  13. Specific psychological variables predict quality of diet in women of lower, but not higher, educational attainment.

    PubMed

    Lawrence, Wendy; Schlotz, Wolff; Crozier, Sarah; Skinner, Timothy C; Haslam, Cheryl; Robinson, Sian; Inskip, Hazel; Cooper, Cyrus; Barker, Mary

    2011-02-01

    Our previous work found that perceived control over life was a significant predictor of the quality of diet of women of lower educational attainment. In this paper, we explore the influence on quality of diet of a range of psychological and social factors identified during focus group discussions, and specify the way this differs in women of lower and higher educational attainment. We assessed educational attainment, quality of diet, and psycho-social factors in 378 women attending Sure Start Children's Centres and baby clinics in Southampton, UK. Multiple-group path analysis showed that in women of lower educational attainment, the effect of general self-efficacy on quality of diet was mediated through perceptions of control and through food involvement, but that there were also direct effects of social support for healthy eating and having positive outcome expectancies. There was no effect of self-efficacy, perceived control or outcome expectancies on the quality of diet of women of higher educational attainment, though having more social support and food involvement were associated with improved quality of diet in these women. Our analysis confirms our hypothesis that control-related factors are more important in determining dietary quality in women of lower educational attainment than in women of higher educational attainment. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Adolescent Family Experiences and Educational Attainment during Early Adulthood

    PubMed Central

    Melby, Janet N.; Conger, Rand D.; Fang, Shu-Ann; Wickrama, K. A. S.; Conger, Katherine J.

    2009-01-01

    This study investigated the degree to which a family investment model would help account for the association between family of origin socioeconomic characteristics and the later educational attainment of 451 young adults (age 26) from two-parent families. Parents’ educational level, occupational prestige, and family income in 1989 each had a statistically significant direct relationship with youths’ educational attainment in 2002. Consistent with the theoretical model guiding the study, parents’ educational level and family income also demonstrated statistically significant indirect effects on later educational attainment through their associations with growth trajectories for supportive parenting, sibling relations, and adolescent academic engagement. Supportive parenting and sibling relations were linked to later educational attainment through their association with adolescent academic engagement. Academic engagement during adolescence was associated with educational attainment in young adulthood. These basic processes operated similarly regardless of youths’ gender, target youths’ age relative to a near-age sibling, gender composition of the sibling dyad, or gender of parent. PMID:18999319

  15. Implications of Educational Attainment Trends for Labor Market Outcomes. ACT Research Report Series, 2012 (7)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Buddin, Richard

    2012-01-01

    Well-educated workers have higher wages, higher wage growth, and lower unemployment rates than workers with lower levels of educational attainment. While earnings have traditionally grown with educational attainment, the gaps have become more pronounced in recent years. While returns to education have increased, this research shows that…

  16. Educational Attainment in the United States: Population Characteristics. Current Population Reports.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Newburger, Eric C.; Curry, Andrea

    Although the United States' overall trend reflects a more educated population, significant differences in educational attainment remain with regard to age, sex, race, and origin. Nevertheless, the educational attainment of young adults (ages 25 to 29) indicates a dramatic improvement by groups who have historically been less educated. This report…

  17. The Risk for Impaired Learning-related Abilities in Childhood and Educational Attainment Among Adults Born Near-term

    PubMed Central

    Halperin, Jeffrey M.; Newcorn, Jeffrey H.; Davey, Charles; Fifer, William P.; Savitz, David A.; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne

    2009-01-01

    Objective To examine whether near-term births (NTB) and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants are at high risk for childhood learning-related problems and poor adult educational attainment, and whether poverty amplifies the adverse effects of NTB and SGA on those outcomes. Methods A randomly selected birth cohort (n = 1,619) was followed into adulthood. IQ and learning abilities were measured in childhood and educational attainment was measured in adulthood. Results NTB (n = 226) and SGA (n = 154) were associated with lower educational attainment mediated through learning-related abilities at age 7. Childhood poverty moderated the impact of NTB on educational attainment both directly and mediated through lower learning-related abilities. Poverty did not moderate the effect of SGA. Conclusions Poorer learning-related outcomes and educational attainment were not limited to children born very (<32 weeks) or extremely (<28 weeks) preterm, especially among those living in poverty. Targeted interventions such as remedial learning during childhood among NTB in poor families may yield higher educational attainment. PMID:18794190

  18. Psychosocial Mechanisms of Psychological Health Disparity in Japanese Workers

    PubMed Central

    SHIMAZU, Akihito; KAWAKAMI, Norito; KUBOTA, Kazumi; INOUE, Akiomi; KURIOKA, Sumiko; MIYAKI, Koichi; TAKAHASHI, Masaya; TSUTSUMI, Akizumi

    2013-01-01

    Recent epidemiologic research has shown that people with higher socioeconomic status (SES) (e.g., educational attainment) have better psychological health than those with lower SES. However, the psychosocial mechanisms of underlying this relationship remain unclear. To fill this gap, the current study examines the mediating effects of job demands and job resources in the relationship between educational attainment and psychological distress. The hypothesized model was tested using large data sets from two different studies: a cross-sectional study of 9,652 Japanese employees from 12 workplaces (Study 1), and a longitudinal study of 1,957 Japanese employees (Study 2). Structural equation modeling revealed that (1) educational attainment was positively related to psychological distress through job demands, (2) educational attainment was negatively related to psychological distress through job resources, and (3) educational attainment was not directly related to psychological distress. These results suggest that educational attainment has an indirect effect, rather than a direct one, on psychological distress among workers; educational attainment had both a positive and a negative relationship to psychological distress through job demands and job resources, respectively. PMID:23892903

  19. Attractiveness Compensates for Low Status Background in the Prediction of Educational Attainment

    PubMed Central

    Bauldry, Shawn; Shanahan, Michael J.; Russo, Rosemary; Roberts, Brent W.; Damian, Rodica

    2016-01-01

    Background People who are perceived as good looking or as having a pleasant personality enjoy many advantages, including higher educational attainment. This study examines (1) whether associations between physical/personality attractiveness and educational attainment vary by parental socioeconomic resources and (2) whether parental socioeconomic resources predict these forms of attractiveness. Based on the theory of resource substitution with structural amplification, we hypothesized that both types of attractiveness would have a stronger association with educational attainment for people from disadvantaged backgrounds (resource substitution), but also that people from disadvantaged backgrounds would be less likely to be perceived as attractive (amplification). Methods This study draws on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health—including repeated interviewer ratings of respondents’ attractiveness—and trait-state structural equation models to examine the moderation (substitution) and mediation (amplification) of physical and personality attractiveness in the link between parental socioeconomic resources and educational attainment. Results Both perceived personality and physical attractiveness have stronger associations with educational attainment for people from families with lower levels of parental education (substitution). Further, parental education and income are associated with both dimensions of perceived attractiveness, and personality attractiveness is positively associated with educational attainment (amplification). Results do not differ by sex and race/ethnicity. Further, associations between perceived attractiveness and educational attainment remain after accounting for unmeasured family-level confounders using a sibling fixed-effects model. Conclusions Perceived attractiveness, particularly personality attractiveness, is a more important psychosocial resource for educational attainment for people from disadvantaged backgrounds than for people from advantaged backgrounds. People from disadvantaged backgrounds, however, are less likely to be perceived as attractive than people from advantaged backgrounds. PMID:27249216

  20. Attractiveness Compensates for Low Status Background in the Prediction of Educational Attainment.

    PubMed

    Bauldry, Shawn; Shanahan, Michael J; Russo, Rosemary; Roberts, Brent W; Damian, Rodica

    2016-01-01

    People who are perceived as good looking or as having a pleasant personality enjoy many advantages, including higher educational attainment. This study examines (1) whether associations between physical/personality attractiveness and educational attainment vary by parental socioeconomic resources and (2) whether parental socioeconomic resources predict these forms of attractiveness. Based on the theory of resource substitution with structural amplification, we hypothesized that both types of attractiveness would have a stronger association with educational attainment for people from disadvantaged backgrounds (resource substitution), but also that people from disadvantaged backgrounds would be less likely to be perceived as attractive (amplification). This study draws on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health-including repeated interviewer ratings of respondents' attractiveness-and trait-state structural equation models to examine the moderation (substitution) and mediation (amplification) of physical and personality attractiveness in the link between parental socioeconomic resources and educational attainment. Both perceived personality and physical attractiveness have stronger associations with educational attainment for people from families with lower levels of parental education (substitution). Further, parental education and income are associated with both dimensions of perceived attractiveness, and personality attractiveness is positively associated with educational attainment (amplification). Results do not differ by sex and race/ethnicity. Further, associations between perceived attractiveness and educational attainment remain after accounting for unmeasured family-level confounders using a sibling fixed-effects model. Perceived attractiveness, particularly personality attractiveness, is a more important psychosocial resource for educational attainment for people from disadvantaged backgrounds than for people from advantaged backgrounds. People from disadvantaged backgrounds, however, are less likely to be perceived as attractive than people from advantaged backgrounds.

  1. Students with reading and spelling disabilities: peer groups and educational attainment in secondary education.

    PubMed

    Kiuru, Noona; Haverinen, Kaisa; Salmela-Aro, Katariina; Nurmi, Jari-Erik; Savolainen, Hannu; Holopainen, Leena

    2011-01-01

    The present study investigated whether the members of adolescents' peer groups are similar in reading and spelling disabilities and whether this similarity contributes to subsequent school achievement and educational attainment. The sample consisted of 375 Finnish adolescents whose reading and spelling disabilities were assessed at age 16 with the Finnish dyslexia screening test. The students also completed a sociometric nomination measure that was used to identify their peer groups. Register information on participants' school grades also was available, and educational attainment in secondary education was recorded 5 years after completion of the 9 years of basic education. The results revealed that the members of adolescent peer groups resembled each other in reading disabilities but not in those of spelling. Reading disabilities and academic achievement shared within the peer group also contributed to educational attainment in secondary education. Finally, reading disabilities played a larger role in educational attainment among males than among females.

  2. Longitudinal Relationships of Fitness, Physical Activity, and Weight Status With Academic Achievement in Adolescents.

    PubMed

    Suchert, Vivien; Hanewinkel, Reiner; Isensee, Barbara

    2016-10-01

    To examine associations of cardiorespiratory fitness, physical activity (PA) and weight status with academic achievement 1 year later. In addition, the mediating role of psychological variables was tested. Longitudinal analyses included 1011 German students (M = 14.1 years, SD = 0.6 years). Cardiorespiratory fitness was determined with the 20 m shuttle run test. Compliance with PA guidelines was assessed through questionnaire. Weight status was based on body mass index percentiles. As proxy of academic achievement students' self-reported grades in Mathematics and German in their midterm report were averaged. Mediation analyses were conducted at follow-up testing general self-efficacy, depressed affect, and attention/hyperactivity problems. High levels of cardiorespiratory fitness predicted higher educational attainment (p = .007), while we found no longitudinal association for PA and weight status (p > .253). However, students being insufficiently physically active at baseline but meet PA guidelines at follow-up showed a significant improvement in educational attainment. The cross-sectional association between PA and academic achievement was mediated by students' general self-efficacy. High fitness in adolescence is associated with higher subsequent academic achievement. The promotion of PA might benefit school performance because of enhanced fitness levels in the long-term and positive influences of PA in the shortterm. The association between weight status and educational attainment remains controversial. © 2016, American School Health Association.

  3. Neighborhood Effects on Educational Attainment: A Multilevel Analysis.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Garner, Catherine L.; Raudenbush, Stephen W.

    1991-01-01

    Presents results of a study of neighborhood effects on educational attainment in Scotland. Reports a significant negative association between deprivation in the home neighborhood and educational attainment. Concludes that policies to alleviate educational disadvantage must focus on social deprivation in the society at large and not just on…

  4. Inequality and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Massachusetts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Papay, John P.; Murnane, Richard J.; Willett, John B.

    2013-01-01

    In the past thirty years educational attainments in the United States have stagnated, particularly for low-income Americans. As a result, income-related gaps in educational attainments have grown. These gaps are important because education has historically been the key mechanism for intergenerational socio-economic mobility in the U.S. While the…

  5. Does Alcohol Use during High School Affect Educational Attainment?: Evidence from the National Education Longitudinal Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chatterji, Pinka

    2006-01-01

    This paper uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Study to estimate the association between high school alcohol use and educational attainment measured around age 26. Initially, the effect of alcohol use on educational attainment is estimated using baseline probit models, which ignore the possibility that unmeasured determinants of…

  6. Growth in perceived control across 25 years from the late teens to midlife: the role of personal and parents' education.

    PubMed

    Vargas Lascano, Dayuma I; Galambos, Nancy L; Krahn, Harvey J; Lachman, Margie E

    2015-01-01

    This study examined trajectories of perceived control and their association with parents' education and personal educational experience (educational attainment and years of full-time postsecondary education) in 971 Canadian high school seniors tracked 7 times across 25 years. Latent growth models showed that, on average, perceived control increased from age 18 to age 25 and decreased by age 32, with a further slower decrease by age 43. Parents' education contributed to a growing gap in perceived control, however, such that among individuals with at least 1 university-educated parent, perceived control increased across 25 years, reaching its highest level at age 43. Personal educational attainment (completion of a university degree or not) was not associated with growth in perceived control, but individuals who were higher on perceived control at age 18 were more likely to complete a university degree. Parallel process modeling found that perceived control at age 19 predicted gains through age 32 in years of postsecondary education. Postsecondary enrollment at age 19 did not predict gains in perceived control over time. Parents' education predicted both higher levels of perceived control and enrollment in full-time postsecondary education at age 19. Family socioeconomic status contributes to perceived control early in the transition to adulthood and may lead to diverging trajectories over the next 25 years, and perceived control contributes to subsequent postsecondary educational experience. Further longitudinal research should explore the development and determinants of perceived control across the full life span.

  7. Stuttering Severity and Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Brian, Sue; Jones, Mark; Packman, Ann; Menzies, Ross; Onslow, Mark

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between self-reported stuttering severity ratings and educational attainment. Method: Participants were 147 adults seeking treatment for stuttering. At pretreatment assessment, each participant reported the highest educational level they had attained and rated their typical and worst stuttering…

  8. Educational Attainment by Life Course Sexual Attraction: Prevalence and Correlates in a Nationally Representative Sample of Young Adults

    PubMed Central

    Walsemann, Katrina M.; Lindley, Lisa L.; Gentile, Danielle; Welihindha, Shehan V.

    2014-01-01

    Researchers know relatively little about the educational attainment of sexual minorities, despite the fact that educational attainment is consistently associated with a range of social, economic, and health outcomes. We examined whether sexual attraction in adolescence and early adulthood was associated with educational attainment in early adulthood among a nationally representative sample of US young adults. We analyzed Waves I and IV restricted data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n=14,111). Sexual orientation was assessed using self-reports of romantic attraction in Waves I (adolescence) and IV (adulthood). Multinomial regression models were estimated and all analyses were stratified by gender. Women attracted to the same-sex in adulthood only had lower educational attainment compared to women attracted only to the opposite-sex in adolescence and adulthood. Men attracted to the same-sex in adolescence only had lower educational attainment compared to men attracted only to the opposite-sex in adolescence and adulthood. Adolescent experiences and academic performance attenuated educational disparities among men and women. Adjustment for adolescent experiences also revealed a suppression effect; women attracted to the same-sex in adolescence and adulthood had lower predicted probabilities of having a high school diploma or less compared to women attracted only to the opposite-sex in adolescence and adulthood. Our findings challenge previous research documenting higher educational attainment among sexual minorities in the US. Additional population-based studies documenting the educational attainment of sexual minority adults are needed. PMID:25382888

  9. Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003. Population Characteristics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stoops, Nicole

    2004-01-01

    The population in the United States is becoming more educated, but significant differences in educational attainment remain with regard to age, sex, race, and origin. Nevertheless, the educational attainment of young adults (25 to 29 years), which provides a glimpse of our country's future, indicates dramatic improvement by groups who have…

  10. Teenage Alcohol Use and Educational Attainment*

    PubMed Central

    Staff, Jeremy; Patrick, Megan E.; Loken, Eric; Maggs, Jennifer L.

    2008-01-01

    Objective: Using data from the National Child Development Study, an ongoing longitudinal birth cohort study of British youth born in 1958 (N = 9,107), we investigated the long-term impact of heavy alcohol use at age 16 years on educational qualifications in adulthood. Method: We used a propensity score matching approach to examine whether and for whom heavy alcohol use predicted reduced adult educational attainment. Because of gender differences in both heavy drinking and adult socioeconomic attainment, we examined the effects of heavy drinking on educational outcomes separately for females and males. Results: Heavy drinking in adolescence (measured in 1974) had a direct negative effect on the receipt of postsecondary educational credentials by age 42 years among males but not females, independent of child and adolescent risk factors correlated with both heavy drinking and educational attainment. In particular, males from working-class backgrounds were most affected by heavy drinking. Conclusions: Drawing on a life span developmental contextual approach, we find that heavy teenage alcohol use and disadvantaged social origins combined to diminish male educational attainment. In contrast, heavy alcohol use had little effect on female educational attainment. PMID:18925343

  11. The Association Between Educational Attainment and Diabetes Among Men in the United States

    PubMed Central

    Whitaker, Shanta M.; Bowie, Janice V.; McCleary, Rachael; Gaskin, Darrell J.; LaVeist, Thomas A.; Thorpe, Roland J.

    2015-01-01

    Few studies have examined the relationship between education and diabetes among men in the United States and whether this relationship differs by race/ethnicity. This study examined whether racial disparities in diabetes existed by educational attainment in 336,746 non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic men 18 years of age and older in the United States. Logistic regression models were specified to examine the odds of reporting diabetes by educational attainment. Within race/ethnicity, both White and Hispanic men who had less than a high school education (odds ratio [OR] = 1.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.19, 1.69], and OR = 1.64, 95% CI = [1.22, 2.21], respectively) had consistently higher odds of diabetes than men with a bachelor’s degree or higher level of educational attainment. Educational attainment did not appear to be associated with reporting a diagnosis of diabetes in non-Hispanic Black men. Identifying why educational attainment is associated with diabetes outcomes in some racial/ethnic groups but not others is essential for diabetes treatment and management. PMID:24429135

  12. Low levels of food involvement and negative affect reduce the quality of diet in women of lower educational attainment.

    PubMed

    Jarman, M; Lawrence, W; Ntani, G; Tinati, T; Pease, A; Black, C; Baird, J; Barker, M

    2012-10-01

    Women of lower educational attainment tend to have poorer quality diets and lower food involvement (an indicator of the priority given to food) than women of higher educational attainment. The present study reports a study of the role of food involvement in the relationship between educational attainment and quality of diet in young women. The first phase uses six focus group discussions (n = 28) to explore the function of food involvement in shaping the food choices of women of lower and higher educational attainment with young children. The second phase is a survey that examines the relationship between educational attainment and quality of diet in women, and explores the role of mediating factors identified by the focus group discussions. The focus groups suggested that lower food involvement in women of lower educational attainment might be associated with negative affect (i.e. an observable expression of negative emotion), and that this might mean that they did not place a high priority on eating a good quality diet. In support of this hypothesis, the survey of 1010 UK women found that 14% of the effect of educational attainment on food involvement was mediated through the woman's affect (P ≤ 0.001), and that 9% of the effect of educational attainment on quality of diet was mediated through food involvement (P ≤ 0.001). Women who leave school with fewer qualifications may have poorer quality diets than women with more qualifications because they tend to have a lower level of food involvement, partly attributed to a more negative affect. Interventions to improve women's mood may benefit their quality of diet. © 2012 The Authors Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics © 2012 The British Dietetic Association Ltd.

  13. Unpacking acculturation: cultural orientations and educational attainment among Mexican-origin youth.

    PubMed

    Roche, Kathleen M; Ghazarian, Sharon R; Fernandez-Esquer, Maria Eugenia

    2012-07-01

    Given educational risks facing Mexican-origin children of immigrant parents, it is important to understand how aspects of the acculturation process influence Mexican-origin youth's educational success. Drawing from selective assimilation theory, this study examined how cultural orientations across myriad facets of acculturation were associated with the educational attainment of second-generation Mexican immigrant youth. The sample included 755 Mexican-origin youth (50% female) in the "Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study." Results from structural equation models indicated that youth reporting greater facility in the English language and a stronger value on familism attained higher levels of education in young adulthood than did other youth. Parents' U.S. social ties and youth's value on early paid work were associated with less educational attainment. Innovative findings from this study indicate the importance of considering both Mexican and American cultural orientations across myriad facets of acculturation for understanding second-generation immigrant Mexican youth's educational attainment.

  14. The Nexus of Place and Finance in the Analysis of Educational Attainment: A Spatial Econometric Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sutton, Farah

    2012-01-01

    This study examines the spatial distribution of educational attainment and then builds upon current predictive frameworks for understanding patterns of educational attainment by applying a spatial econometric method of analysis. The research from this study enables a new approach to the policy discussion on how to improve educational attainment…

  15. Reading Disability and Adult Attained Education and Income: Evidence from a 30-Year Longitudinal Study of a Population-Based Sample

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McLaughlin, Margaret J.; Speirs, Katherine E.; Shenassa, Edmond D.

    2014-01-01

    This study examined the impact of childhood reading disability (RD) on adult educational attainment and income. Participants' (N = 1,344) RD was assessed at age 7, and adult educational attainment and income were assessed in midlife using categorical variables. Participants with RD at age 7 were 74% (95% CI: 0.18, 0.37) less likely to attain a…

  16. Does educational attainment increase the risk of low back pain when genetics are considered? A population-based study of Spanish twins.

    PubMed

    Zadro, Joshua R; Shirley, Debra; Pinheiro, Marina B; Sánchez-Romera, Juan F; Pérez-Riquelme, Francisco; Ordoñana, Juan R; Ferreira, Paulo H

    2017-04-01

    There is limited research investigating educational attainment as a risk factor for low back pain (LBP), with the influence of gender commonly being neglected. Furthermore, genetics and early shared environment explain a substantial proportion of LBP cases and need to be controlled for when investigating risk factors for LBP. To investigate whether educational attainment affects the prevalence and risk of LBP differently in men and women while controlling for the influence of genetics and early shared environment. This is a cross-sectional and prospective twin case-control study. Adult monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins from the Murcia Twin Registry, with available data on educational attainment, formed the base sample for this study. The prevalence analysis considered twins with available data on LBP in 2013 (n=1,580). The longitudinal analysis considered twins free of LBP at baseline (2009-2011), with available data on LBP at follow-up (2013) (n=1,077). Data on the lifetime prevalence of activity limiting LBP (outcome) and educational attainment (risk factor) were self-reported. The prevalence analysis investigated the cross-sectional association between educational attainment and LBP, whereas the longitudinal analysis investigated whether educational attainment increased the risk of developing LBP. Both analyses were performed in the following sequence. First, a total sample analysis was performed on all twins (considering them as individuals), adjusting for confounding variables selected by the data. Second, to control for the influence of genetics and early shared environment, a within-pair case-control analysis (stratified by zygosity) was performed on complete twin pairs discordant for LBP (ie, one twin had LBP, whereas the co-twin did not). All analyses were stratified for gender where possible, with an interaction term determining whether gender was a significant moderator of the association between educational attainment and LBP. Women with either general secondary or university education were less likely to experience (prevalence analysis) or to develop LBP (longitudinal analysis). Educational attainment did not affect the risk of LBP in men. When controlling for the effects of genetics and early shared environment, the relationship between educational status and LBP in women was no longer statistically significant. Educational attainment affects LBP differently in men and women, with higher levels of education only decreasing the risk of developing LBP in women. After adjusting for genetics and early shared environment, the relationship between educational attainment and LBP in women disappears. This suggests that genetics and early shared environment are confounding the relationship between educational attainment and LBP in women. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Literacy Gaps by Educational Attainment: A Cross-National Analysis.

    PubMed

    Park, Hyunjoon; Kyei, Pearl

    2011-03-01

    Existing cross-national research on educational attainment does not fully address whether the same level of educational attainment generates the same level of literacy skills in different countries. We analyze literacy skills data for young adults from 19 countries in the 1994-1998 International Adult Literacy Survey and find that in all countries, individuals with a higher level of educational attainment tend to have greater literacy skills. However, there is substantial variation across countries in the size of literacy gaps by levels of educational attainment. In particular, young adults in the United States show the largest literacy gaps. Using two-level hierarchical linear models, we find that cross-national differences in the literacy gap between more- and less-educated individuals are systematically linked to the degree of between-school inequality in school resources (instructional materials, class size, teachers' experience and certification).

  18. Educational Attainment: Analysis by Immigrant Generation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chiswick, Barry R.; DebBurman, Noyna

    2004-01-01

    This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the largely ignored issue of the determinants of the educational attainment of adults by immigrant generation. Using current population survey (CPS) data, differences in educational attainment are analyzed by immigrant generation (first, second, and higher order generations), and among…

  19. Emergy Evaluation of Educational Attainment in the United States

    EPA Science Inventory

    The emergy of educational attainment in the United States was quantified over the period for which the necessary data were available, i.e., 1948 to 2006. We propose that the portion of the knowledge in educational attainment delivered by the active workforce be considered as part...

  20. Maternal and Paternal Resources across Childhood and Adolescence as Predictors of Young Adult Achievement.

    PubMed

    Sun, Xiaoran; McHale, Susan M; Updegraff, Kimberly A

    2017-06-01

    Family experiences have been linked to youth's achievements in childhood and adolescence, but we know less about their long term implications for educational and occupational achievements in young adulthood. Grounded in social capital theory and ecological frameworks, this study tested whether mothers' and fathers' education and occupation attainments, as well as the mean level and cross-time consistency of parental warmth during childhood and adolescence, predicted educational and occupational achievements in young adulthood. We also tested interactions between parental achievement and warmth in predicting these young adult outcomes. Data were collected from mothers, fathers, and firstborn and secondborn siblings in 164 families at up to 11 time points. Predictors came from the first nine annual points (youth age M = 10.52 at Time 1) and outcomes from when young adults averaged 26 years old (firstborns at Time 10, secondborns at Time 11). Results from multilevel models revealed that both mothers' and fathers' educational attainment and warmth consistency from childhood through adolescence predicted young adults' educational attainment. Fathers' occupational prestige predicted sons', but not daughters', prestige. An interaction between mothers' warmth consistency, occupational prestige, and youth gender revealed that, for sons whose mothers' prestige was low, warmth consistency positively predicted their prestige, but this association was nonsignificant when mothers' prestige was high. Conversely, for daughters with mothers high in prestige, warmth consistency was a trend level, positive predictor of daughters' prestige, but was nonsignificant when mothers' prestige was low. Thus, maternal resources appeared to have a cumulative impact on daughters, but the process for sons was compensatory. Discussion focuses on the role of family resources in the gender gap in young adult achievement.

  1. Maternal and Paternal Resources across Childhood and Adolescence as Predictors of Young Adult Achievement

    PubMed Central

    Sun, Xiaoran; McHale, Susan M.; Updegraff, Kimberly A.

    2017-01-01

    Family experiences have been linked to youth’s achievements in childhood and adolescence, but we know less about their long term implications for educational and occupational achievements in young adulthood. Grounded in social capital theory and ecological frameworks, this study tested whether mothers’ and fathers’ education and occupation attainments, as well as the mean level and cross-time consistency of parental warmth during childhood and adolescence, predicted educational and occupational achievements in young adulthood. We also tested interactions between parental achievement and warmth in predicting these young adult outcomes. Data were collected from mothers, fathers, and firstborn and secondborn siblings in 164 families at up to 11 time points. Predictors came from the first nine annual points (youth age M = 10.52 at Time 1) and outcomes from when young adults averaged 26 years old (firstborns at Time 10, secondborns at Time 11). Results from multilevel models revealed that both mothers’ and fathers’ educational attainment and warmth consistency from childhood through adolescence predicted young adults’ educational attainment. Fathers’ occupational prestige predicted sons’, but not daughters’, prestige. An interaction between mothers’ warmth consistency, occupational prestige, and youth gender revealed that, for sons whose mothers’ prestige was low, warmth consistency positively predicted their prestige, but this association was nonsignificant when mothers’ prestige was high. Conversely, for daughters with mothers high in prestige, warmth consistency was a trend level, positive predictor of daughters’ prestige, but was nonsignificant when mothers’ prestige was low. Thus, maternal resources appeared to have a cumulative impact on daughters, but the process for sons was compensatory. Discussion focuses on the role of family resources in the gender gap in young adult achievement. PMID:28983122

  2. Personality and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment: Evidence from Germany.

    PubMed

    Ryberg, Renee; Bauldry, Shawn; Schultz, Michael A; Steinhoff, Annekatrin; Shanahan, Michael

    2017-10-01

    Research based in the United States, with its relatively open educational system, has found that personality mediates the relationship between parents' and child's educational attainment and this mediational pattern is especially beneficial to students from less-educated households. Yet in highly structured, competitive educational systems, personality characteristics may not predict attainment or may be more or less consequential at different points in the educational career. We examine the salience of personality in the educational attainment process in the German educational system. Data come from a longitudinal sample of 682 17 to 25 year-olds (54% female) from the 2005 and 2015 German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Results show that adolescent personality traits-openness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness-are associated with educational attainment, but personality plays a negligible role in the intergenerational transmission of education. Personality is influential before the decision about the type of secondary degree that a student will pursue (during adolescence). After that turning point, when students have entered different pathways through the system, personality is less salient. Cross-national comparisons in a life course framework broaden the scope of current research on non-cognitive skills and processes of socioeconomic attainment, alerting the analyst to the importance of both institutional structures and the changing importance of these skills at different points in the life course.

  3. Educational Attainment: Analysis by Immigrant Generation. IZA Discussion Paper Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chiswick, Barry R.; DebBurman, Noyna

    This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the largely ignored issue of the determinants of the educational attainment of adults by immigrant generation. Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data, differences in educational attainment are analyzed by immigrant generation (first, second, and higher order generations), and among…

  4. Sibling Composition and Child Educational Attainment: Evidence from Native Amazonians in Bolivia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zeng, Wu; Undurraga, Eduardo A.; Eisenberg, Dan T. A.; Rubio-Jovel, Karla; Reyes-Garcia; Victoria; Godoy, Ricardo

    2012-01-01

    Evidence from industrial nations suggests that sibling composition is associated with children's educational attainment, particularly if parents face resource constraints. If sibling composition is associated with educational attainment, then those associations should be stronger in poor societies of developing nations. We use data from a…

  5. Income Sustainability through Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carlson, Ronald H.; McChesney, Christopher S.

    2015-01-01

    The authors examined the sustainability of income, as it relates to educational attainment, from the two recent decades, which includes three significant economic downturns. The data was analyzed to determine trends in the wealth gap, parsed by educational attainment and gender. Utilizing the data from 1991 through 2010, predictions in changes in…

  6. How Economic Segregation Affects Childrens' Educational Attainment. JCPR Working Paper.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mayer, Susan

    Economic segregation increased in the United States between 1970 and 1990. Three hypotheses suggest that this would affect low-income children's educational attainment. The political economy of school funding predicts that economically segregated school districts reduce the educational attainment of low-income children. Two other hypotheses…

  7. Adolescent Sexuality, Masculinity-Femininity, and Educational Attainment.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harry, Joseph

    The role of adolescent sexual behavior in educational attainment has been overlooked. Homosexual and heterosexual men were interviewed to test for a correlation between adolescent sexual activeness and educational attainment, as well as any link between childhood masculine sex roles and early sexual activity. Approximately 1,000 volunteers,…

  8. Gender Disparities in Educational Trajectories in India: Do Females Become More Robust at Higher Levels?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Husain, Zakir; Sarkar, Swagata

    2011-01-01

    Studies on educational attainments have tended to focus on attainments at a specific level of education. The change in disparities in attainment over the educational life cycle, however, has been neglected in literature--in India, for instance, the only exceptions are Vaid (2004) and Desai and Kulkarni (2008). This paper uses unit level National…

  9. 75 FR 43069 - Approval of One-Year Extension for Attaining the 1997 8-Hour Ozone Standard in the Baltimore...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-07-23

    ... standard (NAAQS). This extension is based in part on air quality data for the 4th highest daily 8-hour... attainment date if: (a) For the first one-year extension, the area's 4th highest daily 8-hour average in the... 4th highest daily 8-hour value, averaged over both the original attainment year and the first...

  10. The State's Return on Investment in the Arizona Community Colleges. Institutional Effectiveness Series: Return on Investment Measure, May 1995.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rubi, David C.

    According to U.S. Census statistics, for every step up in educational attainment, there is an increase in average income. The mean income for those with an associate's degree, $21,116 per year, is five percent more than a person with some college, and 40% more ($6,050), than a person with only a high school diploma or equivalent. The basic cost of…

  11. The Effectiveness of a Cohort Model as a Predictor of Grade Point Average and Graduation Status of Pre-Health Sciences Students in a Public Community College

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brandon, Elvis Nash

    2017-01-01

    There is a college completion crisis in the United States. In today's competitive job market, health sciences students cannot afford to fail in their educational attainment. The purpose of this study was to determine if participation in the cohort model is a predictor of the success of public community college pre-health sciences students.…

  12. Literacy Gaps by Educational Attainment: A Cross-National Analysis

    PubMed Central

    Park, Hyunjoon; Kyei, Pearl

    2011-01-01

    Existing cross-national research on educational attainment does not fully address whether the same level of educational attainment generates the same level of literacy skills in different countries. We analyze literacy skills data for young adults from 19 countries in the 1994–1998 International Adult Literacy Survey and find that in all countries, individuals with a higher level of educational attainment tend to have greater literacy skills. However, there is substantial variation across countries in the size of literacy gaps by levels of educational attainment. In particular, young adults in the United States show the largest literacy gaps. Using two-level hierarchical linear models, we find that cross-national differences in the literacy gap between more- and less-educated individuals are systematically linked to the degree of between-school inequality in school resources (instructional materials, class size, teachers’ experience and certification). PMID:21818163

  13. The role of partners' educational attainment in the association between HIV and education amongst women in seven sub-Saharan African countries.

    PubMed

    Harling, Guy; Bärnighausen, Till

    2016-01-01

    Individuals' educational attainment has long been considered as a risk factor for HIV. However, little attention has been paid to the association between partner educational attainment and HIV infection. We conducted cross-sectional analysis of young women (aged 15-34) in 14 Demographic and Health Surveys from seven sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries with generalized HIV epidemics. We measured the degree of similarity in educational attainment (partner homophily) in 75,373 partnerships and evaluated the correlation between homophily and female HIV prevalence at the survey cluster level. We then used logistic regression to assess whether own and partner educational attainment was associated with HIV serostatus amongst 38,791 women. Educational attainment was positively correlated within partnerships in both urban and rural areas of every survey (Newman assortativity coefficients between 0.09 and 0.44), but this correlation was not ecologically associated with HIV prevalence. At the individual level, larger absolute differences between own and partner educational attainment were associated with significantly higher HIV prevalence amongst women. This association was heterogeneous across countries, but not between survey waves. In contrast to other women, for those aged 25-34 who had secondary or higher education, a more-educated partner was associated with lower HIV prevalence. HIV prevalence amongst women in SSA is associated not only with one's own education but also with that of one's partner. These findings highlight the importance of understanding how partners place individuals at risk of infection and suggest that HIV prevention efforts may benefit from considering partner characteristics.

  14. Sex, Class, and Physical Science Educational Attainment: Portions due to Achievement Versus Recruitment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Simon, Richard M.; Farkas, George

    Nationally representative data from the National Education Longitudinal Study are used to investigate why males (rather than females) and children of parents with advanced degrees (rather than those from less-educated parents) are more highly represented among physical science bachelor's degrees and graduate students. Parental education is measured by three categories: neither parent has a bachelor's degree, at least one parent has a bachelor's degree, or at least one parent has a degree beyond the bachelor's. Physical science is defined as students majoring in physics, engineering, mathematics, or computer science. The effects of mathematics achievement and effects not accounted for by mathematics achievement (what the authors call "recruitment" effects) are isolated for parental education categories and for sex, allowing inequality in physical science degree attainment to be decomposed into portions due to achievement and portions due to recruitment. Additionally, the results from logistic regressions predicting the attainment of a bachelor's degree in physical science as well as the pursuit of a graduate degree in physical science are presented. It is found that for parental education categories, the gaps in physical science educational attainment are nearly entirely accounted for by differences in mathematics achievement, suggesting that if achievement could be equalized, physical science educational attainment differences among parental education categories would disappear. However, the sex gap in physical science educational attainment operates almost entirely independent of achievement effects, suggesting that if the mathematics achievement distributions of males and females were identical, the sex gap in physical science educational attainment would be unchanged from what it is today.

  15. The influence of ethnicity and adverse life experiences during adolescence on young adult socioeconomic attainment: the moderating role of education.

    PubMed

    Wickrama, K A S; Simons, Leslie Gordon; Baltimore, Diana

    2012-11-01

    Previous research has documented that adverse life experiences during adolescence, particularly for ethnic minorities, have a long-term influence on income and asset attainment and that this relationship is largely mediated by educational achievement. We extend prior research by investigating three research questions. First, we investigate the extent to which community disadvantage, family factors and race/ethnicity each exert an independent influence on young adult socioeconomic attainment. Second, we examine whether youths' educational attainment mediates these independent influences on socioeconomic attainment. Third, we test whether educational attainment ameliorates the negative influences of disadvantaged community and family conditions and race/ethnicity on socioeconomic attainment. We address these questions using multilevel modeling with longitudinal, prospective data from Waves 1 and 4 of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which has a nationally representative sample of adolescents (N = 13, 450; 53 % females). Regarding our first research question, our results indicated that African Americans, youth from disadvantaged communities, lower SES families achieve significantly lower levels of earnings, assets, and job quality during young adulthood. Second, we found that young adults' educational level only partially mediate the influences of family and race/ethnicity influences on young adults' socioeconomic attainment. Third, we found that young adults' educational level buffered the influence of early socioeconomic adversities and accentuated the positive influences of family resources. Findings highlight the importance of social context as well as educational opportunities during childhood and adolescence for economic stability in early adulthood.

  16. Educational Attainment and Smoking Status in a National Sample of American Adults; Evidence for the Blacks' Diminished Return.

    PubMed

    Assari, Shervin; Mistry, Ritesh

    2018-04-16

    Although higher socioeconomic status (SES) indicators such as educational attainment are linked with health behaviors, the Blacks’ Diminished Return theory posits that the protective effects of SES are systemically smaller for Blacks than Whites. To explore the Black/White differences in the association between education and smoking. This cross-sectional study used the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 2017 ( n = 3217). HINTS is a national survey of American adults. The current analysis included 2277 adults who were either Whites ( n = 1868; 82%) or Blacks ( n = 409; 18%). The independent variable was educational attainment, and the dependent variables were ever and current (past 30-day) smoking. Demographic factors (age and gender) were covariates. Race was the focal moderator. In the pooled sample, higher educational attainment was associated with lower odds of ever and current smoking. Race interacted with the effects of higher educational attainment on current smoking, suggesting a stronger protective effect of higher education against current smoking for Whites than Blacks. Race did not interact with the effect of educational attainment on odds of ever smoking. In line with previous research in the United States, education is more strongly associated with health and health behaviors in Whites than Blacks. Smaller protective effects of education on health behaviors may be due to the existing racism across institutions such as the education system and labor market.

  17. A Qualitative Comparative Analysis Exploring How the Arrangement of Higher Education Governance Shapes the Contribution of Two-Year Institutions to State Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    White, Carol Cutler

    2016-01-01

    Two-year institutions of higher education are critical to state educational attainment (Auguste, Cota, Kartik, & Laboissiere, 2010; Wildavsky, Kelly, & Carey, 2011c), but the institutions may be hindered in contributing to attainment increases by the arrangement of governance (McLendon & Ness, 2003). The purpose of the study was to…

  18. Health trends in the wake of the financial crisis-increasing inequalities?

    PubMed

    Nelson, Kenneth; Tøge, Anne Grete

    2017-08-01

    The financial crisis that hit Europe in 2007-2008 and the corresponding austerity policies have generated concern about increasing health inequalities, although impacts have been less salient than initially expected. One explanation could be that health inequalities emerged first a few years into the crisis. This study investigates health trends in the wake of the financial crisis and analyses health inequalities across a number of relevant population subgroups, including those defined by employment status, age, family type, gender, and educational attainment. This study uses individual-level panel data (EU-SILC, 2010-2013) to investigate trends in self-rated health. By applying individual fixed effects regression models, the study estimates the average yearly change in self-rated health for persons aged 15-64 years in 28 European countries. Health inequalities are investigated using stratified analyses. Unemployed respondents, particularly those who were unemployed in all years of observation, had a steeper decline in self-rated health than the employed. Respondents of prime working age (25-54 years) had a steeper decline than their younger (15-24) and older (55-64) counterparts, while single parents had a more favorable trend in self-rated health than dual parents. We did not observe any increasing health inequalities based on gender or educational attainment. Health inequalities increased in the wake of the financial crisis, especially those associated with employment status, age, and family type. We did not observe increasing health inequalities in terms of levels of educational attainment and gender.

  19. Three Essays on the Economics of Higher Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hickman, Daniel C.

    2010-01-01

    This dissertation examines issues regarding the educational attainment of the U.S. workforce. Specifically, I investigate the impact of various factors on the growth of postsecondary educational attainment. This includes issues pertaining to improving the skill-level of the workforce at the regional or state level, as well as for the domestic…

  20. Educating for the Future: Baseline Estimates of Minnesota's Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fergus, Meredith; Williams-Wyche, Shaun; Brower, Susan; Egbert, Andi

    2016-01-01

    In 2015, the Minnesota Legislature enacted legislation setting a target that 70 percent of Minnesota adults age 25 to 44 will have attained a postsecondary certificate or degree by 2025, both for the general population and by racial/ethnic subgroups. This report fulfills the mandated reporting pursuant to Minnesota's educational attainment goal,…

  1. Increasing Baccalaureate Degree Attainment in Louisville: A Proposed Blueprint for Community Action

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Business-Higher Education Forum (NJ1), 2009

    2009-01-01

    Across the country, cities and regions have used community-wide partnerships to improve the educational attainment of their citizens. The most established of these partnerships have seen substantial education gains during their tenure. The community of Louisville, Kentucky has embarked on a similar effort to improve educational attainment. Nearly…

  2. The Relationship between General Population Suicide Rates and Educational Attainment: A Cross-National Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shah, Ajit; Bhandarkar, Ritesh

    2009-01-01

    Suicides are associated with both high and low levels of intelligence and educational attainment in both individual-level and aggregate-level studies. A cross-national study examining the relationship between general population suicide rates ("y") and educational attainment ("x") was undertaken with the "a priori" hypothesis that the relationship…

  3. Educational Attainment: A Model for Maximizing Earnings of the Nontraditional Student

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Griffith, Andrew S.

    2011-01-01

    This article documents a model for forecasting earnings of the nontraditional student based on macrolevel changes in educational attainment within the workforce using data from the U.S. Census Bureau. It also presents a theoretical case that illustrates the value of improving one's educational attainment level in order to sustain an annualized…

  4. Educational Attainment and Attitudes towards War in Muslim Countries Contemplating War: The Cases of Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Turkey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shafiq, M. Najeeb; Ross, Karen

    2009-01-01

    This study addresses the little understood relationship between educational attainment and public attitudes towards war in four predominantly Muslim countries contemplating war: Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Turkey. The multivariate analysis using public opinion data suggests that the educational attainment of respondents has no statistically…

  5. Gender Differences in Educational Attainment: Influences of the Family Environment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mensah, Fiona K.; Kiernan, Kathleen E.

    2010-01-01

    There are gender differences in educational attainment amongst British children and there is evidence that these differences emerge early in life. In this study we investigate whether boys' and girls' early educational attainment levels are similarly related to disadvantage in the family environment. This study uses survey data from the Millennium…

  6. Design and Implementation of a Resistance Training Program for Physical Educators

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murray, Alison Morag; Murray-Hopkin, Pamella; Woods, George; Patel, Bhavin; Paluseo, Jeff

    2013-01-01

    Fitness development in physical education is most often attained via implementation of fitness training principles into school based settings. It is seldom attained via adherence to developmentally appropriate principles. The program presented in this article provides the physical educator with a method and the tools to attain both. This program…

  7. Intergenerational transmission of educational attainment: Three levels of parent-child communication as mediators.

    PubMed

    Chi, Liping

    2013-04-01

    Although the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment has been confirmed by many researchers, its mechanism still remains controversial. Parent-child communication has been regarded as one of the important mediators. The present study primarily aimed to examine the potentially mediating role of parent-child communication in the transmission of educational attainment, based on a sample of 366 Chinese fifth and sixth graders. Parent-child communication was measured against the three levels of the parents' communication ability, the quality of the father-child and mother-child communications, and the relation between the two dyadic communications. The results duplicated the positive effect of parents' educational attainment on children's academic achievement. Moreover, it was found that parents' communication ability alone played a mediating role, and that the three levels of parent-child communication constructed a "mediator chain" between the parents' educational attainment and the children's academic achievement. Finally, the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in China and the mediating role of the three levels of parent-child communication were discussed. © 2012 The Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

  8. An education gradient in health, a health gradient in education, or a confounded gradient in both?

    PubMed

    Lynch, Jamie L; von Hippel, Paul T

    2016-04-01

    There is a positive gradient associating educational attainment with health, yet the explanation for this gradient is not clear. Does higher education improve health (causation)? Do the healthy become highly educated (selection)? Or do good health and high educational attainment both result from advantages established early in the life course (confounding)? This study evaluates these competing explanations by tracking changes in educational attainment and Self-rated Health (SRH) from age 15 to age 31 in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, 1997 cohort. Ordinal logistic regression confirms that high-SRH adolescents are more likely to become highly educated. This is partly because adolescent SRH is associated with early advantages including adolescents' academic performance, college plans, and family background (confounding); however, net of these confounders adolescent SRH still predicts adult educational attainment (selection). Fixed-effects longitudinal regression shows that educational attainment has little causal effect on SRH at age 31. Completion of a high school diploma or associate's degree has no effect on SRH, while completion of a bachelor's or graduate degree have effects that, though significant, are quite small (less than 0.1 points on a 5-point scale). While it is possible that educational attainment would have greater effect on health at older ages, at age 31 what we see is a health gradient in education, shaped primarily by selection and confounding rather than by a causal effect of education on health. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Biological and Sociocultural Factors During the School Years Predicting Women's Lifetime Educational Attainment.

    PubMed

    Hendrick, C Emily; Cohen, Alison K; Deardorff, Julianna; Cance, Jessica D

    2016-03-01

    Lifetime educational attainment is an important predictor of health and well-being for women in the United States. In this study, we examine the roles of sociocultural factors in youth and an understudied biological life event, pubertal timing, in predicting women's lifetime educational attainment. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (N = 3889), we conducted sequential multivariate linear regression analyses to investigate the influences of macro-level and family-level sociocultural contextual factors in youth (region of country, urbanicity, race/ethnicity, year of birth, household composition, mother's education, and mother's age at first birth) and early menarche, a marker of early pubertal development, on women's educational attainment after age 24. Pubertal timing and all sociocultural factors in youth, other than year of birth, predicted women's lifetime educational attainment in bivariate models. Family factors had the strongest associations. When family factors were added to multivariate models, geographic region in youth, and pubertal timing were no longer significant. Our findings provide additional evidence that family factors should be considered when developing comprehensive and inclusive interventions in childhood and adolescence to promote lifetime educational attainment among girls. © 2016, American School Health Association.

  10. STEM Education.

    PubMed

    Xie, Yu; Fang, Michael; Shauman, Kimberlee

    2015-08-01

    Improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, especially for traditionally disadvantaged groups, is widely recognized as pivotal to the U.S.'s long-term economic growth and security. In this article, we review and discuss current research on STEM education in the U.S., drawing on recent research in sociology and related fields. The reviewed literature shows that different social factors affect the two major components of STEM education attainment: (1) attainment of education in general, and (2) attainment of STEM education relative to non-STEM education conditional on educational attainment. Cognitive and social psychological characteristics matter for both major components, as do structural influences at the neighborhood, school, and broader cultural levels. However, while commonly used measures of socioeconomic status (SES) predict the attainment of general education, social psychological factors are more important influences on participation and achievement in STEM versus non-STEM education. Domestically, disparities by family SES, race, and gender persist in STEM education. Internationally, American students lag behind those in some countries with less economic resources. Explanations for group disparities within the U.S. and the mediocre international ranking of US student performance require more research, a task that is best accomplished through interdisciplinary approaches.

  11. STEM Education

    PubMed Central

    Xie, Yu; Fang, Michael; Shauman, Kimberlee

    2015-01-01

    Improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, especially for traditionally disadvantaged groups, is widely recognized as pivotal to the U.S.’s long-term economic growth and security. In this article, we review and discuss current research on STEM education in the U.S., drawing on recent research in sociology and related fields. The reviewed literature shows that different social factors affect the two major components of STEM education attainment: (1) attainment of education in general, and (2) attainment of STEM education relative to non-STEM education conditional on educational attainment. Cognitive and social psychological characteristics matter for both major components, as do structural influences at the neighborhood, school, and broader cultural levels. However, while commonly used measures of socioeconomic status (SES) predict the attainment of general education, social psychological factors are more important influences on participation and achievement in STEM versus non-STEM education. Domestically, disparities by family SES, race, and gender persist in STEM education. Internationally, American students lag behind those in some countries with less economic resources. Explanations for group disparities within the U.S. and the mediocre international ranking of US student performance require more research, a task that is best accomplished through interdisciplinary approaches. PMID:26778893

  12. Personality and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment: Evidence from Germany

    PubMed Central

    Ryberg, Renee; Bauldry, Shawn; Schultz, Michael A.; Steinhoff, Annekatrin; Shanahan, Michael

    2018-01-01

    Research based in the United States, with its relatively open educational system, has found that personality mediates the relationship between parents’ and child’s educational attainment and this meditational pattern is especially beneficial to students from less-educated households. Yet in highly structured, competitive educational systems, personal characteristics may not predict attainment or may be more or less consequential at different points in the educational career. We examine the salience of personality in the educational attainment process in the German educational system. Data come from a longitudinal sample of 682 seventeen to twenty-five year-olds (54% female) from the 2005 and 2015 German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Results show that adolescent personality traits — openness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness — are associated with educational attainment, but personality plays a negligible role in the intergenerational transmission of education. Personality is influential before the decision about the type of secondary degree that a student will pursue (during adolescence). After that turning point, when students have entered different pathways through the system, personality is less salient. Cross-national comparisons in a life course framework broaden the scope of current research on non-cognitive skills and processes of socioeconomic attainment, alerting the analyst to the importance of both institutional structures and the changing importance of these skills at different points in the life course. PMID:28707154

  13. Reducing Risk for Substance Use by Economically Disadvantaged Young Men: Positive Family Environments and Pathways to Educational Attainment

    PubMed Central

    Martin, Monica J.; Conger, Rand D.; Sitnick, Stephanie L.; Masarik, April S.; Forbes, Erika E.; Shaw, Daniel S.

    2015-01-01

    Using prospective, longitudinal data spanning 10 years (age 10 to 20) from a study of 295 economically disadvantaged males, the current investigation evaluated a developmental model that links early family environment and later educational aspirations, extracurricular activities, and educational attainment to substance use in early adulthood. The results indicate that a positive family environment during adolescence (low family conflict, high family warmth, and effective child management) predicted educational involvements during adolescence that promoted educational attainment during early adulthood. Finally, higher levels of educational attainment were associated with less substance use in early adulthood, even after controlling for adolescent substance use. These findings suggest that positive parenting promotes educational achievements that increase resilience to substance use for economically disadvantaged males. PMID:26307026

  14. Socioeconomic status, psychosocial factors, race and nocturnal blood pressure dipping in a Hispanic cohort.

    PubMed

    Rodriguez, Carlos J; Jin, Zhezhen; Schwartz, Joseph E; Turner-Lloveras, Daniel; Sacco, Ralph L; Di Tullio, Marco R; Homma, Shunichi

    2013-05-01

    Little information is available about the relationship of socioeconomic status (SES) to blunted nocturnal ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) dipping among Hispanics and whether this relationship differs by race. We sought to characterize ABP nondipping and its determinants in a sample of Hispanics. We enrolled 180 Hispanic participants not on antihypertensive medications. SES was defined by years of educational attainment. All participants underwent 24-hour ABP monitoring. A decrease of <10% in the ratio between average awake and average asleep systolic BP was considered nondipping. The mean age of the cohort was 67.1 ± 8.7, mean educational level was 9.4 ± 4.4 years, and 58.9% of the cohort was female. The cohort was comprised of 78.3% Caribbean Hispanics with the rest from Mexico and Central/South America; 41.4% self-identified as white Hispanic, 34.4% self-identified as black Hispanic, and 24.4% did not racially self- identify. The percentage of nondippers was 57.8%. Educational attainment (10.5 years vs. 8.6 years; P <0.01) was significantly higher among dippers than nondippers. In multivariable analyses, each 1-year increase in education was associated with a 9% reduction in the likelihood of being a nondipper (odds ratio [OR], 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.84-0.98; P = 0.01). There were significantly greater odds of being a nondipper for black Hispanics than for white Hispanics (OR, 2.83, 95% CI, 1.29-6.23; P = 0.005). Higher SES was significantly protective of nondipping in white Hispanics but not black Hispanics. These results document a substantial prevalence of nondipping in a cohort of predominantly normotensive Hispanics. Dipping status varied significantly by race. Lower SES is significantly associated with nondipping status, and race potentially impacts on this relation.

  15. Personal predictors of educational attainment after compulsory school: influence of measures of vulnerability, health, and school performance.

    PubMed

    Winding, Trine N; Nohr, Ellen A; Labriola, Merete; Biering, Karin; Andersen, Johan H

    2013-02-01

    Getting a secondary education is essential in preventing future inequalities in health and socioeconomic status. We investigated to what degree personal predictors like low school performance, high vulnerability, and poor health status are associated with not completing a secondary education in a Danish youth cohort. This prospective study used data from a questionnaire in 2004 and register data in 2010. The study population consisted of 3053 adolescents born in 1989. Information on educational attainment from Statistics Denmark was divided into four categories: completed, still studying, dropped out, or never attained a secondary education. Data was analysed using multinomial logistic regression. Low grades when completing compulsory school predicted not having completed a secondary education by age 20/21 (odds ratios (OR) between 1.7 and 2.5). Low sense of coherence in childhood was associated with dropping out from a vocational education (OR 2.0). Low general health status was associated with dropping out (OR 2.2) or never attaining a secondary education (OR 2.7) and overweight was associated with never attaining a secondary education (OR 3.5). The study confirms the social gradient in educational attainment. Furthermore, the results indicate that factors related to the individual in terms of low school performance, low health status, and high vulnerability predict future success in the educational system. It is recommended that these high-risk groups are recognised and targeted when designing guidance and supervision programmes for youth at secondary education.

  16. The role of partners’ educational attainment in the association between HIV and education amongst women in seven sub-Saharan African countries

    PubMed Central

    Harling, Guy; Bärnighausen, Till

    2016-01-01

    Introduction Individuals’ educational attainment has long been considered as a risk factor for HIV. However, little attention has been paid to the association between partner educational attainment and HIV infection. Methods We conducted cross-sectional analysis of young women (aged 15–34) in 14 Demographic and Health Surveys from seven sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries with generalized HIV epidemics. We measured the degree of similarity in educational attainment (partner homophily) in 75,373 partnerships and evaluated the correlation between homophily and female HIV prevalence at the survey cluster level. We then used logistic regression to assess whether own and partner educational attainment was associated with HIV serostatus amongst 38,791 women. Results Educational attainment was positively correlated within partnerships in both urban and rural areas of every survey (Newman assortativity coefficients between 0.09 and 0.44), but this correlation was not ecologically associated with HIV prevalence. At the individual level, larger absolute differences between own and partner educational attainment were associated with significantly higher HIV prevalence amongst women. This association was heterogeneous across countries, but not between survey waves. In contrast to other women, for those aged 25–34 who had secondary or higher education, a more-educated partner was associated with lower HIV prevalence. Conclusions HIV prevalence amongst women in SSA is associated not only with one's own education but also with that of one's partner. These findings highlight the importance of understanding how partners place individuals at risk of infection and suggest that HIV prevention efforts may benefit from considering partner characteristics. PMID:26902392

  17. Educational Attainment and HIV/AIDS Prevalence: A Cross-Country Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lakhanpal, Manisha; Ram, Rati

    2008-01-01

    Using data for a large cross-country sample, a reasonable model is estimated to judge the effect of adult educational attainment on prevalence of HIV. Three main points are noted. First, there is an indication of a significantly negative effect of educational attainment on HIV prevalence. Second, magnitude of the impact appears sizable. Third, a…

  18. Educational Attainment in the United States: 2015. Population Characteristics. Current Population Reports. P20-578

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ryan, Camille L.; Bauman, Kurt

    2016-01-01

    This report provides a portrait of educational attainment in the United States based on data collected from the Current Population Survey (CPS). The report examines educational attainment of the adult population by demographic and social characteristics such as age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, and disability status, as well as differences in…

  19. Biological and Sociocultural Factors during the School Years Predicting Women's Lifetime Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hendrick, C. Emily; Cohen, Alison K.; Deardorff, Julianna; Cance, Jessica D.

    2016-01-01

    Background: Lifetime educational attainment is an important predictor of health and well-being for women in the United States. In this study, we examine the roles of sociocultural factors in youth and an understudied biological life event, pubertal timing, in predicting women's lifetime educational attainment. Methods: Using data from the National…

  20. Reversal of Gender Differences in Educational Attainment: An Historical Analysis of the West German Case

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Becker, Rolf

    2014-01-01

    Background information: During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, West Germany witnessed a reversal of gender differences in educational attainment, as females began to outperform males. Purpose: The main objective was to analyse which processes were behind the reversal of gender differences in educational attainment after 1945. The theoretical…

  1. Comparing the Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: The Impact of Emancipatory Contexts in 33 Cohorts across 33 Countries

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    van Hek, Margriet; Kraaykamp, Gerbert; Wolbers, Maarten H. J.

    2016-01-01

    Nowadays, women outperform men in educational attainment in many countries. Still, large variation between countries remains. Emancipatory contexts in which individuals are raised might explain these differences in male-female educational attainment, both over time and across countries. This study examines individual and contextual factors that…

  2. Ambitious Mothers--Successful Daughters: Mothers' Early Expectations for Children's Education and Children's Earnings and Sense of Control in Adult Life

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Flouri, Eirini; Hawkes, Denise

    2008-01-01

    Background: Mothers' expectations for their children's educational attainment are related to children's educational and occupational attainment. Studies have yet to establish, however, the long-term links between maternal expectations and offspring earnings, which are not always related to occupational attainment especially in women, or between…

  3. The Pivotal Role of Education in the Association between Ability and Social Class Attainment: A Look across Three Generations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Wendy; Brett, Caroline E.; Deary, Ian J.

    2010-01-01

    Previous studies have established that family social background and individual mental ability and educational attainment contribute to adult social class attainment. We propose that social class of origin acts as ballast, restraining otherwise meritocratic social class movement, and that education is the primary means through which social class…

  4. Community & Technical College Share of Washington's Educational Attainment Goals for 2023

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, 2015

    2015-01-01

    In 2013, the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) set a 10 year plan for improving the educational attainment of Washington residents. The Roadmap included two educational attainment goals for 2023: (1) All adults in Washington, ages 25-44, will have a high school diploma or equivalent; and (2) At least 70 percent of Washington adults,…

  5. Educational Attainment and Egalitarian Attitudes toward Women in the MENA Region: Insights from the Arab Barometer

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Auletto, Amy; Kim, Taeyeon; Marias, Rachel

    2017-01-01

    Despite increasingly egalitarian attitudes toward women in the Middle East and North Africa, nations in this region continue to rank among the lowest in measures of gender equality. Using survey data, we examine the relationship between educational attainment and support for women. We find that increased educational attainment is predictive of…

  6. EDUCATION, GENDER, AND MIGRATION IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIAL CHANGE

    PubMed Central

    Williams, Nathalie

    2012-01-01

    Although sociologists have identified education as likely determinant of migration, the ways in which education affects migration are unclear and empirical results are disparate. This paper addresses the relationship between educational attainment, enrolment, and migration, focusing on the role of gender and how it changes with evolving social contexts. Using empirical analyses based in Nepal, results indicate that educational attainment has positive effects and enrolment has negative effects on out-migration and including enrolment in the model increases the effect of attainment. In the case of women, with the changing role of gender, increased education and labor force participation, the affect of educational attainment changes drastically over time, from almost no effect, to a strong positive effect. Consideration of enrolment, and the role of gender in education, employment, and marriage may help to explain the disparate results in past research on education and migration. PMID:20645440

  7. Rural-Nonrural Disparities in Postsecondary Educational Attainment Revisited

    PubMed Central

    Byun, Soo-yong; Meece, Judith L.; Irvin, Matthew J.

    2013-01-01

    Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study, this study revisited rural-nonrural disparities in educational attainment by considering a comprehensive set of factors that constrain and support youth's college enrollment and degree completion. Results showed that rural students were more advantaged in community social resources compared to nonrural students, and these resources were associated with a significant increase in the likelihood of bachelor's degree attainment. Yet results confirmed that rural students lagged behind nonrural students in attaining a bachelor's degree largely due to their lower socioeconomic background. The findings present a more comprehensive picture of the complexity of geographic residence in shaping college enrollment and degree attainment. PMID:24285873

  8. Educational Attainment and Smoking Status in a National Sample of American Adults; Evidence for the Blacks’ Diminished Return

    PubMed Central

    Mistry, Ritesh

    2018-01-01

    Background: Although higher socioeconomic status (SES) indicators such as educational attainment are linked with health behaviors, the Blacks’ Diminished Return theory posits that the protective effects of SES are systemically smaller for Blacks than Whites. Aims: To explore the Black/White differences in the association between education and smoking. Methods: This cross-sectional study used the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 2017 (n = 3217). HINTS is a national survey of American adults. The current analysis included 2277 adults who were either Whites (n = 1868; 82%) or Blacks (n = 409; 18%). The independent variable was educational attainment, and the dependent variables were ever and current (past 30-day) smoking. Demographic factors (age and gender) were covariates. Race was the focal moderator. Results: In the pooled sample, higher educational attainment was associated with lower odds of ever and current smoking. Race interacted with the effects of higher educational attainment on current smoking, suggesting a stronger protective effect of higher education against current smoking for Whites than Blacks. Race did not interact with the effect of educational attainment on odds of ever smoking. Conclusions: In line with previous research in the United States, education is more strongly associated with health and health behaviors in Whites than Blacks. Smaller protective effects of education on health behaviors may be due to the existing racism across institutions such as the education system and labor market. PMID:29659482

  9. Can Financial Aid Help to Address the Growing Need for STEM Education? The Effects of Need-Based Grants on the Completion of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Courses and Degrees

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Castleman, Benjamin L.; Long, Bridget Terry; Mabel, Zachary

    2018-01-01

    Although workers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields earn above-average wages, the number of college graduates prepared for STEM jobs lags behind employer demand. A key question is how to recruit and retain college students in STEM majors. We offer new evidence on the role of financial aid in supporting STEM attainment.…

  10. Influence of educational attainment on pain intensity and disability in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis: mediation effect of pain catastrophizing.

    PubMed

    Kim, Ho-Joong; Kim, Sung-Chan; Kang, Kyoung-Tak; Chang, Bong-Soon; Lee, Choon-Ki; Yeom, Jin S

    2014-05-01

    Level IV, prospective case series. To investigate the influence of educational attainment on the level of pain intensity and disability in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) and determine how coping behavior, such as catastrophizing, may mediate the association between educational attainment and clinical impairments. Educational attainment has been thought to influence disability caused by chronic painful disease, mediated by pain behavior or a coping strategy such as catastrophizing. Nevertheless, little is known about the role of educational attainment on pain intensity or disability related with LSS. A total of 155 patients who were diagnosed as degenerative LSS participated in the study. Data on detailed medical history, physical examination, and series of questionnaires were collected, including pain catastrophizing scale, Oswestry Disability Index, and visual analogue pain scale for back and leg pain. For measures of socioeconomic status, educational attainment and occupation were assessed. Radiological analysis was performed using magnetic resonance images and computed tomographic scans. After adjustment of covariates, multivariate regression analysis was used to assess each component of the proposed mediation models among visual analogue pain scale for back/leg pain, Oswestry Disability Index, the level of education, occupation and pain catastrophizing scale. Mediation was also assessed by the bootstrapping technique. Educational attainment was negatively correlated with pain intensity, disability, and catastrophizing. Pain catastrophizing were also significantly correlated with disability and pain intensity for back/leg pain in the patients with LSS. In the relationship among variables, the mediation analysis with bootstrapping clearly showed the role of catastrophizing in the mediation between visual analogue pain scale for back pain/leg pain, Oswestry Disability Index, and the level of education. This study demonstrated that lower educational attainment was associated with increased pain intensity and disability in patients with LSS, which was mediated by the coping mechanism, catastrophizing.

  11. Educational attainment among adult survivors of childhood cancer in Great Britain: a population-based cohort study.

    PubMed

    Lancashire, E R; Frobisher, C; Reulen, R C; Winter, D L; Glaser, A; Hawkins, M M

    2010-02-24

    Previous studies of educational attainment among childhood cancer survivors were small, had contradictory findings, and were not population based. This study investigated educational attainment in a large population-based cohort of survivors of all types of childhood cancer in Great Britain. Four levels of educational attainment among 10,183 cancer survivors--degree, teaching qualification, advanced (A') levels, and ordinary (O') levels--were compared with expected levels in the general population. A questionnaire was used to obtain educational attainment data for survivors, and comparable information for the general population was available from the General Household Survey. Factors associated with level of educational attainment achieved by cancer survivors were identified using multivariable logistic regression together with likelihood ratio tests. Logistic regression adjusting for age and sex was used for comparisons with the general population. All statistical tests were two-sided. Childhood cancer survivors had lower educational attainment than the general population (degree: odds ratio [OR] = 0.77, 99% confidence interval [CI] = 0.68 to 0.87; teaching qualification: OR = 0.85, 99% CI = 0.77 to 0.94; A'level: OR = 0.85, 99% CI = 0.78 to 0.93; O'level: OR = 0.81, 99% CI = 0.74 to 0.90; P < .001, all levels). Statistically significant deficits were restricted to central nervous system (CNS) neoplasm and leukemia survivors. For leukemia, only those treated with radiotherapy were considered. Odds ratios for achievement by irradiated CNS tumor survivors were 50%-74% of those for cranially irradiated leukemia or nonirradiated CNS tumor survivors. Survivors at greater risk of poorer educational outcomes included those treated with cranial irradiation, diagnosed with a CNS tumor, older at questionnaire completion, younger at diagnosis, diagnosed with epilepsy, and who were female. Specific groups of childhood cancer survivors achieve lower-than-expected educational attainment. Detailed educational support and implementation of regular cognitive assessment may be indicated for some groups to maximize long-term function.

  12. Educational Attainment and the Gender Wage Gap: Evidence from the 1986 and 1991 Canadian Censuses.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Christie, Pamela; Shannon, Michael

    2001-01-01

    Uses Canadian census data to examine effects of gender differences in educational attainment on the gender earnings gap for full-time, full-year Canadian workers. These educational attainment differences account for virtually none of the gender earnings gap in 1985 and 1990. Gender differences in field of study matter somewhat more. (Contains 17…

  13. The protective effects of high-education levels on cognition in different stages of multiple sclerosis.

    PubMed

    Rimkus, Carolina de Medeiros; Avolio, Isabella Maria Bello; Miotto, Eliane Correa; Pereira, Samira Apostolos; Mendes, Maria Fernanda; Callegaro, Dagoberto; Leite, Claudia da Costa

    2018-05-01

    Low-education attainment is associated with worse cognitive performance in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and possibly with a lower cognitive reserve and/or increased inflammatory activity. Cognitive reserve refers to the capability of a source of intellectual enrichment in attenuating a negative effect of a disease-related factor; while the inflammatory activity is often related to T2-lesion load (T2-LL) increase. To disentangle the effects of cognitive reserve and an increased T2-LL in MS-patients with low-education levels. The study included 136 MS patients and 65 healthy-controls, divided in low-education (12 years or less of school education without obtaining any technical superior degree) and high-education (more than 12 years of school education with technical or superior degree) groups. An extensive battery of neuropsychological tests was applied examining intelligence quotient and six cognitive domains. Test results were z-scored and subjects with z-scores ≤ -1.5 in two or more domains were considered cognitively impaired. To test the factors associated with worse cognitive performance, regression models were applied using average cognition as target; education level, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), T2-LL, disease duration, age of disease onset, age and gender as predictors. We also tested the correlation between T2-LL and cognition in the groups. To investigate the role of education level as a source of intellectual enrichment/cognitive reserve in different stages of MS, we sub-divided the MS patients in three groups according to the disease duration (less than 5 years, between 5 and 10 years and more than 10 years). Worse average cognition was associated with low-education level, higher T2-LL and male gender. A higher frequency of cognitively impaired patients was observed in MS patients with low-education level, in all stages of the disease. In patients with a disease duration shorter than five years, there was a lower correlation between worse average cognition and T2-LL in the high-education level group, compared to the patients with low-education level; in MS patients with longer disease duration, we observed a stronger correlation between lesion burden and cognitive impairment in both groups. Education attainment is a source of intellectual enrichment and can enhance the cognitive reserve in MS patients. The protective effect of a high-education level was stronger in patients with less than five years of disease, suggesting a stronger role of cognitive reserve in short-term disease. In long-term disease we observed a greater impact of increased inflammatory activity on cognition. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Biological and socio-cultural factors during the school years predicting women’s lifetime educational attainment

    PubMed Central

    Hendrick, C. Emily; Cohen, Alison K.; Deardorff, Julianna

    2015-01-01

    BACKGROUND Lifetime educational attainment is an important predictor of health and well-being for women in the United States. In the current study, we examine the roles of socio-cultural factors in youth and an understudied biological life event, pubertal timing, in predicting women’s lifetime educational attainment. METHODS Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (N = 3889), we conducted sequential multivariate linear regression analyses to investigate the influences of macro-level and family-level socio-cultural contextual factors in youth (region of country, urbanicity, race/ethnicity, year of birth, household composition, mother’s education, mother’s age at first birth) and early menarche, a marker of early pubertal development, on women’s educational attainment after age 24. RESULTS Pubertal timing and all socio-cultural factors in youth, other than year of birth, predicted women’s lifetime educational attainment in bivariate models. Family factors had the strongest associations. When family factors were added to multivariate models, geographic region in youth and pubertal timing were no longer significant. CONCLUSION Our findings provide additional evidence that family factors should be considered when developing comprehensive and inclusive interventions in childhood and adolescence to promote lifetime educational attainment among girls. PMID:26830508

  15. Understanding the influence of educational attainment on kidney health and opportunities for improved care.

    PubMed

    Green, Jamie A; Cavanaugh, Kerri L

    2015-01-01

    Educational attainment is an important but often overlooked contributor to health outcomes in patients with kidney disease. Those with lower levels of education have an increased risk of ESRD, complications of peritoneal dialysis, worse transplant outcomes, and mortality. Mediators of these associations are poorly understood but involve a complex interplay between health knowledge, behaviors, and socioeconomic and psychosocial factors. Interventions targeting these aspects of care have the potential to reduce disparities related to educational attainment; however, few programs have been described that specifically address this issue. Future research efforts should not only systematically assess level of educational attainment but also report the differential impact of interventions across educational strata. In addition, routine measurement of health literacy may be useful to identify high-risk patients independent of years of schooling. A better understanding of the influence of educational attainment on kidney health provides an opportunity to improve the care and outcomes of vulnerable patients with kidney disease. Copyright © 2015 National Kidney Foundation, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Functional Goals and Predictors of their Attainment in Low-Income Community-Dwelling Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Waldersen, Brian W.; Wolff, Jennifer L.; Roberts, Laken; Bridges, Allysin E.; Gitlin, Laura N.; Szanton, Sarah L.

    2016-01-01

    Objective To describe functional goals and factors associated with goal attainment among low-income older adults with disabilities living in the community. Design Secondary analysis from two studies of CAPABLE. Functional goals were coded using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) framework. The percentage of goals attained at five months follow-up was computed within each ICF domain. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with goal attainment. Setting Participants’ homes in Baltimore, Maryland Participants CAPABLE participants (n=226) Interventions A five-month, home-based, person-directed, structured program delivered by an inter-professional team: occupational therapist (OT), registered nurse (RN), and handyman. Main Outcome Measure(s) Process of OT goal setting and attainment at the final OT visit. Results Participants identified 728 functional goals (average of 3.2 per participant), most commonly related to transferring (22.0%, n=160 goals), changing or maintaining body position (21.4%, n=156 goals), and stairclimbing (13.0%, n= 95 goals). Participants attained 73.5% (n=535) of goals. Goal attainment was highest for stairclimbing (86.3%), transferring (85.6%), and self-care (84.6%); walking goals were less likely attained (54.0%). Goal attainment was not associated with age, gender, education, depressive symptoms, function, or health-related quality of life but was less likely among participants who had severe pain compared to those without pain (aOR: 0.38, 95% CI: 0.17, 0.86). When participant readiness to change (RTC) score increases by one point on the four-point scale, goal attainment was 62% more likely (aOR 1.62; 95% CI: 1.14–2.29). Conclusion Home-based collaborative goal-setting between older adults and OTs is feasible and particularly effective when individuals are ready or willing to adopt new strategies to achieve identified goals. PMID:28007445

  17. A socioeconomic and behavioral survey of patients with difficult-to-control type 2 diabetes mellitus reveals an association between diabetic retinopathy and educational attainment.

    PubMed

    Emoto, Naoya; Okajima, Fumitaka; Sugihara, Hitoshi; Goto, Rei

    2016-01-01

    We have recently reported that the attitude of patients toward risk could be a factor in the progression of diabetic complications. In general, risk preference is closely related to socioeconomic status (SES), which includes factors such as age, sex, income, and educational attainment. We aimed to determine the effect of SES and behavioral propensity on the progress of diabetic complications in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We conducted a survey of 238 patients with difficult-to-control T2DM treated at a hospital in Japan using a modified behavioral economics questionnaire that included questions related to SES. The patients had been referred by general practitioners or other departments in the hospital because of poor metabolic control or unstable complications. Educational attainment was significantly associated with progression of retinopathy in patients <65 years of age. Educational attainment of a high school diploma (12 years of education) or lower was a significant risk factor, but there were no differences among levels of attainment beyond high school (13-16 years or more of education). Behavioral propensities were also weakly associated with complications, but not as much as educational attainment. Personal income level and economic status did not show an association with the retinopathy levels. Lower educational attainment is a strong risk factor for diabetic retinopathy, and it is independent of the economic status. The result suggests that cognitive function may play an important role in the progression of diabetic retinopathy in patients with T2DM.

  18. Educational influences on early retirement through disability in Ireland.

    PubMed

    Lawless, M; Buggy, C J; Codd, M B

    2015-06-01

    Studies suggest a higher prevalence of early retirement through disability among older people with lower educational attainment. There have been no national studies in Ireland on the factors that affect early withdrawal from the labour force through disability or long-term illness. To identify and analyse potential impacts of education on early retirement through disability in the over 50 age cohort of the Irish Labour force. We analysed the educational attainment of participants using The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (TILDA). The group of interest were those aged 50-75 who had retired early. The sample was dichotomized on disability. Examination of interviewer-recorded information on background influences determining early retirement decisions included the following factors: age, gender, education, family and socio-economic circumstances, including parental education. A total of 334 of 1179 study subjects (28%) retired early through disability. Comparison of those retired early with and without disability showed a significantly higher frequency of lower educational attainment both personally and for parents. Men with lower educational attainment and from a non-professional background were more likely to retire early through disability. Non-professional disabled respondents with less well-educated parents had lower educational attainment than non-disabled respondents. Among TILDA participants, educational attainment appears to influence early retirement through disability. The sector of previous employment was also a significant factor. Behaviour, lifestyle and employment choice are influenced by educational level, which may affect cognitive ability to process health information. Factors affecting the education-disability relationship could include parental education, employment status and socio-economic characteristics. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  19. Associations of Educational Attainment, Occupation, Social Class and Major Depressive Disorder among Han Chinese Women

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Feihu; Li, Yajuan; Wang, Junhui; Flint, Jonathan; Gao, Jingfang; Li, Youhui; Tao, Ming; Zhang, Kerang; Wang, Xumei; Gao, Chengge; Yang, Lijun; Li, Kan; Shi, Shenxun; Wang, Gang; Liu, Lanfen; Zhang, Jinbei; Du, Bo; Jiang, Guoqing; Shen, Jianhua; Zhang, Zhen; Liang, Wei; Sun, Jing; Hu, Jian; Liu, Tiebang; Wang, Xueyi; Miao, Guodong; Meng, Huaqing; Li, Yi; Hu, Chunmei; Li, Yi; Huang, Guoping; Li, Gongying; Ha, Baowei; Deng, Hong; Mei, Qiyi; Zhong, Hui; Gao, Shugui; Sang, Hong; Zhang, Yutang; Fang, Xiang; Yu, Fengyu; Yang, Donglin; Liu, Tieqiao; Chen, Yunchun; Hong, Xiaohong; Wu, Wenyuan; Chen, Guibing; Cai, Min; Song, Yan; Pan, Jiyang; Dong, Jicheng; Pan, Runde; Zhang, Wei; Shen, Zhenming; Liu, Zhengrong; Gu, Danhua; Wang, Xiaoping; Liu, Xiaojuan; Zhang, Qiwen; Li, Yihan; Chen, Yiping; Kendler, Kenneth S.

    2014-01-01

    Background The prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) is higher in those with low levels of educational attainment, the unemployed and those with low social status. However the extent to which these factors cause MDD is unclear. Most of the available data comes from studies in developed countries, and these findings may not extrapolate to developing countries. Examining the relationship between MDD and socio economic status in China is likely to add to the debate because of the radical economic and social changes occurring in China over the last 30 years. Principal findings We report results from 3,639 Chinese women with recurrent MDD and 3,800 controls. Highly significant odds ratios (ORs) were observed between MDD and full time employment (OR = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.25–0.46, logP = 78), social status (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.77–0.87, logP = 13.3) and education attainment (OR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.86–0.90, logP = 6.8). We found a monotonic relationship between increasing age and increasing levels of educational attainment. Those with only primary school education have significantly more episodes of MDD (mean 6.5, P-value = 0.009) and have a clinically more severe disorder, while those with higher educational attainment are likely to manifest more comorbid anxiety disorders. Conclusions In China lower socioeconomic position is associated with increased rates of MDD, as it is elsewhere in the world. Significantly more episodes of MDD occur among those with lower educational attainment (rather than longer episodes of disease), consistent with the hypothesis that the lower socioeconomic position increases the likelihood of developing MDD. The phenomenology of MDD varies according to the degree of educational attainment: higher educational attainment not only appears to protect against MDD but alters its presentation, to a more anxious phenotype. PMID:24497966

  20. Associations of educational attainment, occupation, social class and major depressive disorder among Han Chinese women.

    PubMed

    Shi, Jianguo; Zhang, Yan; Liu, Feihu; Li, Yajuan; Wang, Junhui; Flint, Jonathan; Gao, Jingfang; Li, Youhui; Tao, Ming; Zhang, Kerang; Wang, Xumei; Gao, Chengge; Yang, Lijun; Li, Kan; Shi, Shenxun; Wang, Gang; Liu, Lanfen; Zhang, Jinbei; Du, Bo; Jiang, Guoqing; Shen, Jianhua; Zhang, Zhen; Liang, Wei; Sun, Jing; Hu, Jian; Liu, Tiebang; Wang, Xueyi; Miao, Guodong; Meng, Huaqing; Li, Yi; Hu, Chunmei; Li, Yi; Huang, Guoping; Li, Gongying; Ha, Baowei; Deng, Hong; Mei, Qiyi; Zhong, Hui; Gao, Shugui; Sang, Hong; Zhang, Yutang; Fang, Xiang; Yu, Fengyu; Yang, Donglin; Liu, Tieqiao; Chen, Yunchun; Hong, Xiaohong; Wu, Wenyuan; Chen, Guibing; Cai, Min; Song, Yan; Pan, Jiyang; Dong, Jicheng; Pan, Runde; Zhang, Wei; Shen, Zhenming; Liu, Zhengrong; Gu, Danhua; Wang, Xiaoping; Liu, Xiaojuan; Zhang, Qiwen; Li, Yihan; Chen, Yiping; Kendler, Kenneth S

    2014-01-01

    The prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) is higher in those with low levels of educational attainment, the unemployed and those with low social status. However the extent to which these factors cause MDD is unclear. Most of the available data comes from studies in developed countries, and these findings may not extrapolate to developing countries. Examining the relationship between MDD and socio economic status in China is likely to add to the debate because of the radical economic and social changes occurring in China over the last 30 years. We report results from 3,639 Chinese women with recurrent MDD and 3,800 controls. Highly significant odds ratios (ORs) were observed between MDD and full time employment (OR = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.25-0.46, logP = 78), social status (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.77-0.87, logP = 13.3) and education attainment (OR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.86-0.90, logP = 6.8). We found a monotonic relationship between increasing age and increasing levels of educational attainment. Those with only primary school education have significantly more episodes of MDD (mean 6.5, P-value = 0.009) and have a clinically more severe disorder, while those with higher educational attainment are likely to manifest more comorbid anxiety disorders. In China lower socioeconomic position is associated with increased rates of MDD, as it is elsewhere in the world. Significantly more episodes of MDD occur among those with lower educational attainment (rather than longer episodes of disease), consistent with the hypothesis that the lower socioeconomic position increases the likelihood of developing MDD. The phenomenology of MDD varies according to the degree of educational attainment: higher educational attainment not only appears to protect against MDD but alters its presentation, to a more anxious phenotype.

  1. How Did the Increase in Economic Inequality between 1970 and 1990 Affect American Children's Educational Attainment?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mayer, Susan E.

    This paper estimates the effect of the growth in income inequality on mean educational attainment and on the disparity in educational attainment between rich and poor children. The effect of income inequality that is due to the nonlinear effect of a family's own income is separated from the effect due to interpersonal interactions. Data from the…

  2. Wilderness Schooling: A Controlled Trial of the Impact of an Outdoor Education Programme on Attainment Outcomes in Primary School Pupils

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Quibell, T.; Charlton, J.; Law, J.

    2017-01-01

    Gaps in education attainment between high and low achieving children in the primary school years are frequently evidenced in educational reports. Linked to social disadvantage, these gaps have detrimental long-term effects on learning. There is a need to close the gap in attainment by addressing barriers to learning and offering alternative…

  3. The Effects of Short-Term and Long-Term Poverty on Educational Attainment of Children.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chaikind, Stephen

    This report examines how periods of poverty affect children's educational attainment. Educational attainment is measured by whether a student is at or behind the modal grade level expected for each given age. A cross-tabular analysis was performed on a sample of 16-, 17- and 18-year-old children who were in high school at some point during the…

  4. Associations of alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, and drug use/dependence with educational attainment: evidence from cotwin-control analyses.

    PubMed

    Grant, Julia D; Scherrer, Jeffrey F; Lynskey, Michael T; Agrawal, Arpana; Duncan, Alexis E; Haber, Jon Randolph; Heath, Andrew C; Bucholz, Kathleen K

    2012-08-01

    Although substance use is associated with reduced educational attainment, this association may be owing to common risk factors such as socioeconomic disadvantage. We tested whether alcohol, nicotine, and illicit drug use and dependence were associated with lifetime educational attainment after controlling for familial background characteristics. Data were from a 1987 questionnaire and a 1992 telephone diagnostic interview of 6,242 male twins (n = 3,121 pairs; mean age = 41.9 years in 1992) who served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam era and therefore, were eligible for educational benefits after military service. Reduced educational attainment (<16 years) was examined in twin pairs discordant for substance use history. Substance use and dependence risk factors assessed were early alcohol and cannabis use, daily nicotine use, lifetime cannabis use, and alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, and any illicit drug dependence. Three significant differences were observed between at-risk twins and their cotwins: Compared to their low-risk cotwins, likelihood of completing <16 years of education was significantly increased for the following: (i) twins who used alcohol before age 18 (adjusted OR = 1.44; 95% CI: 1.02 to 2.05), (ii) twins with a lifetime alcohol dependence diagnosis (adjusted OR = 1.76; 95% CI: 1.27 to 2.44), and (iii) twins who had used nicotine daily for 30 or more days (adjusted OR = 2.54, 95% CI: 1.55 to 4.17). However, no differences in education were observed among twin pairs discordant for cannabis initiation, early cannabis use, or cannabis, nicotine, or any illicit drug dependence. Even in a veteran population with access to military educational benefits, early alcohol use, alcohol dependence, and daily nicotine use remained significantly associated with years of education after controlling for shared familial contributions to educational attainment. The association between other substances and educational attainment was explained by familial factors common to these substance use phenotypes and adult educational attainment. Copyright © 2012 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

  5. Education in Time: Cohort Differences in Educational Attainment in African-American Twins

    PubMed Central

    Szanton, Sarah L.; Johnson, Brandon; Thorpe, Roland J.; Whitfield, Keith

    2009-01-01

    Objectives Educational opportunities for African-Americans expanded throughout the 20th century. Twin pairs are an informative population in which to examine changes in educational attainment because each twin has the same parents and childhood socioeconomic status. We hypothesized that correlation in educational attainment of older twin pairs would be higher compared to younger twin pairs reflecting changes in educational access over time and potentially reflecting a “ceiling effect” associated with Jim Crow laws and discrimination. Methodology and Principal Findings We used data from 211 same-sex twin pairs (98 identical, 113 fraternal) in the Carolina African-American Twin Study of Aging who were identified through birth records. Participants completed an in-person interview. The twins were predominantly female (61%), with a mean age of 50 years (SD = 0.5). We found that older age groups had a stronger intra-twin correlation of attained educational level. Further analysis across strata revealed a trend across zygosity, with identical twins demonstrating more similar educational attainment levels than did their fraternal twin counterparts, suggesting a genetic influence. Discussion These findings suggest that as educational opportunities broadened in the 20th century, African-Americans gained access to educational opportunities that better matched their individual abilities. PMID:19888338

  6. The Comparative Efficacy of Lifestyle Intervention and Metformin by Educational Attainment in the Diabetes Prevention Program

    PubMed Central

    O’Brien, Matthew J.; Whitaker, Robert C.; Yu, Daohai; Ackermann, Ronald T.

    2015-01-01

    Objective Educational attainment is inversely associated with type 2 diabetes risk, but it is unknown whether education impacts individuals’ diabetes prevention efforts. We examined the comparative efficacy of intensive lifestyle intervention and metformin by educational attainment among participants in the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), an ongoing U.S. multi-site trial beginning in 1996. Methods We studied 2,910 DPP participants randomized to receive lifestyle intervention, metformin, or placebo. Stratifying by educational attainment, diabetes incidence and relative risk reductions by treatment assignment were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results 47% of participants had completed college and 53% had not. Compared to placebo, lifestyle participants who had completed college demonstrated a 68% reduction in diabetes incidence (95% CI=56, 77), whereas those with less education experienced a 47% risk reduction (95% CI=29, 61). For metformin participants, college graduates experienced a 49% relative risk reduction (95% CI=33, 62), compared to 23% (95% CI=1, 41) among those with lower educational attainment. There was a statistically significant education-by-treatment interaction with incident diabetes (p=0.03). Conclusions Intensive lifestyle intervention and metformin have greater efficacy among highly educated individuals. Future efforts to deliver these treatments and study their dissemination may be more effective if tailored to individuals’ educational background. PMID:26024851

  7. The comparative efficacy of lifestyle intervention and metformin by educational attainment in the Diabetes Prevention Program.

    PubMed

    O'Brien, Matthew J; Whitaker, Robert C; Yu, Daohai; Ackermann, Ronald T

    2015-08-01

    Educational attainment is inversely associated with type 2 diabetes risk, but it is unknown whether education impacts individuals' diabetes prevention efforts. We examined the comparative efficacy of intensive lifestyle intervention and metformin by educational attainment among participants in the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), an ongoing U.S. multi-site trial beginning in 1996. We studied 2,910 DPP participants randomized to receive lifestyle intervention, metformin, or placebo. Stratifying by educational attainment, diabetes incidence and relative risk reductions by treatment assignment were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression. 47% of participants had completed college and 53% had not. Compared to placebo, lifestyle participants who had completed college demonstrated a 68% reduction in diabetes incidence (95% CI=56, 77), whereas those with less education experienced a 47% risk reduction (95% CI=29, 61). For metformin participants, college graduates experienced a 49% relative risk reduction (95% CI=33, 62), compared to 23% (95% CI=1, 41) among those with lower educational attainment. There was a statistically significant education-by-treatment interaction with incident diabetes (p=0.03). Intensive lifestyle intervention and metformin have greater efficacy among highly educated individuals. Future efforts to deliver these treatments and study their dissemination may be more effective if tailored to individuals' educational background. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Early Educational Intervention, Early Cumulative Risk, and the Early Home Environment as Predictors of Young Adult Outcomes Within a High-Risk Sample

    PubMed Central

    Pungello, Elizabeth P.; Kainz, Kirsten; Burchinal, Margaret; Wasik, Barbara H.; Sparling, Joseph J.; Ramey, Craig T.; Campbell, Frances A.

    2009-01-01

    The extent to which early educational intervention, early cumulative risk, and the early home environment were associated with young adult outcomes was investigated in a sample of 139 young adults (age 21) from high-risk families enrolled in randomized trials of early intervention. Positive effects of treatment were found for education attainment, attending college, and skilled employment; negative effects of risk were found for education attainment, graduating high school, being employed and avoiding teen parenthood. The home mediated the effects of risk for graduating high school, but not being employed or teen parenthood. Evidence for moderated mediation was found for educational attainment; the home mediated the association between risk and educational attainment for the control group, but not the treated group. PMID:20331676

  9. Why Online Education Will Attain Full Scale

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sener, John

    2010-01-01

    Online higher education has attained scale and is poised to take the next step in its growth. Although significant obstacles to a full scale adoption of online education remain, we will see full scale adoption of online higher education within the next five to ten years. Practically all higher education students will experience online education in…

  10. Genetics and educational attainment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cesarini, David; Visscher, Peter M.

    2017-12-01

    We explore how advances in our understanding of the genetics of complex traits such as educational attainment could constructively be leveraged to advance research on education and learning. We discuss concepts and misconceptions about genetic findings with regard to causes, consequences, and policy. Our main thesis is that educational attainment as a measure that varies between individuals in a population can be subject to exactly the same experimental biological designs as other outcomes, for example, those studied in epidemiology and medical sciences, and the same caveats about interpretation and implication apply.

  11. First Nations Education: Financial Accountability and Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carr-Stewart, Sheila

    2006-01-01

    First Nations people have both a Constitutional and a Treaty right to education; however, the Crown's jurisdictional obligations to provide educational services have not lead to similar educational opportunities and attainment achievement for First Nations students as compared to Canadian students in provincial schools. Canada's Auditor General,…

  12. Racial Differences in the Formation of Postsecondary Educational Expectations: A Structural Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Museus, Samuel D.; Harper, Shaun R.; Nichols, Andrew H.

    2010-01-01

    Background: Educational attainment is associated with a plethora of positive economic and social implications for individuals, institutions, and the broader society. One factor that has been identified as an important predictor of students' educational attainment is their educational expectations. Thus, understanding how educational expectations…

  13. Institutions, Social Norms, and Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhan, Crystal

    2017-01-01

    Informal institutions are defined as socially shared rules that guide individuals' behaviors outside of officially sanctioned channels. This paper investigates the link between individual educational attainment and education-related informal institutions by examining second-generation immigrants in the USA. I measure the education-related informal…

  14. Sibship size and educational attainment. A joint test of the Confluence Model and the Resource Dilution Hypothesis

    PubMed Central

    Jæger, Mads Meier

    2012-01-01

    Studies on family background often explain the negative effect of sibship size on educational attainment by one of two theories: the Confluence Model (CM) or the Resource Dilution Hypothesis (RDH). However, as both theories – for substantively different reasons – predict that sibship size should have a negative effect on educational attainment most studies cannot distinguish empirically between the CM and the RDH. In this paper, I use the different theoretical predictions in the CM and RDH on the role of cognitive ability as a partial or complete mediator of the effect of sibship size to distinguish the two theories and to identify a unique RDH effect on educational attainment. Using sibling data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) and a random effect Instrumental Variable model I find that, in addition to a negative effect on cognitive ability, sibship size also has a strong negative effect on educational attainment which is uniquely explained by the RDH. PMID:22468016

  15. State Policies and Planning to Increase Attainment, Quality, and Productivity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lingenfelter, Paul E.

    2007-01-01

    This article examines why state planning and policy for higher education are increasingly focused on increasing educational attainment, quality, and the productivity of the system. It presents four "stories" which illustrate initiatives to improve attainment, quality, and productivity, but fall far short of exhausting the available material.

  16. Educational Attainment by Age, Sex, and Race, for the United States: 1970. 1970 Census of Population, Supplementary Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bureau of the Census (DOC), Suitland, MD. Population Div.

    The 1960's witnessed considerable change in educational attainment levels. Of Americans 25 years old and over in 1970, 52 percent were at least high school graduates, as compared with 41 percent in 1960 and 34 percent in 1950. There was considerable variation in educational attainment levels in 1970 among the various age groups in the population.…

  17. Final Report of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Postsecondary Educational Attainment. State of Maine, 120th Legislature, First Regular Session.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Elliott, David C.

    In response to growing concern about the impact on economic prosperity resulting from the low level of higher educational attainment in Maine, two bills calling for study of that issue were introduced in the 120th Maine Legislature. A commission was created to develop a plan to improve the state's level of higher educational attainment. This…

  18. A sequence variant associating with educational attainment also affects childhood cognition.

    PubMed

    Gunnarsson, Bjarni; Jónsdóttir, Guðrún A; Björnsdóttir, Gyða; Konte, Bettina; Sulem, Patrick; Kristmundsdóttir, Snædís; Kehr, Birte; Gústafsson, Ómar; Helgason, Hannes; Iordache, Paul D; Ólafsson, Sigurgeir; Frigge, Michael L; Þorleifsson, Guðmar; Arnarsdóttir, Sunna; Stefánsdóttir, Berglind; Giegling, Ina; Djurovic, Srdjan; Sundet, Kjetil S; Espeseth, Thomas; Melle, Ingrid; Hartmann, Annette M; Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur; Kong, Augustine; Guðbjartsson, Daníel F; Ettinger, Ulrich; Andreassen, Ole A; Dan Rujescu; Halldórsson, Jónas G; Stefánsson, Hreinn; Halldórsson, Bjarni V; Stefánsson, Kári

    2016-11-04

    Only a few common variants in the sequence of the genome have been shown to impact cognitive traits. Here we demonstrate that polygenic scores of educational attainment predict specific aspects of childhood cognition, as measured with IQ. Recently, three sequence variants were shown to associate with educational attainment, a confluence phenotype of genetic and environmental factors contributing to academic success. We show that one of these variants associating with educational attainment, rs4851266-T, also associates with Verbal IQ in dyslexic children (P = 4.3 × 10 -4 , β = 0.16 s.d.). The effect of 0.16 s.d. corresponds to 1.4 IQ points for heterozygotes and 2.8 IQ points for homozygotes. We verified this association in independent samples consisting of adults (P = 8.3 × 10 -5 , β = 0.12 s.d., combined P = 2.2 x 10 -7 , β = 0.14 s.d.). Childhood cognition is unlikely to be affected by education attained later in life, and the variant explains a greater fraction of the variance in verbal IQ than in educational attainment (0.7% vs 0.12%,. P = 1.0 × 10 -5 ).

  19. Level of Educational Attainment Among Deaf Adults Who Attended Bilingual-Bicultural Programs.

    PubMed

    Dammeyer, Jesper; Marschark, Marc

    2016-10-01

    In Scandinavia and some other countries, a bilingual-bicultural approach to deaf education was celebrated in national programs from the mid-1980s until the broad popularity of cochlear implantation in middle 2000s created a shift back to an emphasis on spoken language for many deaf children. At the same time, only a few studies evaluated the long-term outcomes of bilingual-bicultural education, and several of their findings have raised questions about benefits of the approach. This study examined the level of educational attainment of 408 deaf individuals who attended primary school either before or during the period of bilingual-bicultural education in Denmark, both relative to a comparable hearing cohort. Beyond group comparisons, three logistic regression models were created to evaluate the prediction of educational attainment by a number of relevant variables. Compared to the hearing population, the deaf population had a significantly lower level of educational attainment both before and after the introduction of bilingual-bicultural education. Signed language and spoken language abilities, the kind of school attended, degree of hearing loss, parental hearing loss, and gender were found significantly to explain levels of educational attainment in the deaf population. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  20. Family Background Buys an Education in Minnesota but Not in Sweden

    PubMed Central

    Johnson, Wendy; Deary, Ian J.; Silventoinen, Karri; Tynelius, Per; Rasmussen, Finn

    2010-01-01

    Educational attainment, the highest degree or level of schooling obtained, is associated with important life outcomes, at both the individual level and the group level. Because of this, and because education is expensive, the allocation of education across society is an important social issue. A dynamic quantitative environmental-genetic model can help document the effects of social allocation patterns. We used this model to compare the moderating effect of general intelligence on the environmental and genetic factors that influence educational attainment in Sweden and the U.S. state of Minnesota. Patterns of genetic influence on educational outcomes were similar in these two regions, but patterns of shared environmental influence differed markedly. In Sweden, shared environmental influence on educational attainment was particularly important for people of high intelligence, whereas in Minnesota, shared environmental influences on educational attainment were particularly important for people of low intelligence. This difference may be the result of differing access to education: state-supported access (on the basis of ability) to a uniform higher-education system in Sweden, versus family-supported access to a more diverse higher-education system in the United States. PMID:20679521

  1. Family background buys an education in Minnesota but not in Sweden.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Wendy; Deary, Ian J; Silventoinen, Karri; Tynelius, Per; Rasmussen, Finn

    2010-09-01

    Educational attainment, the highest degree or level of schooling obtained, is associated with important life outcomes, at both the individual level and the group level. Because of this, and because education is expensive, the allocation of education across society is an important social issue. A dynamic quantitative environmental-genetic model can help document the effects of social allocation patterns. We used this model to compare the moderating effect of general intelligence on the environmental and genetic factors that influence educational attainment in Sweden and the U.S. state of Minnesota. Patterns of genetic influence on educational outcomes were similar in these two regions, but patterns of shared environmental influence differed markedly. In Sweden, shared environmental influence on educational attainment was particularly important for people of high intelligence, whereas in Minnesota, shared environmental influences on educational attainment were particularly important for people of low intelligence. This difference may be the result of differing access to education: state-supported access (on the basis of ability) to a uniform higher-education system in Sweden versus family-supported access to a more diverse higher-education system in the United States.

  2. Childhood Adversities and Educational Attainment in Young Adulthood: The Role of Mental Health Problems in Adolescence.

    PubMed

    Veldman, Karin; Bültmann, Ute; Almansa, Josue; Reijneveld, Sijmen A

    2015-11-01

    The aims of this study were to examine whether the association between childhood adversities and educational attainment in young adulthood can be explained by mental health problems in adolescence and whether associations and pathways differ for boys and girls. Data were used of 2,230 participants from the Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey, a Dutch prospective cohort study with a 9-year follow-up. Childhood adversities were measured at age 11 years, mental health problems (i.e., externalizing, internalizing and attention problems with Youth Self-Report) at age 16 years, and educational attainment at age 19 years. Structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the data, overall and stratified by gender. Only among boys, childhood adversities were associated with low educational attainment in young adulthood. Externalizing problems in adolescence explained 5% of the association between childhood adversities and educational attainment. Furthermore, for both boys and girls, externalizing problems in adolescence had a direct effect on educational attainment in young adulthood. Among boys, childhood adversities are associated with poorer educational outcomes of young adults. A part of this association runs via adolescent externalizing problems. The results suggest that boys, compared with girls, are less capable to cope with childhood adversities. Monitoring of exposed boys to childhood adversities is of utmost importance. Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Influence of Educational Attainment on Consumption

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhang, Xuemin; He, Youning

    2007-01-01

    In market economy, man is both the essential productive factor and the consuming subject. Education promotes the two aspects. As shown by investigations on the influence of educational attainment on consumption, education has great influences on people's consumption level, consumption structure, consumption modes and consumption concepts. The…

  4. Rural Women and Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fratoe, Frank A.

    Because some rural women underutilize their increased schooling while others are disadvantaged by low educational attainment and underdeveloped skills, and in order to help determine policy alternatives to meet rural women's educational needs, the educational attainments and labor force participation of rural white and minority women were studied.…

  5. Association of educational attainment with chronic disease and mortality: the Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP).

    PubMed

    Choi, Andy I; Weekley, Cristin C; Chen, Shu-Cheng; Li, Suying; Tamura, Manjula Kurella; Norris, Keith C; Shlipak, Michael G

    2011-08-01

    Recent reports have suggested a close relationship between education and health, including mortality, in the United States. Observational cohort. We studied 61,457 participants enrolled in a national health screening initiative, the National Kidney Foundation's Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP). Self-reported educational attainment. Chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, reduced kidney function, and albuminuria) and mortality. We evaluated cross-sectional associations between self-reported educational attainment with the chronic diseases listed using logistic regression models adjusted for demographics, access to care, behaviors, and comorbid conditions. The association of educational attainment with survival was determined using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression. Higher educational attainment was associated with a lower prevalence of each of the chronic conditions listed. In multivariable models, compared with persons not completing high school, college graduates had a lower risk of each chronic condition, ranging from 11% lower odds of decreased kidney function to 37% lower odds of cardiovascular disease. During a mean follow-up of 3.9 (median, 3.7) years, 2,384 (4%) deaths occurred. In the fully adjusted Cox model, those who had completed college had 24% lower mortality compared with participants who had completed at least some high school. Lack of income data does not allow us to disentangle the independent effects of education from income. In this diverse contemporary cohort, higher educational attainment was associated independently with a lower prevalence of chronic diseases and short-term mortality in all age and race/ethnicity groups. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  6. Educational attainment and the transition to first marriage among Japanese women.

    PubMed

    Raymo, James M

    2003-02-01

    I use data from a large nationally representative survey to examine the relationship between women's educational attainment and the timing of first marriage in Japan. The results indicate that later marriage for highly educated women primarily reflects longer enrollment in school, that university education is increasingly associated with later and less marriage, and that the trend toward later and less marriage is occurring at all levels of educational attainment. These findings are consistent, albeit weakly, with the argument that higher education should be negatively associated with marriage only in countries in which gender relations make it particularly difficult for women to balance work and family.

  7. Educational Engagement and Degree Attainment among High School Dropouts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Suh, Suhyun; Suh, Jingyo

    2006-01-01

    This research investigates the relationship between educational engagement and high school degree attainment among school dropouts. Educational engagement considered in this article focuses on student factors such as educational aspiration, organizational skills, and locus of control. Findings of this study show that self-concept engagement…

  8. Sex and the Process of Status Attainment: A Comparison of Working Women and Men

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Treiman, Donald J.; Terrell Kermit

    1975-01-01

    The process of educational, occupational, and income attainment of working women and men, both white and non-white, is compared here. The process and level of educational and occupational attainment is said to be identical for men and women, but women are said to earn less. (Author/AM)

  9. Social Origins and Attitudinal Effects on Educational Status Attainment.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thomas, John K.; And Others

    Research objectives were to present and analyze a causal model of educational attainment and to include with parental socioeconomic status the number of siblings as an intervening social origin variable impacting on attitudes and attainment. Data were obtained from a three-wave longitudinal study (1966, 1968, and 1972) of 221 white nonmetropolitan…

  10. Disparity in disability between native-born non-Hispanic white and foreign-born Asian older adults in the United States: effects of educational attainment and age at immigration.

    PubMed

    Lee, Min-Ah

    2011-04-01

    It is widely known that educational attainment has considerable influence on the prevalence of disability among native-born non-Hispanic older adults in the US. However, few studies have examined whether educational attainment has a similar effect on disability among foreign-born Asian older adults. If it does not have a similar effect on these adults, why not, and is its effect influenced by the age at which they immigrated to the US? This study addresses these questions by using the 2006 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample (ACS PUMS). Logistic regression analyses reveal that education has differential effects on the two racial groups. Education protects foreign-born Asians less than native-born non-Hispanic whites. In addition, Asian adults who immigrated earlier are less likely to experience disability. Interestingly, the interaction between age at immigration and educational attainment for foreign-born Asian older adults indicates that less educated Asians are more likely to benefit from early immigration. Heterogeneity within the Asian group is also examined. The findings suggest that educational attainment has differential effects not only on the two racial groups but also on the foreign-born Asian group depending on age at immigration. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Differing effects of education on cognitive decline in diverse elders with low versus high educational attainment.

    PubMed

    Zahodne, Laura B; Stern, Yaakov; Manly, Jennifer J

    2015-07-01

    In light of growing debate over whether and how early life educational experiences alter late-life cognitive trajectories, this study sought to more thoroughly investigate the relationship between educational attainment and rates of late-life cognitive decline in a racially, ethnically, and educationally diverse population. Older adults (N = 3,435) in the community-based Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project were administered neuropsychological tests of memory, language, visuospatial function, and processing speed at approximate 24-month intervals for up to 18 years. Second-order latent growth curves estimated direct and indirect (through income) effects of educational attainment on rates of global cognitive decline separately in individuals with low (0-8 years) and high (9-20 years) educational attainment. More years of education were associated with higher cognitive level and slower cognitive decline in individuals with low or high educational attainment. The association between having more than 9 years of education and exhibiting slower cognitive decline was fully mediated by income. Although having additional years of education up to 8 years was also associated with higher income, this did not explain associations between education and cognitive change in the low-education group. Early education (i.e., up to 8 years) may promote aspects of development during a sensitive period of childhood that protect against late-life cognitive decline independent of income. In contrast, later education (i.e., 9 years and beyond) is associated with higher income, which may influence late-life cognitive health through multiple, nonmutually exclusive pathways. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  12. Differing effects of education on cognitive decline in diverse elders with low versus high educational attainment

    PubMed Central

    Zahodne, Laura B.; Stern, Yaakov; Manly, Jennifer J.

    2014-01-01

    Objective In light of growing debate over whether and how early-life educational experiences alter late-life cognitive trajectories, this study sought to more thoroughly investigate the relationship between educational attainment and rates of late-life cognitive decline in a racially, ethnically, and educationally diverse population. Method 3,435 older adults in the community-based Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project were administered neuropsychological tests of memory, language, visuospatial function, and processing speed at approximate 24-month intervals for up to 18 years. Second-order latent growth curves estimated direct and indirect (through income) effects of educational attainment on rates of global cognitive decline separately in individuals with low (0-8 years) and high (9-20 years) educational attainment. Results More years of education was associated with higher cognitive level and slower cognitive decline in individuals with low or high educational attainment. The association between having more than 9 years of education and exhibiting slower cognitive decline was fully mediated by income. While additional years of education up to 8 years was also associated with higher income, this did not explain associations between education and cognitive change in the low-education group. Conclusions Early education (i.e., up to 8 years) may promote aspects of development during a sensitive period of childhood that protect against late-life cognitive decline independent of income. In contrast, later education (i.e., beyond 9 years) is associated with higher income, which may influence late-life cognitive health through multiple, non-mutually exclusive pathways. PMID:25222199

  13. ESTIMATING THE INFLUENCE OF INDIVIDUAL POVERTY-ADJUSTED EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT ON TERM BIRTH WEIGHT USING CONDITIONAL MODELS

    EPA Science Inventory

    Reported maternal education is an important predictor of pregnancy outcomes. Like income, it is believed to allow women to locate in more favorable conditions than less educated or affluent peers. We examine the effect of reported educational attainment on term birth weight (birt...

  14. Changes in college attainment and the economic returns to a college degree in urban China, 2003-2010: implications for social equality.

    PubMed

    Hu, Anning; Hibel, Jacob

    2014-03-01

    Expansion of higher education is expected to reduce social inequality under the conditions that (1) higher education should become increasingly egalitarian; (2) educational attainment should be the main determinant of class destinations; and (3) individuals from different social backgrounds should benefit from higher education homogeneously. Using representative data collected in mainland China from 2003 to 2010, we find (1) social background factors, especially parents' education, are significantly associated with the opportunity of completing college across periods; (2) the economic returns to a college degree have been longitudinally increasing; and (3) for both 2003 and 2010, people from different social origins benefit from higher education attainment in a homogeneous way. An overall assessment of the findings suggests that changes in college attainment and the returns to higher education in urban China are not in favor of the promotion of general social equality, but maintain the existing extent of inequality. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Familial Transmission of Educational Plans and the Academic Self-Concept: A Three-Generation Longitudinal Study

    PubMed Central

    Mortimer, Jeylan T.; Zhang, Lei; Wu, Chen-Yu; Hussemann, Jeanette; Johnson, Monica Kirkpatrick

    2016-01-01

    This research investigates the social reproduction of inequality by drawing on prospective longitudinal data from three generations of Youth Development Study respondents. It examines intergenerational influence on the relatively unexplored academic self-concept as well as educational plans, a critical component of the status attainment model. A structural equation model, based on 422 3-generation triads, finds evidence that the sources giving rise to the development of children’s (Generation 3) achievement orientations do not only result from parental (G2) contemporaneous influence. Prior influences implicate grandparent (G1) educational attainment and income, grandparental expectations for the G2 adolescent, the G2 academic self-concept and educational plans measured more than twenty years earlier (in G2’s adolescence), and G2 educational attainment. A familial culture emphasizing academic self-confidence and high educational expectations may be an important component of “family capital” that supports educational attainment and contributes to the maintenance of social class position in each successive generation. PMID:28396611

  16. Familial Transmission of Educational Plans and the Academic Self-Concept: A Three-Generation Longitudinal Study.

    PubMed

    Mortimer, Jeylan T; Zhang, Lei; Wu, Chen-Yu; Hussemann, Jeanette; Johnson, Monica Kirkpatrick

    2017-03-01

    This research investigates the social reproduction of inequality by drawing on prospective longitudinal data from three generations of Youth Development Study respondents. It examines intergenerational influence on the relatively unexplored academic self-concept as well as educational plans, a critical component of the status attainment model. A structural equation model, based on 422 3-generation triads, finds evidence that the sources giving rise to the development of children's (Generation 3) achievement orientations do not only result from parental (G2) contemporaneous influence. Prior influences implicate grandparent (G1) educational attainment and income, grandparental expectations for the G2 adolescent, the G2 academic self-concept and educational plans measured more than twenty years earlier (in G2's adolescence), and G2 educational attainment. A familial culture emphasizing academic self-confidence and high educational expectations may be an important component of "family capital" that supports educational attainment and contributes to the maintenance of social class position in each successive generation.

  17. Expectancy and Achievement Gaps in Educational Attainment and Subsequent Adverse Health Effects Among Adolescents With and Without Chronic Medical Conditions.

    PubMed

    Wisk, Lauren E; Weitzman, Elissa R

    2017-10-01

    While education-based disparities in health are common, the extent to which chronic conditions contribute to education gaps and to consequent health disparities is not fully understood. As such, we sought to investigate educational aspirations, expectations, and attainment among youth with and without chronic conditions and to determine if these relationships mediated subsequent disparities in health and well-being. Longitudinal data on 3,518 youths are from the 1997-2013 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a population-based survey. Multivariate regression was used to assess disparities in educational aspirations, expectations, and attainment by chronic conditions and the subsequent effects on health and well-being, adjusting for important potential confounders. Youth with chronic medical conditions (YCMCs) did not report significantly lower educational aspirations than their healthy peers; however, YCMC reported lower expectations for their educational attainment and fewer YCMC had earned their desired degree by the end of follow-up (e.g., ≥bachelor's degree: 19.9% for YCMC vs. 26.0% for peers, p < .05). YCMC reported significantly worse general health, lower life satisfaction, and lower psychological well-being in young adulthood than did their healthy peers. These disparities persisted after adjustment for confounders; the association between chronic disease and health was partially, but significantly, mediated by actual educational attainment. Findings suggest an important risk mechanism through which YCMC may acquire socioeconomic disadvantage as they develop and progress through educational settings. Disproportionate lags in education, from expectation to attainment, may in turn increase YCMC's susceptibility to poor health and well-being in the future. Copyright © 2017 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Genetic variation associated with differential educational attainment in adults has anticipated associations with school performance in children.

    PubMed

    Ward, Mary E; McMahon, George; St Pourcain, Beate; Evans, David M; Rietveld, Cornelius A; Benjamin, Daniel J; Koellinger, Philipp D; Cesarini, David; Davey Smith, George; Timpson, Nicholas J

    2014-01-01

    Genome-wide association study results have yielded evidence for the association of common genetic variants with crude measures of completed educational attainment in adults. Whilst informative, these results do not inform as to the mechanism of these effects or their presence at earlier ages and where educational performance is more routinely and more precisely assessed. Single nucleotide polymorphisms exhibiting genome-wide significant associations with adult educational attainment were combined to derive an unweighted allele score in 5,979 and 6,145 young participants from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children with key stage 3 national curriculum test results (SATS results) available at age 13 to 14 years in English and mathematics respectively. Standardised (z-scored) results for English and mathematics showed an expected relationship with sex, with girls exhibiting an advantage over boys in English (0.433 SD (95%CI 0.395, 0.470), p<10(-10)) with more similar results (though in the opposite direction) in mathematics (0.042 SD (95%CI 0.004, 0.080), p = 0.030). Each additional adult educational attainment increasing allele was associated with 0.041 SD (95%CI 0.020, 0.063), p = 1.79×10(-04) and 0.028 SD (95%CI 0.007, 0.050), p = 0.01 increases in standardised SATS score for English and mathematics respectively. Educational attainment is a complex multifactorial behavioural trait which has not had heritable contributions to it fully characterised. We were able to apply the results from a large study of adult educational attainment to a study of child exam performance marking events in the process of learning rather than realised adult end product. Our results support evidence for common, small genetic contributions to educational attainment, but also emphasise the likely lifecourse nature of this genetic effect. Results here also, by an alternative route, suggest that existing methods for child examination are able to recognise early life variation likely to be related to ultimate educational attainment.

  19. Genetic Variation Associated with Differential Educational Attainment in Adults Has Anticipated Associations with School Performance in Children

    PubMed Central

    Ward, Mary E.; McMahon, George; St Pourcain, Beate; Evans, David M.; Rietveld, Cornelius A.; Benjamin, Daniel J.; Koellinger, Philipp D.; Cesarini, David; Smith, George Davey; Timpson, Nicholas J.

    2014-01-01

    Genome-wide association study results have yielded evidence for the association of common genetic variants with crude measures of completed educational attainment in adults. Whilst informative, these results do not inform as to the mechanism of these effects or their presence at earlier ages and where educational performance is more routinely and more precisely assessed. Single nucleotide polymorphisms exhibiting genome-wide significant associations with adult educational attainment were combined to derive an unweighted allele score in 5,979 and 6,145 young participants from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children with key stage 3 national curriculum test results (SATS results) available at age 13 to 14 years in English and mathematics respectively. Standardised (z-scored) results for English and mathematics showed an expected relationship with sex, with girls exhibiting an advantage over boys in English (0.433 SD (95%CI 0.395, 0.470), p<10−10) with more similar results (though in the opposite direction) in mathematics (0.042 SD (95%CI 0.004, 0.080), p = 0.030). Each additional adult educational attainment increasing allele was associated with 0.041 SD (95%CI 0.020, 0.063), p = 1.79×10−04 and 0.028 SD (95%CI 0.007, 0.050), p = 0.01 increases in standardised SATS score for English and mathematics respectively. Educational attainment is a complex multifactorial behavioural trait which has not had heritable contributions to it fully characterised. We were able to apply the results from a large study of adult educational attainment to a study of child exam performance marking events in the process of learning rather than realised adult end product. Our results support evidence for common, small genetic contributions to educational attainment, but also emphasise the likely lifecourse nature of this genetic effect. Results here also, by an alternative route, suggest that existing methods for child examination are able to recognise early life variation likely to be related to ultimate educational attainment. PMID:25032841

  20. Pathways between health, education and income in adolescence and adulthood.

    PubMed

    Callander, Emily J

    2016-09-01

    To quantify the impact of household income, and physical and mental health in adolescence on education attainment, household income and health status in adulthood. Path analysis and regression models using waves 1-12 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. Individuals aged 17 or 18 in 2001, 52% were males (n=655) and 48% were female (52%). Of those participating in wave 1, five did not respond in wave 12. Education attainment, household income, physical and mental health at age 29/30. For females, physical health at age 17/18 was significantly related to level of education attainment at age 29/30 (standardised total effect 0.290, p<0.001), with this influence being greater in magnitude than that of household income at age 17/18 on level of education attainment at age 29/30 (standardised total effect 0.159, p=0.022). Females' physical health at age 17/18 was also significantly related to household income at age 29/30 (standardised total effect 0.09, p=0.018). Both adjusted for initial household income at age 17/18. For males, the total standardised total effect of physical health at age 17/18 had a greater impact than household income at age 17/18 on education attainment at age 29/30 (0.347, p<0.001 for physical health and 0.276, p<0.001 for household income). The OR of achieving a year 12 or higher level of education attainment was 4.72 (95% CI 1.43 to 15.58, p=0.0110) for females with good physical health at age 17/18 and 5.05 (95% CI 1.78 to 14.36, p=0.0024) for males, compared with those with poor physical health at age 17/18. As physical health in adolescence appears to have a stronger influence on education attainment in adulthood than household income, equity strategies for education attainment should also target those with poor health. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  1. Independent and joint associations of race/ethnicity and educational attainment with sleep-related symptoms in a population-based US sample.

    PubMed

    Cunningham, Timothy J; Ford, Earl S; Chapman, Daniel P; Liu, Yong; Croft, Janet B

    2015-08-01

    Prior studies have documented disparities in short and long sleep duration, excessive daytime sleepiness, and insomnia by educational attainment and race/ethnicity separately. We examined both independent and interactive effects of these factors with a broader range of sleep indicators in a racially/ethnically diverse sample. We analyzed 2012 National Health Interview Survey data from 33,865 adults aged ≥18years. Sleep-related symptomatology included short sleep duration (≤6h), long sleep duration (≥9h), fatigue >3days, excessive daytime sleepiness, and insomnia. Bivariate analyses with chi-square tests and log-linear regression were performed. The overall age-adjusted prevalence was 29.1% for short sleep duration, 8.5% for long sleep duration, 15.1% for fatigue, 12.6% for excessive daytime sleepiness, and 18.8% for insomnia. Educational attainment and race/ethnicity were independently related to the five sleep-related symptoms. Among Whites, the likelihood of most sleep indicators increased as educational attainment decreased; relationships varied for the other racial/ethnic groups. For short sleep duration, the educational attainment-by-race/ethnicity interaction effect was significant for African Americans (p<0.0001), Hispanics (p<0.0001), and Asians (p=0.0233) compared to Whites. For long sleep duration, the interaction was significant for Hispanics only (p=0.0003). Our results demonstrate the importance of examining both educational attainment and race/ethnicity simultaneously to more fully understand disparities in sleep health. Increased understanding of the mechanisms linking sociodemographic factors to sleep health is needed to determine whether policies and programs to increase educational attainment may also reduce these disparities within an increasingly diverse population. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  2. Educational Attainment of Workers, March 1975

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Whitmore, Bob

    1976-01-01

    The inverse relationship between educational attainment and unemployment is indicated in data concerning three major age groups during 1974-1975. The long-term uptrend in the educational level of the labor force continues, with college graduates experiencing changes in occupational distribution. (LH)

  3. Assessing the potential impact of increased participation in higher education on mortality: evidence from 21 European populations.

    PubMed

    Kulhánová, Ivana; Hoffmann, Rasmus; Judge, Ken; Looman, Caspar W N; Eikemo, Terje A; Bopp, Matthias; Deboosere, Patrick; Leinsalu, Mall; Martikainen, Pekka; Rychtaříková, Jitka; Wojtyniak, Bogdan; Menvielle, Gwenn; Mackenbach, Johan P

    2014-09-01

    Although higher education has been associated with lower mortality rates in many studies, the effect of potential improvements in educational distribution on future mortality levels is unknown. We therefore estimated the impact of projected increases in higher education on mortality in European populations. We used mortality and population data according to educational level from 21 European populations and developed counterfactual scenarios. The first scenario represented the improvement in the future distribution of educational attainment as expected on the basis of an assumption of cohort replacement. We estimated the effect of this counterfactual scenario on mortality with a 10-15-year time horizon among men and women aged 30-79 years using a specially developed tool based on population attributable fractions (PAF). We compared this with a second, upward levelling scenario in which everyone has obtained tertiary education. The reduction of mortality in the cohort replacement scenario ranged from 1.9 to 10.1% for men and from 1.7 to 9.0% for women. The reduction of mortality in the upward levelling scenario ranged from 22.0 to 57.0% for men and from 9.6 to 50.0% for women. The cohort replacement scenario was estimated to achieve only part (4-25% (men) and 10-31% (women)) of the potential mortality decrease seen in the upward levelling scenario. We concluded that the effect of on-going improvements in educational attainment on average mortality in the population differs across Europe, and can be substantial. Further investments in education may have important positive side-effects on population health. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. "We Been Hurt, Been Down Before. When Our Pride Was Low, Lookin' at the World Like "Where Do We Go?'": An Exploration of Educational Attainment and Post-Release Employment Outcomes for Connecticut Department of Correction Ex-Offenders

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Corbett, Erin S.

    2017-01-01

    While recent research has focused on the relationship between educational attainment and recidivism for formerly incarcerated persons, less research has focused on the relationship between educational attainment/level and employment. This study employed mixed methods to examine data on post-release employment outcomes for ex-offenders from, and…

  5. Early father's and mother's involvement and child's later educational outcomes.

    PubMed

    Flouri, Eirini; Buchanan, Ann

    2004-06-01

    Few studies have investigated the individual long-term contributions that mothers and fathers make to their children's schooling. (1) To explore the role of early father involvement in children's later educational attainment independently of the role of early mother involvement and other confounds, (2) to investigate whether gender and family structure moderate the relationship between father's and mother's involvement and child's educational attainment, and (3) to explore whether the impact of father's involvement depends on the level of mother's involvement. The study used longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study. The initial sample were those 7,259 cohort members with valid data on mother involvement at age 7, father involvement at age 7, and school-leaving qualification by age 20. Of those, 3,303 were included in the final analysis. The measures were control variables, structural factors (family structure, sibship size and residential mobility), child factors (emotional/behavioural problems, cognitive ability and academic motivation), and father's and mother's involvement. Father involvement and mother involvement at age 7 independently predicted educational attainment by age 20. The association between parents' involvement and educational attainment was not stronger for sons than for daughters. Father involvement was not more important for educational attainment when mother involvement was low rather than high. Not growing up in intact two-parent family did not weaken the association between father's or mother's involvement and educational outcomes. Early father involvement can be another protective factor in counteracting risk conditions that might lead to later low attainment levels.

  6. How robust is the calculation of health inequality trends by educational attainment in England and Wales using the Longitudinal Study?

    PubMed

    Flanagan, L; McCartney, G

    2015-06-01

    Inequalities in mortality by educational attainment are wider in Eastern Europe than in West and Central Europe, but have thus far been largely limited to cross-sectional analyses. This study explored the potential to use the Longitudinal Study to describe trends in mortality inequality by educational attainment in England and Wales from 1971 to 2009 and the limitations in the available data. Comparison of cohort studies. Data from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study were used which takes a sample of respondees from each Census (1971-2001) and links them to death certification. Age-standardized mortality was calculated by educational attainment for those aged 25-69 years as was the Relative Index of Inequality and Slope Index of Inequality for men and women for each time period. Overall mortality declined in all categories of educational attainment for men and women from 1971. Limited data were collected on educational attainment in the Censuses prior to 2001, combined with the high proportion of respondents with missing data or reporting 'no education', meant that estimates of inequalities for the period 1971 to 2000 were very imprecise and likely to be misleading. For 2001-2009, the slope index of inequality was 268 (95% CI 57-478) and relative index of inequality was 0.61 (95% CI 0.13-1.10) for the total population; 354 (95% CI 72-636) and 0.67 (95% CI 0.14-1.21) respectively for men; and 231 (95% CI 72-389) and 0.66 (95% CI 0.21-1.11) respectively for women. Limited educational data in the Censuses prior to 2001 makes calculation of mortality inequalities by educational attainment in England and Wales imprecise and potentially misleading. International comparisons and time trend analyses using these data prior to 2001 should be done with great caution. Copyright © 2015 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. The declining influence of family background on educational attainment in Australia: The role of measured and unmeasured influences.

    PubMed

    Marks, Gary N; Mooi-Reci, Irma

    2016-01-01

    The paper examines changes in the influence of family background, including socioeconomic and social background variables on educational attainment in Australia for cohorts born between 1890 and 1982. We test hypotheses from modernization theory on sibling data using random effects models and find: (i) substantial declines in the influence of family background on educational attainment (indicated by the sibling intraclass correlations); (ii) declines in the effects of both economic and cultural socioeconomic background variables; (iii) changes in the effects of some social background variables (e.g., family size); (iv) and declines in the extent that socioeconomic and social background factors account for variation in educational attainment. Unmeasured family background factors are more important, and proportionally increasingly so, for educational attainment than the measured socioeconomic and social background factors analyzed. Fixed effects models showed steeper declines in the effects of socioeconomic background variables than in standard analyses suggesting that unmeasured family factors associated with socioeconomic background obscure the full extent of the decline. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. The Implications of Adult Identity for Educational and Work Attainment in Young Adulthood

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Benson, Janel E.; Johnson, Monica Kirkpatrick; Elder, Glen H., Jr.

    2012-01-01

    This study investigates the relation of young adult identities (ages 18-22 years), reflecting subjective age and psychosocial maturity, to educational and career attainment in young adulthood (ages 25-29 years). Add Health data show that having an older subjective age alone does not curtail attainment; the critical issue is the level of…

  9. Tackling the Remaining Attainment Gap between Students with and without Immigrant Background: An Investigation into the Equivalence of SES Constructs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lenkeit, Jenny; Caro, Daniel H.; Strand, Steve

    2015-01-01

    In England, students with immigrant background exhibit lower educational attainment than those without immigrant background. Family socioeconomic status (SES) helps explain differences in educational attainment, but a gap remains that differs in size for students with different immigrant backgrounds. While the explanatory repertoire for the…

  10. An Examination of the Factors Related to Women's Degree Attainment and Career Goals in Science, Technology, and Mathematics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nitopi, Marie

    2010-01-01

    During the last 30 years, women have made tremendous advances in educational attainment especially in post-secondary education. Despite these advances, recent researchers have revealed that women continue to remain underrepresented in attainment of graduate degrees in the sciences. The researcher's purpose in this study was to extend previous…

  11. Relationships of Causal Attributions and Academic Attainment among Colleges of Education Students in North-Western Nigeria

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sambo, Aminu; Mohammed, Aisha I.

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated the relationship of causal attributions and academic attainment of Colleges of Education students in north-west geo-political zone of Nigeria. The study was based on the hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between causal attributions academic attainment of students. The questionnaire on Academic Causal…

  12. Pupil Mobility, Attainment and Progress in Primary School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Strand, Steve; Demie, Feyisa

    2006-01-01

    This article presents an analysis of the association between pupil mobility and educational attainment in the 2002 national end of Key Stage 2 (KS2) tests for 11-year-old pupils in an inner London education authority. The results show that pupil mobility is strongly associated with low attainment in the end of key stage tests. However, the…

  13. Educational Attainment and Mortality in the United States: Effects of Degrees, Years of Schooling, and Certification

    PubMed Central

    Lawrence, Elizabeth M.; Rogers, Richard G.; Zajacova, Anna

    2016-01-01

    Researchers have extensively documented a strong and consistent education gradient for mortality, with more highly educated individuals living longer than those with less education. This study contributes to our understanding of the education-mortality relationship by determining the effects of years of education and degree attainment on mortality, and by including nondegree certification, an important but understudied dimension of educational attainment. We use data from the mortality-linked restricted-use files of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) sample (N=9,821) and Cox proportional hazards models to estimate mortality risk among U.S. adults. Results indicate that more advanced degrees and additional years of education are associated with reduced mortality risk in separate models, but when included simultaneously, only degrees remain influential. Among individuals who have earned a high school diploma only, additional years of schooling (beyond 12) and vocational school certification (or similar accreditation) are both independently associated with reduced risks of death. Degrees appear to be most important for increasing longevity; the findings also suggest that any educational experience can be beneficial. Future research in health and mortality should consider including educational measures beyond a single variable for educational attainment. PMID:27482124

  14. Genetic and Environmental Transactions Underlying Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Wendy; Deary, Ian J.; Iacono, William G.

    2009-01-01

    This report used a population-representative longitudinal twin study with two birth cohorts to explore the association between intelligence and education by understanding how genetic and environmental influences on intelligence moderate genetic and environmental influences on school grades and educational attainment. Nonshared environmental…

  15. Can people with disabilities gain from education? Similarities and differences between occupational attainment among persons with and without disabilities.

    PubMed

    Boman, Tomas; Kjellberg, Anders; Danermark, Berth; Boman, Eva

    2014-01-01

    More knowledge is needed of occupational attainment of persons with disabilities, i.e., the relationship between their educational level and their profession, and factors of importance for this relationship. To compare occupational attainment among persons with and without a disability. 3396 informants with disabilities and 19,004 non-disabled informants participated (control group) in a survey study by Statistics Sweden.The informants with disabilities were divided into six groups. Occupational attainment did not differ between the disability groups, neither between persons with and without a disability. Follow-up analysis showed that men with disabilities with primary or secondary school had an occupation above their educational level to a significantly larger extent than women with disabilities. This pattern was even clearer in comparison with the control group. Persons without disabilities, with secondary or higher education, were more successful in the labor market than persons with disabilities. Occupational attainment increased with age in both groups. Young women with disabilities who only have primary or secondary education run a higher risk of having a job that is below their educational level than men at the same educational level. This indicates discriminating mechanisms in the society related to gender and ability.

  16. Is there a relationship between elderly suicide rates and educational attainment? A cross-national study.

    PubMed

    Shah, Ajit; Chatterjee, Santanu

    2008-11-01

    Suicides are associated with both high and low levels of intelligence and educational attainment in both individual-level and aggregate-level studies, but this has been rarely studied in the elderly. A cross-national study examining the relationship between elderly suicide rates (y-axis) and educational attainment (x-axis) was undertaken with the 'a priori' hypothesis that the relationship would be curvilinear and follow a U-shaped curve with the quadratic equation Y = A + BX + CX(2), where A, B and C are constants. Data on suicide rates for both sexes in the age-bands 65-74 years and 75+ years, and the Education Index (a proxy measure of educational attainment) were ascertained from the World Health Organisation and the United Nations websites, respectively. The main finding was the predicted curvilinear relationship between suicide rates, in both sexes in both the elderly age-bands, and the Education Index fitting the quadratic equation Y = A + BX + CX(2). Given the cross-sectional study design, a causal relationship cannot be assumed. The impact of educational attainment on elderly suicide rates may occur through interaction with other factors, mediation of the effects of other factors, or by its effects being mediated by other factors, and require further study.

  17. Diet and physical activity as possible mediators of the association between educational attainment and body mass index gain among Australian adults.

    PubMed

    Gearon, Emma; Peeters, Anna; Ng, Winda; Hodge, Allison; Backholer, Kathryn

    2018-04-23

    To quantify the mediating role of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) and five dietary behaviours on educational differences in 13-year body mass index (BMI) gain across adulthood. Participants from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study (4791 women; 3103 men) who maintained or gained BMI over 1990-1994 to 2003-2007 and met our inclusion criteria were selected. Education, potential mediators and confounders (age, alcohol, and smoking) were measured at baseline. We conducted sex-specific multiple mediation analyses using MacKinnon's product of coefficients method. A higher educational attainment was associated with a 0.27 kg m -2 (95% CI 0.14, 0.39) lesser 13-year BMI gain among women only. We observed significant indirect effects of educational attainment on 13-year BMI gain through LTPA and nutrient-rich foods (each associated with a higher educational attainment and lesser 13-year BMI gain) and diet soft drink (associated with a lower educational attainment and greater 13-year BMI gain), which mediated 10, 15 and 20% of this relationship, respectively (45% in total). Nutrient-rich foods, LTPA and diet soft drink may represent effective public health targets to reduce inequities in excess weight across adulthood.

  18. The Influence of Closing Poor Performing Primary Schools on the Educational Attainment of Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    De Witte, Kristof; Van Klaveren, Chris

    2014-01-01

    This paper examines whether the closure of poor performing primary schools improved students' educational attainment. It is believed that school closure affects children's educational outcomes positively because children switch to better primary schools. At the same time, school closure creates a social disturbance such that educational outcomes…

  19. Class and University Education: Inter-Generational Patterns in Canada. NALL Working Paper.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Livingstone, D. W.; Stowe, Susan

    Young people from lower class origins continue to face major barriers to university education in Canada. This paper documents both substantial inter-generational class mobility and continuing inequalities in formal educational attainments by class origins. While Canada now has the world's higher educational attainments in its youth cohort and has…

  20. What Does Class Origin and Education Mean for the Capabilities of Agency and Voice?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nordlander, Erica; Strandh, Mattias; Brännlund, Annica

    2015-01-01

    This article investigates the relationship between class origin, educational attainment, and the capabilities of agency and voice. The main objectives are to investigate how class origin and educational attainment interact and to consider whether higher education reduces any structural inequalities in the social aspects of life. A longitudinal…

  1. Schooling Attainment's Influence on Internet Adoption: Education's Role in the Cross-National Development of the Mass-Media Knowledge Gap

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mann, Bryan A.; Smith, William C.; Baker, David P.

    2016-01-01

    Research about innovation adoption underplays the role of educational attainment in the individual consumption of technology; consequently, past research underestimates the importance education plays independent of wealth in diffusion, particularly as absolute levels of formal education rise worldwide. Using data from the Programme for…

  2. Funding and the Attainment of Transformation Goals in South Africa's Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wangenge-Ouma, Gerald

    2010-01-01

    The link between the funding of higher education and the attainment of higher education transformation goals in South Africa, especially access by students from previously under-represented communities, is the main focus of this paper. Specifically, the paper examines three questions: (a) How does public funding of higher education encourage (or…

  3. Education across Borders: The Relationship between Age at Migration and Educational Attainment for Mexico-U.S. Child Migrants

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Karyn

    2016-01-01

    Background/Context: The flow of people, including children, across international borders is a growing trend. While research has emphasized the relationship between parental migration and children's educational outcomes, little is known about how child migration itself influences educational attainment. Purpose: To examine the relationship between…

  4. Two Decades of Negative Educational Selectivity of Mexican Migrants to the United States

    PubMed Central

    Rendall, Michael S.; Parker, Susan W.

    2015-01-01

    Immigration is commonly considered to be selective of more able individuals. Studies comparing the educational attainment of Mexican immigrants in the United States to that of the Mexican resident population support this characterization. Upward educational-attainment biases in both coverage and measurement, however, may be substantial in U.S. data sources. Moreover, differences in educational attainment by place size are very large within Mexico, and U.S. data sources provide no information on immigrants’ places of origin within Mexico. To address these problems, we use multiple sources of nationally-representative Mexican survey data to re-evaluate the educational selectivity of working-age Mexican migrants to the United States over the 1990s and 2000s. We document disproportionately rural and small-urban-area origins of Mexican migrants and a steep positive gradient of educational attainment by place size. We show that together these conditions induced strongly negative educational selection of Mexican migrants throughout the 1990s and 2000s. We interpret this finding as consistent with low returns to the education of unauthorized migrants and few opportunities for authorized migration. PMID:25995526

  5. Educational attainment and adult literacy: A descriptive account of 31 Sub-Saharan Africa countries.

    PubMed

    Smith-Greenaway, Emily

    2015-11-11

    More than 60 years ago the international community declared literacy a basic human right. Recognition of its intrinsic value and evidence of its social and economic benefits have motivated an expansive international effort to estimate the percentage of adults that can read, especially in low-income countries where educational opportunities are limited. Population data on adults' educational attainment is commonly used to approximate adult literacy rates. Though increasing evidence from school-based studies of pupils confirm literacy achievement is not universal - even at advanced grades - it remains unclear whether adults' educational attainment is reflective of their literacy. This study leverages population-based data that include direct assessments of adults' literacy skills to provide a descriptive account of the proportion of adults that can read at each level of educational attainment. The study focuses on the Sub-Saharan African context, a world region where school participation has expanded rapidly in the last three decades. Because many African adults have discontinued their education at the primary level, the study focuses on basic reading skills at each level of primary school. The study focuses specifically on women, whose literacy has garnered extensive international interest. Demographic and Health Survey data from 31 African countries confirm that there are many instances in which women have several years of primary school but cannot read. In fact, in some countries, large proportions of African women who never went to school can read, even as some of their peers who have completed primary school cannot. The weak correlation between educational attainment and literacy is not specific to older cohorts of women, but is also observed among younger women. The findings demonstrate that educational attainment is generally a poor proxy for literacy, highlighting the need to measure, theorize, and study literacy as empirically distinct from education.

  6. Is Labour Market Demand Keeping Pace with the Rising Educational Attainment of the Population? Education Indicators in Focus. No. 57

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    OECD Publishing, 2017

    2017-01-01

    Across OECD countries, more and more individuals have attained tertiary education and the share of those with less education has declined. Although there are more tertiary-educated individuals than ever before, they still achieve good labour market outcomes. This confirms that labour market demand is generally keeping pace with rising educational…

  7. From Parents to Children: The Impact of Mothers' and Fathers' Educational Attainments on Those of Their Sons and Daughters in West Germany

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Minello, Alessandra; Blossfeld, Hans-Peter

    2017-01-01

    Empirical studies have repeatedly shown that in Germany educational success still strongly depends on the social origin of individuals. Using the National Educational Panel Study, we analyse the effects of fathers' and mothers' education levels on their sons' and daughters' educational attainments across three successive birth cohorts in West…

  8. United States black:white infant mortality disparities are not inevitable: identification of community resilience independent of socioeconomic status.

    PubMed

    Fry-Johnson, Yvonne W; Levine, Robert; Rowley, Diane; Agboto, Vincent; Rust, George

    2010-01-01

    U.S. disparities in Black:White infant mortality are persistent. National trends, however, may obscure local successes. Zero-corrected, negative binomial multivariable modeling was used to predict Black infant mortality (1999-2003) in all U.S. counties with reliable rates. Independent variables included county population size, racial composition, educational attainment, poverty, income and geographic origin. Resilient counties were defined as those whose Black infant mortality rate residual score was < 2.0. Mortality data was accessed from the Compressed Mortality File compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics and found on the CDC WONDER website. Demographic information was obtained from the US Census. The final model included the percentage of Blacks, age 18 to 64 years, speaking little or no English (P < .008), a socioeconomic index comprising educational attainment, poverty, and per capita income (P < .001), and household income in 1990 (P < .001). After accounting for these factors, a stratum comprising Essex and Plymouth Counties, Mass.; Bronx, N.Y.; and Multnomah, Ore. was identified as unusually resilient. Percentage of Black poverty and educational attainment in Black women in the resilient stratum approximated the average for all 330 counties. In 1979, Black infant mortality in the resilient stratum (23.6 per 1000 live births) exceeded Black US infant mortality (22.6). By 2001, Black infant mortality in the resilient stratum (5.6) was below the corresponding value for Whites (5.7). Resilient county neonatal mortality declined both early and late in the observation period, while post-neonatal declines were most marked after 1996. Models for reduction/elimination of racial disparities in US infant mortality, independent from county-level contextual measures of socioeconomic status, may already exist.

  9. The Role of Feedback in the Under-Attainment of Ethnic Minority Students: Evidence from Distance Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Richardson, John T. E.; Alden Rivers, Bethany; Whitelock, Denise

    2015-01-01

    In UK higher education, the attainment of ethnic minority students is lower than that of white students, and this remains the case when differences in entry qualifications have been taken into account. The present study investigated whether the under-attainment of ethnic minority students might be due to the nature of the feedback that they…

  10. Socioeconomic Status, Psychosocial Factors, Race and Nocturnal Blood Pressure Dipping in a Hispanic Cohort

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    BACKGROUND Little information is available about the relationship of socioeconomic status (SES) to blunted nocturnal ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) dipping among Hispanics and whether this relationship differs by race. We sought to characterize ABP nondipping and its determinants in a sample of Hispanics. METHODS We enrolled 180 Hispanic participants not on antihypertensive medications. SES was defined by years of educational attainment. All participants underwent 24-hour ABP monitoring. A decrease of <10% in the ratio between average awake and average asleep systolic BP was considered nondipping. RESULTS The mean age of the cohort was 67.1 ± 8.7, mean educational level was 9.4 ± 4.4 years, and 58.9% of the cohort was female. The cohort was comprised of 78.3% Caribbean Hispanics with the rest from Mexico and Central/South America; 41.4% self-identified as white Hispanic, 34.4% self-identified as black Hispanic, and 24.4% did not racially self- identify. The percentage of nondippers was 57.8%. Educational attainment (10.5 years vs. 8.6 years; P <0.01) was significantly higher among dippers than nondippers. In multivariable analyses, each 1-year increase in education was associated with a 9% reduction in the likelihood of being a nondipper (odds ratio [OR], 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.84–0.98; P = 0.01). There were significantly greater odds of being a nondipper for black Hispanics than for white Hispanics (OR, 2.83, 95% CI, 1.29–6.23; P = 0.005). Higher SES was significantly protective of nondipping in white Hispanics but not black Hispanics. CONCLUSIONS These results document a substantial prevalence of nondipping in a cohort of predominantly normotensive Hispanics. Dipping status varied significantly by race. Lower SES is significantly associated with nondipping status, and race potentially impacts on this relation. PMID:23547037

  11. Growth Trajectories of Mexican-Origin Adolescent Mothers’ Educational Expectations

    PubMed Central

    Bravo, Diamond Y.; Toomey, Russell B.; Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J.; Updegraff, Kimberly A.; Jahromi, Laudan B.

    2015-01-01

    Pregnant and parenting adolescents are at significant risk for educational underachievement. Educational expectations play a critical role for understanding subsequent educational attainment; yet, limited empirical attention has been given to changes in educational expectations across the transition to parenthood among adolescent mothers. This longitudinal study explored stability and change in educational expectations across the transition to parenthood among 191 first-time pregnant Mexican-origin adolescents (Mage = 16.76, SD = .98). The current study also examined how several contextually relevant risk and protective factors were associated with differential patterns of educational trajectories across this transition and subsequent educational attainment. Latent class growth analyses revealed three educational expectation trajectories: low and stable (< high school degree), moderate and increasing (≈ associate degree), and high and increasing (≈ bachelor’s degree). Adolescent mothers in the low and stable group encountered several educational risk factors that partially explained their probability of membership in this trajectory and subsequent lower attainment. Conversely, probability of membership in the high and increasing expectations class was partially explained by adolescents’ on-track school status at the time of pregnancy and their mother figures’ educational expectations for their pregnant daughters. These findings have implications for understanding the malleable factors that help to explain why some adolescent mothers describe consistently high educational expectations and subsequent higher attainment, while others do not. PMID:28392610

  12. Authentic Engagement for Promoting a College-Going Culture

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Collins, William

    2011-01-01

    The United States has lost ground internationally as a leader in educational attainment. Personal empowerment, national economic progress, and democratic ideals are enhanced through education, yet inequalities persist in the educational attainment of certain groups, such as low-income families or underrepresented minorities. Because the evolving…

  13. Interpreting Community Effects on Youth Educational Attainment.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    South, Scott J.; Baumer, Eric P.; Lutz, Amy

    2003-01-01

    Used longitudinal data from the National Survey of Children to examine factors explaining the higher school dropout and lower high school graduation rates in socioeconomically distressed communities. Results suggest that educational performance of peers is a key mechanism linking neighborhood disadvantage to youth educational attainment. Some of…

  14. The Relative Impact of Educational Attainment and Fatherlessness on Criminality.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Koski, Douglas D.

    1996-01-01

    Regression analysis of 40 years of data on median income, education, divorce rate, and female-headed households was conducted to determine their influence on crime rates, especially homicide. Educational attainment had a significant bearing on criminality. Single parenting was less significant than low income. (SK)

  15. Subnational Variations in Educational Attainment and Labour Market Outcomes. Education Indicators in Focus. No. 43

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    OECD Publishing, 2016

    2016-01-01

    Significant variations in educational attainment and labour market outcomes exist not only across OECD countries but also within them. Some regions concentrate the human capital of a country. In particular, many countries' capital regions stand out for their high share of tertiary-educated people. However, overall employment prospects are often…

  16. Nuestras Experiencias: A Phenomenological Study of Latina First Generation Higher Education Graduates

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cruz, Diana E.

    2012-01-01

    A review of the literature indicates that Latinos lag behind White and African American students in higher education degree attainment. This educational gap is of concern because Latinos are the largest minority group in the United States, and the Latino population is expected to increase in the future. Higher education degree attainment for…

  17. Growing Wealth Gaps in Education. National Poverty Center Working Paper Series #16-06

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pfeffer, Fabian

    2016-01-01

    Prior research on trends in educational inequality has focused chiefly on changing gaps in educational attainment by family income or parental occupation. In contrast, this contribution provides the first assessment of trends in educational attainment by family wealth and suggests that we should be at least as much concerned about growing wealth…

  18. Hollowing Out: Job Loss, Job Growth and Skills for the Future. Education and Training

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Halbert, Hannah C.; Krueger, Tim

    2011-01-01

    This report examines Ohio's changing economy and whether Ohio is well positioned to meet the shifting skill demand. After examining job losses and job growth projections by sector and education attainment, findings revealed that Ohio has a projected education attainment gap for workers with some post-secondary education but less than a college…

  19. Gender, Educational Attainment, and the Impact of Parental Migration on Children Left Behind.

    PubMed

    Antman, Francisca M

    2012-10-01

    Estimation of the causal effect of parental migration on children's educational attainment is complicated by the fact that migrants and non-migrants are likely to differ in unobservable ways that also affect children's educational outcomes. This paper suggests a novel way of addressing this selection problem by looking within the family to exploit variation in siblings' ages at the time of parental migration. The basic assumption underlying the analysis is that parental migration will have no effect on the educational outcomes of children who are at least 20 because they have already completed their educations. Their younger siblings, in contrast, may still be in school, and thus will be affected by the parental migration experience. The results point to a statistically significant positive effect of paternal U.S. migration on education for girls, suggesting that pushing a father's U.S. migration earlier in his daughter's life can lead to an increase in her educational attainment of up to 1 year relative to delaying migration until after she has turned 20. In contrast, paternal domestic migration has no statistically significant effect on educational attainment for girls or boys, suggesting that father absence does not play a major role in determining children's educational outcomes. Instead, these results suggest that the marginal dollars from U.S. migrant remittances appear to enable families to further educate their daughters. Thus, policymakers should view international migration as a potential pathway by which families raise educational attainments of girls in particular. JEL: O15; J12; J13; J16; J24; F22.

  20. Gender, Educational Attainment, and the Impact of Parental Migration on Children Left Behind*

    PubMed Central

    Antman, Francisca M.

    2016-01-01

    Estimation of the causal effect of parental migration on children’s educational attainment is complicated by the fact that migrants and non-migrants are likely to differ in unobservable ways that also affect children’s educational outcomes. This paper suggests a novel way of addressing this selection problem by looking within the family to exploit variation in siblings’ ages at the time of parental migration. The basic assumption underlying the analysis is that parental migration will have no effect on the educational outcomes of children who are at least 20 because they have already completed their educations. Their younger siblings, in contrast, may still be in school, and thus will be affected by the parental migration experience. The results point to a statistically significant positive effect of paternal U.S. migration on education for girls, suggesting that pushing a father’s U.S. migration earlier in his daughter’s life can lead to an increase in her educational attainment of up to 1 year relative to delaying migration until after she has turned 20. In contrast, paternal domestic migration has no statistically significant effect on educational attainment for girls or boys, suggesting that father absence does not play a major role in determining children’s educational outcomes. Instead, these results suggest that the marginal dollars from U.S. migrant remittances appear to enable families to further educate their daughters. Thus, policymakers should view international migration as a potential pathway by which families raise educational attainments of girls in particular. JEL: O15; J12; J13; J16; J24; F22 PMID:27616818

  1. Does education modify motor compensation in Parkinson's disease?

    PubMed

    Sunwoo, Mun K; Hong, Jin Yong; Lee, Jae J; Lee, Phil H; Sohn, Young H

    2016-03-15

    In Alzheimer's disease, higher educational attainment is associated with fewer cognitive deficits despite similar pathological lesions. In animal models of Parkinson's disease (PD), enhanced levels of cognitive and physical stimulation can reduce motor deficits due to dopaminergic neuronal loss. Therefore, in this study, we tested whether higher educational attainment has a beneficial influence on PD motor symptoms. We included data from 182 patients with de novo PD without dementia, who underwent dopamine transporter (DAT) scans for an initial diagnostic work-up. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to their educational attainment; high education (HE-PD; ≥12years of education) and low education (LE-PD; <12years of education). The HE-PD group exhibited significantly higher mini-mental state exam scores, fewer motor deficits, and lower DAT binding to the posterior putamen than the LE-PD group, despite a similar duration of PD symptoms. A general linear model revealed that this difference in motor deficits remained statistically significant after controlling for potential confounding factors (p=0.032). These results suggest that higher educational attainment can lead to reduced motor deficits in PD despite greater reductions in dopamine levels. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Pathways of Intergenerational Transmission of Advantages during Adolescence: Social Background, Cognitive Ability, and Educational Attainment.

    PubMed

    Schulz, Wiebke; Schunck, Reinhard; Diewald, Martin; Johnson, Wendy

    2017-10-01

    Educational attainment in adolescence is of paramount importance for attaining higher education and for shaping subsequent life chances. Sociological accounts focus on the role of differences in socioeconomic resources in intergenerational reproduction of educational inequalities. These often disregard the intergenerational transmission of cognitive ability and the importance of children's cognitive ability to educational attainment. Psychological perspectives stress the importance of cognitive ability for educational attainment but underemphasize potentially different roles of specific socioeconomic resources in shaping educational outcomes, as well as individual differences in cognitive ability. By integrating two strands of research, a clearer picture of the pathways linking the family of origin, cognitive ability, and early educational outcomes can be reached. Using the population-based TwinLife study in Germany, we investigated multidimensional pathways linking parental socioeconomic position to their children's cognitive ability and academic track attendance in the secondary school. The sample included twins (N = 4008), respectively ages 11 and 17, and siblings (N = 801). We observed strong genetic influences on cognitive ability, whereas shared environmental influences were much more important for academic tracking. In multilevel analyses, separate dimensions of socioeconomic resources influenced child cognitive ability, controlling parental cognitive ability. Controlling adolescent cognitive ability and parental cognitive ability, parental socioeconomic resources also directly affected track attendance. This indicated that it is crucial to investigate the intertwined influences on educational outcomes in adolescence of both cognitive ability and the characteristics of the family of origin.

  3. 76 FR 12860 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Indiana; Kentucky; Louisville...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-03-09

    ...; Determination of Attainment of the 1997 Annual Fine Particle Standard AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency... Kentucky) fine particle (PM 2.5 ) nonattainment area has attained the 1997 annual average PM 2.5 National... rule, pertaining to the determination of attainment of the fine particle standards for the Louisville...

  4. Parental aspirations for their children's educational attainment: relations to ethnicity, parental education, children's academic performance, and parental perceptions of school climate.

    PubMed

    Spera, Christopher; Wentzel, Kathryn R; Matto, Holly C

    2009-09-01

    This study examined parental aspirations for their children's educational attainment in relation to ethnicity (African American, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic), parental education, children's academic performance, and parental perceptions of the quality and climate of their children's school with a sample of 13,577 middle and high school parents. All parents had relatively high educational aspirations for their children, and within each ethnic subgroup, parental education and children's academic performance were significantly and positively related to parental aspirations. However, moderating effects were found such that Caucasian parents with lower levels of education had significantly lower educational aspirations for their children than did parents of other ethnicities with similar low levels of education. Although the strength of the relationship between parental perceptions of school-related factors and parental aspirations for their children's educational attainment was not strong, it was most predictive of non-Caucasian parental aspirations for their children.

  5. Why Do More Women than Men Want to Earn a Four-Year Degree? Exploring the Effects of Gender, Social Origin, and Social Capital on Educational Expectations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wells, Ryan S.; Seifert, Tricia A.; Padgett, Ryan D.; Park, Sueuk; Umbach, Paul D.

    2011-01-01

    Students' educational expectations are one of the strongest predictors of their future educational attainment (Mortimer, 1996; Reynolds & Burge, 2008; Sewell & Hauser, 1980; Sewell & Shah, 1968). Thus, the growing gender gap in educational expectations partially explains the growth in the gender gap in educational attainment (Reynolds & Burge,…

  6. Parental Aspirations for Their Children's Educational Attainment and the Realisation of Universal Primary Education (UPE) in Kenya: Evidence from Slum and Non-Slum Residences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Oketch, Moses; Mutisya, Maurice; Sagwe, Jackline

    2012-01-01

    There is a sound research base attesting to the importance of parental involvement and to the many potential benefits it can offer for children's education. This study sought to examine differences in parental aspirations (as a mechanism of parental involvement in their children's education) for their children's educational attainment between slum…

  7. Season, Sex, Age, and Education as Modifiers of the Effects of Outdoor Air Pollution on Daily Mortality in Shanghai, China: The Public Health and Air Pollution in Asia (PAPA) Study

    PubMed Central

    Kan, Haidong; London, Stephanie J.; Chen, Guohai; Zhang, Yunhui; Song, Guixiang; Zhao, Naiqing; Jiang, Lili; Chen, Bingheng

    2008-01-01

    Background Various factors can modify the health effects of outdoor air pollution. Prior findings about modifiers are inconsistent, and most of these studies were conducted in developed countries. Objectives We conducted a time-series analysis to examine the modifying effect of season, sex, age, and education on the association between outdoor air pollutants [particulate matter < 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10), sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone] and daily mortality in Shanghai, China, using 4 years of daily data (2001–2004). Methods Using a natural spline model to analyze the data, we examined effects of air pollution for the warm season (April–September) and cool season (October–March) separately. For total mortality, we examined the association stratified by sex and age. Stratified analysis by educational attainment was conducted for total, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality. Results Outdoor air pollution was associated with mortality from all causes and from cardiorespiratory diseases in Shanghai. An increase of 10 μg/m3 in a 2-day average concentration of PM10, SO2, NO2, and O3 corresponds to increases in all-cause mortality of 0.25% [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.14–0.37), 0.95% (95% CI, 0.62–1.28), 0.97% (95% CI, 0.66–1.27), and 0.31% (95% CI, 0.04–0.58), respectively. The effects of air pollutants were more evident in the cool season than in the warm season, and females and the elderly were more vulnerable to outdoor air pollution. Effects of air pollution were generally greater in residents with low educational attainment (illiterate or primary school) compared with those with high educational attainment (middle school or above). Conclusions Season, sex, age, and education may modify the health effects of outdoor air pollution in Shanghai. These findings provide new information about the effects of modifiers on the relationship between daily mortality and air pollution in developing countries and may have implications for local environmental and social policies. PMID:18795161

  8. Season, sex, age, and education as modifiers of the effects of outdoor air pollution on daily mortality in Shanghai, China: The Public Health and Air Pollution in Asia (PAPA) Study.

    PubMed

    Kan, Haidong; London, Stephanie J; Chen, Guohai; Zhang, Yunhui; Song, Guixiang; Zhao, Naiqing; Jiang, Lili; Chen, Bingheng

    2008-09-01

    Various factors can modify the health effects of outdoor air pollution. Prior findings about modifiers are inconsistent, and most of these studies were conducted in developed countries. We conducted a time-series analysis to examine the modifying effect of season, sex, age, and education on the association between outdoor air pollutants [particulate matter < 10 microm in aerodynamic diameter (PM(10)), sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone] and daily mortality in Shanghai, China, using 4 years of daily data (2001-2004). Using a natural spline model to analyze the data, we examined effects of air pollution for the warm season (April-September) and cool season (October-March) separately. For total mortality, we examined the association stratified by sex and age. Stratified analysis by educational attainment was conducted for total, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality. Outdoor air pollution was associated with mortality from all causes and from cardiorespiratory diseases in Shanghai. An increase of 10 mug/m(3) in a 2-day average concentration of PM(10), SO(2), NO(2), and O(3) corresponds to increases in all-cause mortality of 0.25% [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.14-0.37), 0.95% (95% CI, 0.62-1.28), 0.97% (95% CI, 0.66-1.27), and 0.31% (95% CI, 0.04-0.58), respectively. The effects of air pollutants were more evident in the cool season than in the warm season, and females and the elderly were more vulnerable to outdoor air pollution. Effects of air pollution were generally greater in residents with low educational attainment (illiterate or primary school) compared with those with high educational attainment (middle school or above). Season, sex, age, and education may modify the health effects of outdoor air pollution in Shanghai. These findings provide new information about the effects of modifiers on the relationship between daily mortality and air pollution in developing countries and may have implications for local environmental and social policies.

  9. Sexual Identity and Postsecondary Education: Outcomes, Institutional Factors, and Narratives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fine, Leigh Everett

    2012-01-01

    Sociological literature has not paid the same attention to the educational attainment of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons, despite their status as a socially marginalized group. Through the application of sociological methods and theories, my dissertation argues that sexual identity's effect on educational attainment is…

  10. Educational Credentialing of an Aging Workforce: Uneasy Conclusions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Isopahkala-Bouret, Ulpukka

    2015-01-01

    This study investigates the educational attainment of an aging workforce from the perspective of educational credentialing. The research questions are defined as follows: Why are workers over age 50 attaining university degrees? How do they narratively construct the rational for pursuing well-recognized credentials in midlife? The specific focus…

  11. Assessment's Place in the New MOOC World

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sandeen, Cathy

    2013-01-01

    Cathy Sandeen is Vice President for Education Attainment and Innovation at American Council on Education, the nation's largest organization providing leadership and advocacy for all sectors of higher education. Within this role she develops and articulates ACE's attainment agenda and currently oversees a large research project on Massive Open…

  12. Socioeconomic Outcomes from Adult Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gooderham, Paul N.

    1991-01-01

    The degree to which age and gender influence completion of higher secondary education (HSE) and employment status was measured with a sample of 350 Norwegian adults. Application of a Status Attainment model revealed that post-HSE educational attainment is an important determinant of socioeconomic status for both men and women. (SK)

  13. Gender, Poverty, Family Structure, and Investments in Children's Education in Kinshasa, Congo.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shapiro, David; Tambashe, B. Oleko

    2001-01-01

    Examines school enrollment and educational attainment in Kinshasa, Congo, focusing on how poverty, household structure, gender, and economic well-being affect investments in children's education. Increased economic well-being translates into greater attainment for both females and males, but does not necessarily reduce gender differences in school…

  14. The role of mentor type and timing in predicting educational attainment.

    PubMed

    Fruiht, Veronica M; Wray-Lake, Laura

    2013-09-01

    Having an adult mentor during adolescence has been found to predict academic success. Building on previous work, the present study examined interactions between the type of mentor (i.e., kin, teacher, friend, or community), the time that mentor became important (i.e., before, during, or after high school), and the ethnicity of the protégé in predicting educational attainment in young adulthood. Analyses used Waves III and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 2,409). Participants' ages ranged from 18 to 27 (M = 21.75, SD = 1.79). The sample was 56.7 % female and nationally representative of ethnic diversity. Analyses showed that having a teacher-mentor was more predictive of educational attainment than having other types of mentors and that overall, having a mentor after high school predicts the most educational attainment. Kin- and community-mentors appeared to be more important to educational attainment during and before high school, respectively. Findings were consistent across ethnic groups. Overall, results highlight the value of teacher-mentors throughout childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood and our study further suggests that different types of mentors may be particularly useful at specific points in development.

  15. Genome-wide association study identifies 74 loci associated with educational attainment.

    PubMed

    Okbay, Aysu; Beauchamp, Jonathan P; Fontana, Mark Alan; Lee, James J; Pers, Tune H; Rietveld, Cornelius A; Turley, Patrick; Chen, Guo-Bo; Emilsson, Valur; Meddens, S Fleur W; Oskarsson, Sven; Pickrell, Joseph K; Thom, Kevin; Timshel, Pascal; de Vlaming, Ronald; Abdellaoui, Abdel; Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S; Bacelis, Jonas; Baumbach, Clemens; Bjornsdottir, Gyda; Brandsma, Johannes H; Pina Concas, Maria; Derringer, Jaime; Furlotte, Nicholas A; Galesloot, Tessel E; Girotto, Giorgia; Gupta, Richa; Hall, Leanne M; Harris, Sarah E; Hofer, Edith; Horikoshi, Momoko; Huffman, Jennifer E; Kaasik, Kadri; Kalafati, Ioanna P; Karlsson, Robert; Kong, Augustine; Lahti, Jari; van der Lee, Sven J; deLeeuw, Christiaan; Lind, Penelope A; Lindgren, Karl-Oskar; Liu, Tian; Mangino, Massimo; Marten, Jonathan; Mihailov, Evelin; Miller, Michael B; van der Most, Peter J; Oldmeadow, Christopher; Payton, Antony; Pervjakova, Natalia; Peyrot, Wouter J; Qian, Yong; Raitakari, Olli; Rueedi, Rico; Salvi, Erika; Schmidt, Börge; Schraut, Katharina E; Shi, Jianxin; Smith, Albert V; Poot, Raymond A; St Pourcain, Beate; Teumer, Alexander; Thorleifsson, Gudmar; Verweij, Niek; Vuckovic, Dragana; Wellmann, Juergen; Westra, Harm-Jan; Yang, Jingyun; Zhao, Wei; Zhu, Zhihong; Alizadeh, Behrooz Z; Amin, Najaf; Bakshi, Andrew; Baumeister, Sebastian E; Biino, Ginevra; Bønnelykke, Klaus; Boyle, Patricia A; Campbell, Harry; Cappuccio, Francesco P; Davies, Gail; De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel; Deloukas, Panos; Demuth, Ilja; Ding, Jun; Eibich, Peter; Eisele, Lewin; Eklund, Niina; Evans, David M; Faul, Jessica D; Feitosa, Mary F; Forstner, Andreas J; Gandin, Ilaria; Gunnarsson, Bjarni; Halldórsson, Bjarni V; Harris, Tamara B; Heath, Andrew C; Hocking, Lynne J; Holliday, Elizabeth G; Homuth, Georg; Horan, Michael A; Hottenga, Jouke-Jan; de Jager, Philip L; Joshi, Peter K; Jugessur, Astanand; Kaakinen, Marika A; Kähönen, Mika; Kanoni, Stavroula; Keltigangas-Järvinen, Liisa; Kiemeney, Lambertus A L M; Kolcic, Ivana; Koskinen, Seppo; Kraja, Aldi T; Kroh, Martin; Kutalik, Zoltan; Latvala, Antti; Launer, Lenore J; Lebreton, Maël P; Levinson, Douglas F; Lichtenstein, Paul; Lichtner, Peter; Liewald, David C M; Loukola, Anu; Madden, Pamela A; Mägi, Reedik; Mäki-Opas, Tomi; Marioni, Riccardo E; Marques-Vidal, Pedro; Meddens, Gerardus A; McMahon, George; Meisinger, Christa; Meitinger, Thomas; Milaneschi, Yusplitri; Milani, Lili; Montgomery, Grant W; Myhre, Ronny; Nelson, Christopher P; Nyholt, Dale R; Ollier, William E R; Palotie, Aarno; Paternoster, Lavinia; Pedersen, Nancy L; Petrovic, Katja E; Porteous, David J; Räikkönen, Katri; Ring, Susan M; Robino, Antonietta; Rostapshova, Olga; Rudan, Igor; Rustichini, Aldo; Salomaa, Veikko; Sanders, Alan R; Sarin, Antti-Pekka; Schmidt, Helena; Scott, Rodney J; Smith, Blair H; Smith, Jennifer A; Staessen, Jan A; Steinhagen-Thiessen, Elisabeth; Strauch, Konstantin; Terracciano, Antonio; Tobin, Martin D; Ulivi, Sheila; Vaccargiu, Simona; Quaye, Lydia; van Rooij, Frank J A; Venturini, Cristina; Vinkhuyzen, Anna A E; Völker, Uwe; Völzke, Henry; Vonk, Judith M; Vozzi, Diego; Waage, Johannes; Ware, Erin B; Willemsen, Gonneke; Attia, John R; Bennett, David A; Berger, Klaus; Bertram, Lars; Bisgaard, Hans; Boomsma, Dorret I; Borecki, Ingrid B; Bültmann, Ute; Chabris, Christopher F; Cucca, Francesco; Cusi, Daniele; Deary, Ian J; Dedoussis, George V; van Duijn, Cornelia M; Eriksson, Johan G; Franke, Barbara; Franke, Lude; Gasparini, Paolo; Gejman, Pablo V; Gieger, Christian; Grabe, Hans-Jörgen; Gratten, Jacob; Groenen, Patrick J F; Gudnason, Vilmundur; van der Harst, Pim; Hayward, Caroline; Hinds, David A; Hoffmann, Wolfgang; Hyppönen, Elina; Iacono, William G; Jacobsson, Bo; Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta; Jöckel, Karl-Heinz; Kaprio, Jaakko; Kardia, Sharon L R; Lehtimäki, Terho; Lehrer, Steven F; Magnusson, Patrik K E; Martin, Nicholas G; McGue, Matt; Metspalu, Andres; Pendleton, Neil; Penninx, Brenda W J H; Perola, Markus; Pirastu, Nicola; Pirastu, Mario; Polasek, Ozren; Posthuma, Danielle; Power, Christine; Province, Michael A; Samani, Nilesh J; Schlessinger, David; Schmidt, Reinhold; Sørensen, Thorkild I A; Spector, Tim D; Stefansson, Kari; Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur; Thurik, A Roy; Timpson, Nicholas J; Tiemeier, Henning; Tung, Joyce Y; Uitterlinden, André G; Vitart, Veronique; Vollenweider, Peter; Weir, David R; Wilson, James F; Wright, Alan F; Conley, Dalton C; Krueger, Robert F; Davey Smith, George; Hofman, Albert; Laibson, David I; Medland, Sarah E; Meyer, Michelle N; Yang, Jian; Johannesson, Magnus; Visscher, Peter M; Esko, Tõnu; Koellinger, Philipp D; Cesarini, David; Benjamin, Daniel J

    2016-05-26

    Educational attainment is strongly influenced by social and other environmental factors, but genetic factors are estimated to account for at least 20% of the variation across individuals. Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for educational attainment that extends our earlier discovery sample of 101,069 individuals to 293,723 individuals, and a replication study in an independent sample of 111,349 individuals from the UK Biobank. We identify 74 genome-wide significant loci associated with the number of years of schooling completed. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with educational attainment are disproportionately found in genomic regions regulating gene expression in the fetal brain. Candidate genes are preferentially expressed in neural tissue, especially during the prenatal period, and enriched for biological pathways involved in neural development. Our findings demonstrate that, even for a behavioural phenotype that is mostly environmentally determined, a well-powered GWAS identifies replicable associated genetic variants that suggest biologically relevant pathways. Because educational attainment is measured in large numbers of individuals, it will continue to be useful as a proxy phenotype in efforts to characterize the genetic influences of related phenotypes, including cognition and neuropsychiatric diseases.

  16. Post-retirement voluntary work and psychological functioning among older Chinese in Hong Kong.

    PubMed

    Wu, Anise M S; Tang, Catherine S K; Yan, Elsie C W

    2005-03-01

    This study examined demographic and psychosocial differences between older Chinese volunteers and non-volunteers. The influences of work-related factors on older Chinese volunteers' post-retirement psychological functioning and life satisfaction were also explored. A total of 501 older Chinese in Hong Kong were individually interviewed. About 65% of them were involved in community voluntary work since their retirement, with an average of four hours per week. Compared to those without voluntary work experiences, older Chinese volunteers had higher educational attainment and reported better physical health, higher self-efficacy, greater life satisfaction, and less psychological distress. Results from hierarchical regression analyses showed that salient correlates of a low level of psychological distress in older Chinese volunteers were high educational attainment, high self-efficacy, perceived good physical health, and high levels of perceived rewards and satisfaction from voluntary work. Self-efficacy and perceived rewards from voluntary work were also salient correlates of life satisfaction for older Chinese volunteers. As hypothesized, work-related factors of perceived rewards and work satisfaction remained significant correlates of older volunteers' psychological well-being, even after controlling for demographic and individual psychosocial factors. Limitations and implications of the study were also discussed.

  17. Why Are Some More Peer Than Others? Evidence from a Longitudinal Study of Social Networks and Individual Academic Performance

    PubMed Central

    Lomi, Alessandro; Snijders, Tom A.B.; Steglich, Christian E.G.; Torlo, Vanina Jasmine

    2014-01-01

    Studies of peer effects in educational settings confront two main problems. The first is the presence of endogenous sorting which confounds the effects of social influence and social selection on individual attainment. The second is how to account for the local network dependencies through which peer effects influence individual behavior. We empirically address these problems using longitudinal data on academic performance, friendship, and advice seeking relations among students in a full-time graduate academic program. We specify stochastic agent-based models that permit estimation of the interdependent contribution of social selection and social influence to individual performance. We report evidence of peer effects. Students tend to assimilate the average performance of their friends and of their advisors. At the same time, students attaining similar levels of academic performance are more likely to develop friendship and advice ties. Together, these results imply that processes of social influence and social selection are sub-components of a more general a co-evolutionary process linking network structure and individual behavior. We discuss possible points of contact between our findings and current research in the economics and sociology of education. PMID:25641999

  18. Why Are Some More Peer Than Others? Evidence from a Longitudinal Study of Social Networks and Individual Academic Performance.

    PubMed

    Lomi, Alessandro; Snijders, Tom A B; Steglich, Christian E G; Torlo, Vanina Jasmine

    2011-11-01

    Studies of peer effects in educational settings confront two main problems. The first is the presence of endogenous sorting which confounds the effects of social influence and social selection on individual attainment. The second is how to account for the local network dependencies through which peer effects influence individual behavior. We empirically address these problems using longitudinal data on academic performance, friendship, and advice seeking relations among students in a full-time graduate academic program. We specify stochastic agent-based models that permit estimation of the interdependent contribution of social selection and social influence to individual performance. We report evidence of peer effects. Students tend to assimilate the average performance of their friends and of their advisors. At the same time, students attaining similar levels of academic performance are more likely to develop friendship and advice ties. Together, these results imply that processes of social influence and social selection are sub-components of a more general a co-evolutionary process linking network structure and individual behavior. We discuss possible points of contact between our findings and current research in the economics and sociology of education.

  19. Children at Risk from Domestic Violence and Their Educational Attainment: Perspectives of Education Welfare Officers, Social Workers and Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Byrne, Dorothy; Taylor, Brian

    2007-01-01

    Children who witness domestic violence may have impaired educational attainment as well as facing other challenges such as struggles with self-esteem and forming relationships. This qualitative study set in Northern Ireland explored the perceptions of Education Welfare Officers, child protection social workers and teachers in post-primary schools…

  20. Civic Education as a Collaborative Dimension of Social Studies Education in Attainment of Political Ethics in Nigeria

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dania, Peter

    2015-01-01

    The paper investigated Civic Education as a collaborative dimension of Social Studies Education in attainment of political ethics in Nigeria. The study adopted the survey research design. The sample for the study consisted of 580 Social Studies teachers selected from thirty secondary schools in the three senatorial districts of Delta State. The…

  1. Parental Aspirations for Their Children's Educational Attainment: Relations to Ethnicity, Parental Education, Children's Academic Performance, and Parental Perceptions of School Climate

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Spera, Christopher; Wentzel, Kathryn R.; Matto, Holly C.

    2009-01-01

    This study examined parental aspirations for their children's educational attainment in relation to ethnicity (African American, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic), parental education, children's academic performance, and parental perceptions of the quality and climate of their children's school with a sample of 13,577 middle and high school parents. All…

  2. Credit Where Credit Is Due: An Approach to Education Returns Based on Shapley Values

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barakat, Bilal; Crespo Cuaresma, Jesus

    2017-01-01

    We propose the use of methods based on the Shapley value to assess the fact that private returns to lower levels of educational attainment should be credited with part of the returns from higher attainment levels, since achieving primary education is a necessary condition to enter secondary and tertiary educational levels. We apply the proposed…

  3. Emergy Evaluation of the United States, U.S. Education, Educational Attainment and the National Financial System from 1950 through 2016

    EPA Science Inventory

    Past work quantifying the emergy basis for the U.S. economy, the U.S. education system and the educational attainment of the population through 2011 is brought up to date with the most recent data available from the U.S. Statistical Abstracts as well as other critical information...

  4. Education, the Process of Attainment and the Structure of Inequality. Discussion Papers #393-77.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sorensen, Aage B.

    This paper analyzes the properties of the process of social and economic attainments in two contrasting situations: (1) when the process of attainment generates the distribution of attainments, and (2) when the structure of attainments is seen as exogenously determined. It is argued that the neoclassical economic theory of earnings determination…

  5. The use of Goal Attainment Scaling in a community health promotion initiative with seniors.

    PubMed

    Kloseck, Marita

    2007-07-03

    Evaluating collaborative community health promotion initiatives presents unique challenges, including engaging community members and other stakeholders in the evaluation process, and measuring the attainment of goals at the collective community level. Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) is a versatile, under-utilized evaluation tool adaptable to a wide range of situations. GAS actively involves all partners in the evaluation process and has many benefits when used in community health settings. The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of GAS as a potential means of measuring progress and outcomes in community health promotion and community development projects. GAS methodology was used in a local community of seniors (n = 2500; mean age = 76 +/- 8.06 SD; 77% female, 23% male) to a) collaboratively set health promotion and community partnership goals and b) objectively measure the degree of achievement, over- or under-achievement of the established health promotion goals. Goal attainment was measured in a variety of areas including operationalizing a health promotion centre in a local mall, developing a sustainable mechanism for recruiting and training volunteers to operate the health promotion centre, and developing and implementing community health education programs. Goal attainment was evaluated at 3 monthly intervals for one year, then re-evaluated again at year 2. GAS was found to be a feasible and responsive method of measuring community health promotion and community development progress. All project goals were achieved at one year or sooner. The overall GAS score for the total health promotion project increased from 16.02 at baseline (sum of scale scores = -30, average scale score = -2) to 54.53 at one year (sum of scale scores = +4, average scale score = +0.27) showing project goals were achieved above the expected level. With GAS methodology an amalgamated score of 50 represents the achievement of goals at the expected level. GAS provides a "participatory", flexible evaluation approach that involves community members, research partners and other stakeholders in the evaluation process. GAS was found to be "user-friendly" and readily understandable by seniors and other community partners not familiar with program evaluation.

  6. Estimating the Cost of Providing Foundational Public Health Services.

    PubMed

    Mamaril, Cezar Brian C; Mays, Glen P; Branham, Douglas Keith; Bekemeier, Betty; Marlowe, Justin; Timsina, Lava

    2017-12-28

    To estimate the cost of resources required to implement a set of Foundational Public Health Services (FPHS) as recommended by the Institute of Medicine. A stochastic simulation model was used to generate probability distributions of input and output costs across 11 FPHS domains. We used an implementation attainment scale to estimate costs of fully implementing FPHS. We use data collected from a diverse cohort of 19 public health agencies located in three states that implemented the FPHS cost estimation methodology in their agencies during 2014-2015. The average agency incurred costs of $48 per capita implementing FPHS at their current attainment levels with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 16 percent. Achieving full FPHS implementation would require $82 per capita (CV=19 percent), indicating an estimated resource gap of $34 per capita. Substantial variation in costs exists across communities in resources currently devoted to implementing FPHS, with even larger variation in resources needed for full attainment. Reducing geographic inequities in FPHS may require novel financing mechanisms and delivery models that allow health agencies to have robust roles within the health system and realize a minimum package of public health services for the nation. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

  7. Parental Investments in Schooling: The Roles of Gender and Resources in Urban Brazil. Labor and Population Program Working Paper Series 96-02.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thomas, Duncan; And Others

    This study examines the rate of educational attainment of women in Brazil. There have been dramatic increases in women's educational attainment, where today women are better educated than men. The study explores the importance of education and income of mothers and fathers in explaining the growth that has occurred. Maternal education has a bigger…

  8. The fiscal consequences of ADHD in Germany: a quantitative analysis based on differences in educational attainment and lifetime earnings.

    PubMed

    Kotsopoulos, Nikolaos; Connolly, Mark P; Sobanski, Esther; Postma, Maarten J

    2013-03-01

    To estimate the long-term fiscal consequences of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on the German government and social insurance system based on differences in educational attainment and the resulting differences in lifetime earnings compared with non-ADHD cohorts. Differences in educational attainment between ADHD and non-ADHD cohorts were linked to education-specific earnings data. Direct and indirect tax rates and social insurance contributions were linked to differences in lifetime, education-specific earnings to derive lost tax revenue in Germany associated with ADHD. For ADHD and non-ADHD cohorts we derived the age-specific discounted net taxes paid by deducting lifetime transfers from lifetime gross taxes paid. The lifetime net tax revenue for a non-ADHD individual was approximately EUR 80,000 higher compared to an untreated ADHD individual. The fiscal burden of untreated ADHD, based on a cohort of n=31,844 born in 2010, was estimated at EUR 2.5 billion in net tax revenue losses compared with an equally-sized non-ADHD cohort. ADHD interventions providing a small improvement in educational attainment resulted in fiscal benefits from increases in lifetime tax gains. ADHD results in long-term financial loss due to lower education attainment and lifetime reduced earnings and resulting lifetime taxes and social contributions paid. Investments in ADHD interventions allowing more children to achieve their educational potential may offer fiscal benefits generating a positive rate of return.

  9. Educational attainment and gestational weight gain among US mothers

    PubMed Central

    Cohen, Alison K.; Kazi, Chandni; Headen, Irene; Rehkopf, David H.; Hendrick, C. Emily; Patil, Divya; Abrams, Barbara

    2016-01-01

    Background Education is an important social determinant of many health outcomes, but the relationship between educational attainment and the amount of weight gained over the course of a woman's pregnancy (gestational weight gain (GWG)) has not been clearly established. Methods We used data from 1979-2010 for women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (n= 6344 pregnancies from 2769 women). We used generalized estimating equations to estimate the association between educational attainment and GWG adequacy (as defined by 2009 Institute of Medicine guidelines), controlling for diverse social factors from across the life course (e.g., income, wealth, educational aspirations and expectations) and considering effect measure modification by race/ethnicity and pre-pregnancy overweight status. Results In most cases, women with more education had increased odds of gaining a recommended amount of gestational weight, independent of educational aspirations and educational expectations and relatively robust to sensitivity analyses. This trend manifested itself in a few different ways. Those with less education had higher odds of inadequate GWG than those with more education. Among those who were not overweight pre-pregnancy, those with less education had higher odds of excessive GWG than college graduates. Among women who were white, those with less than a high school degree had higher odds of excessive GWG than those with more education. Conclusion The relationship between educational attainment and GWG is nuanced and nonlinear. PMID:27372419

  10. Models of Educational Attainment: A Theoretical and Methodological Critique

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Byrne, D. S.; And Others

    1973-01-01

    Uses cluster analysis techniques to show that egalitarian policies in secondary education coupled with high financial inputs have measurable payoffs in higher attainment rates, based on Max Weber's notion of power'' within a community. (Author/JM)

  11. Gender-Specific Trends in Educational Attainment and Self-Rated Health, 1972–2002

    PubMed Central

    Hill, Terrence D.; Needham, Belinda L.

    2006-01-01

    Objectives. We tested whether self-rated health has improved over time (1972–2002) for women and men. We also considered the degree to which historical gains in educational attainment help to explain any observed trends. Methods. Using 21 years of repeated cross-sectional data from the General Social Survey, we estimated a series of ordered logistic regression models predicting self-rated health. Results. Our results show that women’s health status has steadily improved over the 30-year period under study, and these improvements are largely explained by gains in educational attainment. We also found that the health trend for men is nonlinear, suggesting significant fluctuations in health status over time. Conclusions. Based on the linear health status trend and strong mediation pattern for women, and the nonlinear health status trend for men, women have benefited more than men, in terms of self-rated health, from increased educational attainment. PMID:16735623

  12. Household Structure and Children’s Educational Attainment: A Perspective on Coresidence with Grandparents

    PubMed Central

    Monserud, Maria A.; Elder, Glen H.

    2013-01-01

    Children from alternative households complete fewer years of schooling. Yet little is known about the implications of coresidence with grandparents for educational attainment. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 10,083), this study found that extended households with two biological parents were not detrimental to high school completion or college enrollment. Although coresidence with grandparents did not compensate for not living with two biological parents, it seemed to be beneficial for the educational attainment of youth from single-mother households. In contrast, skipped-generation households were associated with a persistent disadvantage for educational attainment. Limited socioeconomic resources partially accounted for the adverse effects of alternative households, whereas parenting quality did not explain these effects. Interactions of gender by household structure suggested that stepfather households could have negative consequences for high school completion and college enrollment only for girls. PMID:24415799

  13. Academic Well-Being, Mathematics Performance, and Educational Aspirations in Lower Secondary Education: Changes Within a School Year

    PubMed Central

    Widlund, Anna; Tuominen, Heta; Korhonen, Johan

    2018-01-01

    It has been suggested that both performance and academic well-being play a role in adolescent students’ educational attainment and school dropout. In this study, we therefore examined, first, what kinds of academic well-being (i.e., school burnout, schoolwork engagement, and mathematics self-concept) and mathematics performance profiles can be identified among lower secondary school students (Ngrade 7 = 583, Ngrade 9 = 497); second, how stable these profiles are across one school year during the seventh and ninth grades; and, third, how students with different academic well-being and mathematics performance profiles differ with respect to their educational aspirations. By means of latent profile analyses, three groups of students in seventh grade: thriving (34%), average (51%), and negative academic well-being (15%) and four groups of students in ninth grade: thriving (25%), average (50%), negative academic well-being (18%), and low-performing (7%) with distinct well-being and mathematics performance profiles were identified. Configural frequency analyses revealed that the profiles were relatively stable across one school year; 60% of the students displayed identical profiles over time. The thriving students reported the highest educational aspirations compared to the other groups. In addition, the low-performing students in the ninth grade had the lowest educational aspirations just before the transition to upper secondary school. Practical implications as well as directions for future research are discussed. PMID:29593603

  14. Academic Well-Being, Mathematics Performance, and Educational Aspirations in Lower Secondary Education: Changes Within a School Year.

    PubMed

    Widlund, Anna; Tuominen, Heta; Korhonen, Johan

    2018-01-01

    It has been suggested that both performance and academic well-being play a role in adolescent students' educational attainment and school dropout. In this study, we therefore examined, first, what kinds of academic well-being (i.e., school burnout, schoolwork engagement, and mathematics self-concept) and mathematics performance profiles can be identified among lower secondary school students ( N grade 7 = 583, N grade 9 = 497); second, how stable these profiles are across one school year during the seventh and ninth grades; and, third, how students with different academic well-being and mathematics performance profiles differ with respect to their educational aspirations. By means of latent profile analyses, three groups of students in seventh grade: thriving (34%), average (51%), and negative academic well-being (15%) and four groups of students in ninth grade: thriving (25%), average (50%), negative academic well-being (18%), and low-performing (7%) with distinct well-being and mathematics performance profiles were identified. Configural frequency analyses revealed that the profiles were relatively stable across one school year; 60% of the students displayed identical profiles over time. The thriving students reported the highest educational aspirations compared to the other groups. In addition, the low-performing students in the ninth grade had the lowest educational aspirations just before the transition to upper secondary school. Practical implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.

  15. Ganas: A Qualitative Study Examining Mexican Heritage Students' Motivation to Succeed in Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Easley, Nate, Jr.; Bianco, Margarita; Leech, Nancy

    2012-01-01

    The disparity between the educational attainment of Mexican heritage and White individuals illustrate a need for research on factors associated with the high educational attainment of some immigrant and first-generation students of Mexican descent. Using autobiographies, student interviews, and family interviews as data sources, this article…

  16. Adolescent Family Experiences and Educational Attainment during Early Adulthood

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Melby, Janet N.; Conger, Rand D.; Fang, Shu-Ann; Wickrama, K. A. S.; Conger, Katherine J.

    2008-01-01

    In this study, the authors investigated the degree to which a family investment model would help account for the association between family of origin socioeconomic characteristics and the later educational attainment of 451 young adults (age 26) from 2-parent families. Parents' educational level, occupational prestige, and family income in 1989…

  17. Youth Transition to Employment in Vietnam: A Vulnerable Path

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tran, Thi Tuyet

    2018-01-01

    Literature suggests that educational attainment is one of the significant factors affecting youth transition to work. The process of capital accumulation through education is suggested as the key marker of social inclusion and exclusion. This paper compares the educational attainment among youth in Vietnam with their status in employment. It uses…

  18. Exploring the Wealth Returns to Latino Higher Educational Attainment: Estimates of Work-Life Earnings Profiles

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Robles, Barbara J.

    2009-01-01

    A significant research gap exists in our knowledge of how educational attainment affects wealth building and intergenerational wealth transfers among Latinos. Wealth includes earnings but is a much wider and more fundamental measure of economic mobility. The education-earnings-wealth relationship is explored by constructing estimates of social…

  19. Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment: The Role of Household Assets

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huang, Jin

    2013-01-01

    High intergenerational persistence of educational attainment is an indicator of educational inequality and a barrier to equal opportunities in the labor market and beyond. This study uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to generate a sample of two cohorts of children ('84 and '94 cohorts), and it examines whether intergenerational…

  20. Trades-Related Post-Secondary Educational Attainment among Immigrant and Canadian-Born Young Adults in Alberta

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hira-Friesen, Parvinder Kaur; Haan, Michael; Krahn, Harvey

    2013-01-01

    This paper examines trades-related and university educational attainment (by age 25) of immigrant and Canadian-born Alberta youth while controlling for gender, family socio-economic status, high school grades, and parental encouragement regarding higher education. Data from the longitudinal Alberta School-Work Transitions Study (1996-2003) reveal…

  1. Key Data on Vocational Training in the European Union.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Thessaloniki (Greece).

    This book provides key quantitative and qualitative data on vocational education and training (VET) in the European Union. Among the topics on which data are provided are the following: demographic trends, educational attainment, and the labor market (aging of the population and labor force, changes in educational attainment over time, impacts of…

  2. Risky behaviors and educational attainment among young Mexican-origin mothers: The role of acculturative stress and the educational aspiration–expectation gap

    PubMed Central

    Bravo, Diamond Y.; Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J.; Toomey, Russell B.; Updegraff, Kimberly A.; Jahromi, Laudan B.

    2017-01-01

    The current longitudinal study examined how Mexican-origin adolescent mothers’ (N = 204) reports of acculturative stress during late adolescence were associated with their educational attainment and engagement in risky behaviors in young adulthood, 4 years post-partum; we also examined whether this association was mediated by discrepancies between adolescents’ educational aspirations and expectations. Findings revealed that mothers’ greater reports of stress regarding English competency pressures and pressures to assimilate were associated with a larger gap between their aspirations and expectations. Mothers’ reports of greater stress from pressures against assimilation, however, were associated with a smaller gap between aspirations and expectations. As expected, a larger gap between aspirations and expectations was associated with lower educational attainment and increased engagement in risky behaviors. Finally, significant mediation emerged, suggesting that the influence of stress from English competency pressures and pressures to assimilate on young mothers’ educational attainment and engagement in risky behaviors was mediated through the aspiration–expectation gap. Findings are discussed with respect to understanding discrepancies between young mothers’ aspirations and expectations in the context of acculturative stress. PMID:29263563

  3. Educational attainment in poor comprehenders

    PubMed Central

    Ricketts, Jessie; Sperring, Rachael; Nation, Kate

    2014-01-01

    To date, only one study has investigated educational attainment in poor (reading) comprehenders, providing evidence of poor performance on national UK school tests at age 11 years relative to peers (Cain and Oakhill, 2006). In the present study, we adopted a longitudinal approach, tracking attainment on such tests from 11 years to the end of compulsory schooling in the UK (age 16 years). We aimed to investigate the proposal that educational weaknesses (defined as poor performance on national assessments) might become more pronounced over time, as the curriculum places increasing demands on reading comprehension. Participants comprised 15 poor comprehenders and 15 controls; groups were matched for chronological age, nonverbal reasoning ability and decoding skill. Children were identified at age 9 years using standardized measures of nonverbal reasoning, decoding and reading comprehension. These measures, along with a measure of oral vocabulary knowledge, were repeated at age 11 years. Data on educational attainment were collected from all participants (n = 30) at age 11 and from a subgroup (n = 21) at 16 years. Compared to controls, educational attainment in poor comprehenders was lower at ages 11 and 16 years, an effect that was significant at 11 years. When poor comprehenders were compared to national performance levels, they showed significantly lower performance at both time points. Low educational attainment was not evident for all poor comprehenders. Nonetheless, our findings point to a link between reading comprehension difficulties in mid to late childhood and poor educational outcomes at ages 11 and 16 years. At these ages, pupils in the UK are making key transitions: they move from primary to secondary schools at 11, and out of compulsory schooling at 16. PMID:24904464

  4. Is the Effect of Parental Education on Offspring Biased or Moderated by Genotype?

    PubMed Central

    Conley, Dalton; Domingue, Benjamin W.; Cesarini, David; Dawes, Christopher; Rietveld, Cornelius A.; Boardman, Jason D.

    2017-01-01

    Parental education is the strongest measured predictor of offspring education, and thus many scholars see the parent–child correlation in educational attainment as an important measure of social mobility. But if social changes or policy interventions are going to have dynastic effects, we need to know what accounts for this intergenerational association, that is, whether it is primarily environmental or genetic in origin. Thus, to understand whether the estimated social influence of parental education on offspring education is biased owing to genetic inheritance (or moderated by it), we exploit the findings from a recent large genome-wide association study of educational attainment to construct a genetic score designed to predict educational attainment. Using data from two independent samples, we find that our genetic score significantly predicts years of schooling in both between-family and within-family analyses. We report three findings that should be of interest to scholars in the stratification and education fields. First, raw parent–child correlations in education may reflect one-sixth genetic transmission and five-sixths social inheritance. Second, conditional on a child’s genetic score, a parental genetic score has no statistically significant relationship to the child’s educational attainment. Third, the effects of offspring genotype do not seem to be moderated by measured sociodemographic variables at the parental level (but parent–child genetic interaction effects are significant). These results are consistent with the existence of two separate systems of ascription: genetic inheritance (a random lottery within families) and social inheritance (across-family ascription). We caution, however, that at the presently attainable levels of explanatory power, these results are preliminary and may change when better-powered genetic risk scores are developed. PMID:29051911

  5. The effects of adolescent intimate partner violence on women's educational attainment and earnings.

    PubMed

    Adams, Adrienne E; Greeson, Megan R; Kennedy, Angie C; Tolman, Richard M

    2013-11-01

    Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious, widespread problem that negatively affects women's lives, including their economic status. The current study explored whether the financial harm associated with IPV begins as early as adolescence. With longitudinal data from a sample of 498 women currently or formerly receiving welfare, we used latent growth curve modeling to examine the relationships between adolescent IPV, educational attainment, and women's earnings. We found that women who had been victimized by a partner during adolescence obtained less education compared with nonvictimized women, with victimization indirectly influencing women's earnings via educational attainment. The findings support the need for intervention strategies aimed at preventing IPV and promoting women's educational and career development over the life course.

  6. Associations of educational attainment, occupation and community poverty with knee osteoarthritis in the Johnston County (North Carolina) osteoarthritis project.

    PubMed

    Callahan, Leigh F; Cleveland, Rebecca J; Shreffler, Jack; Schwartz, Todd A; Schoster, Britta; Randolph, Randy; Renner, Jordan B; Jordan, Joanne M

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine data from the Johnston County Osteoarthritis (OA) Project for independent associations of educational attainment, occupation and community poverty with tibiofemoral knee OA. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted on 3,591 individuals (66% Caucasian and 34% African American). Educational attainment (< 12 years or ≥12 years), occupation (non-managerial or not), and census block group household poverty rate (< 12%, 12 to 25%, > 25%) were examined separately and together in logistic models adjusting for covariates of age, gender, race, body mass index (BMI), smoking, knee injury and occupational activity score. Outcomes were presence of radiographic knee OA (rOA), symptomatic knee OA (sxOA), bilateral rOA and bilateral sxOA. When all three socioeconomic status (SES) variables were analyzed simultaneously, low educational attainment was significantly associated with rOA (odds ratio (OR) = 1.44, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20, 1.73), bilateral rOA (OR = 1.43, 95% CI 1.13, 1.81), and sxOA (OR = 1.66, 95% CI 1.34, 2.06), after adjusting for covariates. Independently, living in a community of high household poverty rate was associated with rOA (OR = 1.83, 95% CI 1.43, 2.36), bilateral rOA (OR = 1.56, 95% CI 1.12, 2.16), and sxOA (OR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.00, 1.83). Occupation had no significant independent association beyond educational attainment and community poverty. Both educational attainment and community SES were independently associated with knee OA after adjusting for primary risk factors for knee OA.

  7. Racial disparities in the health benefits of educational attainment: a study of inflammatory trajectories among African American and white adults.

    PubMed

    Fuller-Rowell, Thomas E; Curtis, David S; Doan, Stacey N; Coe, Christopher L

    2015-01-01

    The current study examined the prospective effects of educational attainment on proinflammatory physiology among African American and white adults. Participants were 1192 African Americans and 1487 whites who participated in Year 5 (mean [standard deviation] age = 30 [3.5] years), and Year 20 (mean [standard deviation] age = 45 [3.5]) of an ongoing longitudinal study. Initial analyses focused on age-related changes in fibrinogen across racial groups, and parallel analyses for C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 assessed at Year 20. Models then estimated the effects of educational attainment on changes in inflammation for African Americans and whites before and after controlling for four blocks of covariates: a) early life adversity, b) health and health behaviors at baseline, c) employment and financial measures at baseline and follow-up, and d) psychosocial stresses in adulthood. African Americans had larger increases in fibrinogen over time than whites (B = 24.93, standard error = 3.24, p < .001), and 37% of this difference was explained after including all covariates. Effects of educational attainment were weaker for African Americans than for whites (B = 10.11, standard error = 3.29, p = .002), and only 8% of this difference was explained by covariates. Analyses for C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 yielded consistent results. The effects of educational attainment on inflammation levels were stronger for white than for African American participants. Why African Americans do not show the same health benefits with educational attainment is an important question for health disparities research.

  8. Attaining Success for Beginning Special Education Teachers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCabe, Marjorie; And Others

    1993-01-01

    Three case studies are presented that highlight problem scenarios relating to beginning special education intern teachers and explain how the teachers attained success. The cases focus on classroom management, adaptation of the core curriculum, and knowledge of instructional practices. (JDD)

  9. Vocational Education: Purposes, Roles, Responsibilities. Position Statement of National Association of State Directors of Vocational Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    National Association of State Directors of Vocational Education.

    The main purposes of vocational education are to provide individuals with the skills they need to attain economic freedom and to enhance the productivity of local, state, and national economies. Vocational education programs exist to serve all peoples and to aid in providing all skills needed for the individual to attain and keep a job related to…

  10. The Impact of College Education on Geographic Mobility: Identifying Education Using Multiple Components of Vietnam Draft Risk. NBER Working Paper No. 16463

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Malamud, Ofer; Wozniak, Abigail K.

    2010-01-01

    We examine whether higher education is a causal determinant of geographic mobility using variation in college attainment induced by draft-avoidance behavior during the Vietnam War. We use national and state-level induction risk to identify both educational attainment and veteran status among cohorts of affected men observed in the 1980 Census. Our…

  11. Family Resources and Mid-Life Level of Education: A Longitudinal Study of the Mediating Influence of Childhood Parental Involvement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    von Otter, Cecilia

    2014-01-01

    This paper draws on the concept of parental involvement, popular among educators and policy-makers, in investigating differences in level of attained education by family background. The question is if parental involvement in children's schooling at age 14 acts as a mediator between family resources and mid-life level of attained education. Using…

  12. Parental Educational Attainment and Offspring Subjective Well-being and Self-Beliefs in Older Adulthood.

    PubMed

    Sutin, Angelina R; Stephan, Yannick; Terracciano, Antonio

    2018-07-01

    This research examines whether parental educational attainment and subjective childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with adult offspring well-being and self-beliefs (broadly defined). Participants from the Health and Retirement Study were included if they completed the leave-behind questionnaire in 2006 or 2008 ( N =10,827; M age =68.38; SD =9.81; range=50-101). Participants reported on their own and both parents educational attainment, subjective childhood financial situation, and financial difficulties in childhood at study entry and on well-being in 2006/2008. Linear regression was used to examine the association between offspring education, parental education, childhood SES and three aspects of well-being and self-beliefs: positive affect (e.g., positive emotions, optimism), negative affect (e.g., loneliness, hostility), and cognitive evaluation (e.g., life satisfaction). Participants with more education reported higher well-being (median β=.12). Parental educational attainment, subjective childhood SES, and a significant financial event during childhood were associated with more positive affect, less negative affect, and higher life satisfaction (median β=.05); these associations held controlling for offspring education. The educational and financial environment of childhood may hamper well-being into older adulthood; the offspring's own experiences and achievements do not completely attenuate the association with these aspects of the childhood environment.

  13. Increased educational attainment and its effect on child mortality in 175 countries between 1970 and 2009: a systematic analysis.

    PubMed

    Gakidou, Emmanuela; Cowling, Krycia; Lozano, Rafael; Murray, Christopher J L

    2010-09-18

    In addition to the inherent importance of education and its essential role in economic growth, education and health are strongly related. We updated previous systematic assessments of educational attainment, and estimated the contribution of improvements in women's education to reductions in child mortality in the past 40 years. We compiled 915 censuses and nationally representative surveys, and estimated mean number of years of education by age and sex. By use of a first-differences model, we investigated the association between child mortality and women's educational attainment, controlling for income per person and HIV seroprevalence. We then computed counterfactual estimates of child mortality for every country year between 1970 and 2009. The global mean number of years of education increased from 4·7 years (95% uncertainty interval 4·4-5·1) to 8·3 years (8·0-8·6) for men (aged ≥25 years) and from 3·5 years (3·2-3·9) to 7·1 years (6·7 -7·5) for women (aged ≥25 years). For women of reproductive age (15-44 years) in developing countries, the years of schooling increased from 2·2 years (2·0-2·4) to 7·2 years (6·8-7·6). By 2009, in 87 countries, women (aged 25-34 years) had higher educational attainment than had men (aged 25-34 years). Of 8·2 million fewer deaths in children younger than 5 years between 1970 and 2009, we estimated that 4·2 million (51·2%) could be attributed to increased educational attainment in women of reproductive age. The substantial increase in education, especially of women, and the reversal of the gender gap have important implications not only for health but also for the status and roles of women in society. The continued increase in educational attainment even in some of the poorest countries suggests that rapid progress in terms of Millennium Development Goal 4 might be possible. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Effect of Retention in Elementary Grades on Grade 9 Motivation for Educational Attainment

    PubMed Central

    Cham, Heining; Hughes, Jan N.; West, Stephen G.; Im, Myung Hee

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated the effect of grade retention in elementary school on students’ motivation for educational attainment in grade 9. We equated retained and promoted students on 67 covariates assessed in grade 1 through propensity score weighting. Retained students (31.55%, nretained = 177) and continuously promoted students (68.45%, npromoted = 384) were compared on the bifactor model of motivation for educational attainment (Cham, Hughes, West, & Im, 2014). This model consists of a General factor (student’s overall motivation for educational attainment), and three specific factors: student perceived Teacher Educational Expectations, Peer Educational Aspirations, and Value of Education. Measurement invariance between retained and promoted groups was established. Retained students scored significantly higher than promoted students on each specific factor but not on the General factor. Results showed that the retained and promoted students did not significantly differ on the General factor. The retained students had significantly higher scores on each specific factor than the promoted students. The results suggested that grade retention may not have the negative effects so widely assumed in the published literature; it is an expensive intervention with minimal evidence of benefits to the retained student. PMID:25636258

  15. Factors related to the persistence and attainment of graduate degrees in the sciences by women science majors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carl, Janet E.

    Researchers have shown that women remain underrepresented in the sciences particularly in doctorate degree attainment. This investigator aimed to extend previous research by examining possible causes of gender disparity in science graduate education using data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study, B&B.:93/03. Variables in categories of demographics, academic achievement, financial resources, degree expectations and attitudes toward educational experiences, future study and employment were analyzed by t tests and hierarchical regression to determine gender differences in graduate degree expectations and attainment by male and female science majors. Findings supported gender disparity in undergraduate and graduate fields of study. Women dominated health areas and earned terminal master's degrees, whereas men dominated the physical science field and attained a higher proportion of doctorate degrees. Results also showed no gender differences in master's degree attainment in other fields thus confirming that these graduates did not persist in science fields. Graduate degree expectation was a strong predictor for master's and doctorate degree attainment. Parent education had a significant effect on degree expectations but not on graduate degree attainment. Women tended to have lower degree expectations and earned fewer science and math credits than men. Results showed that unemployment and loans predicted doctorate degree attainment by men and women showed higher levels of employment in graduate school.

  16. An examination of the factors related to women's degree attainment and career goals in science, technology, and mathematics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nitopi, Marie

    During the last 30 years, women have made tremendous advances in educational attainment especially in post-secondary education. Despite these advances, recent researchers have revealed that women continue to remain underrepresented in attainment of graduate degrees in the sciences. The researcher's purpose in this study was to extend previous research and to develop a model of variables that significantly contribute to persistence in and attainment of a graduate degree and an eventual career in the science, mathematics, or technology professions. Data were collected from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:93/03). Variables in the categories of demographics, academics, finances, values and attitudes toward educational experiences, and future employment were analyzed by t tests and logistic regressions to determine gender differences in graduate degree attainment and career goals by male and female who majored in science, technology and mathematics. Findings supported significant gender differences in expectations for a graduate degree, age at baccalaureate degree attainment, number of science and engineering credits taken, and the value of faculty interactions. Father's education had a significant effect on degree attainment. Women and men had similar expectations at the beginning of their educational career, but women tended to fall short of their degree expectations ten years later. A large proportion of women dropped out of the science pipeline by choosing different occupations after degree completion. Additionally, women earned fewer science and math credits than men. The professions of science and technology are crucial for the nation's economic growth and competitiveness; therefore, additional researchers should focus on retaining both men and women in the STEM professions.

  17. Is Educational Attainment Associated with Increased Risk of Mortality in People with Dementia? A Population-based Study.

    PubMed

    Contador, Israel; Stern, Yaakov; Bermejo-Pareja, Felix; Sanchez-Ferro, Alvaro; Benito-Leon, Julian

    2017-01-01

    The association between higher education and increased mortality in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is controversial. Further it is unknown whether education predicts survival in all dementia subtypes. We assessed mortality rates and death causes of persons with dementia compared to participants without dementia. Participants derive from the Neurological Disorders in Central Spain, a prospective population- based cohort study of older adults. We compared 269 persons with dementia to 2944 participants without dementia. We carried out Cox regression models to predict the risk of mortality dependent on the educational attainment adjusting for covariates. Reasons of death were obtained from the National Population Register. During a median follow-up of 5.4 years, 400 individuals died (171 with dementia, 229 without dementia). Among the participants with dementia, those with higher educational attainment had an increased risk of death than those with lower education; the adjusted hazard ratio (HRa) was 1.40 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01 to 1.94). When the analysis was restricted to patients with AD the HRa increased to 1.51 (95% CI = 1.01-2.24). By contrast, educational attainment was not associated with increased mortality among participants without dementia (HRa = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.71-1.20, p = 0.55), whereas education did not influence mortality in QD. Our findings suggest that high educational attainment is associated with increased mortality risk in people with dementia. This observation implies that neuropathology is more advanced in patients with higher education at any level of clinical severity, leading these individuals to an earlier death after diagnosis. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

  18. Malaria Eradication and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Paraguay and Sri Lanka†

    PubMed Central

    Lucas, Adrienne M.

    2013-01-01

    Mid-twentieth century malaria eradication campaigns largely eliminated malaria from Paraguay and Sri Lanka. Using these interventions as quasi-experiments, I estimate malaria’s effect on lifetime female educational attainment through the combination of pre-existing geographic variation in malarial intensity and cohort exposure based on the timing of the national anti-malaria campaigns. The estimates from Sri Lanka and Paraguay are similar and indicate that malaria eradication increased years of educational attainment and literacy. The similarity of the estimates across the countries reinforces our confidence in the validity of the identification strategy. PMID:23946866

  19. Childhood (Mis)Fortune, Educational Attainment, and Adult Health: Contingent Benefits of a College Degree?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schafer, Markus H.; Wilkinson, Lindsay R.; Ferraro, Kenneth F.

    2013-01-01

    College-educated adults are healthier than other people in the United States, but selection bias complicates our understanding of how education influences health. This article focuses on the possibility that the health benefits of college may vary according to childhood (mis)fortune and people's propensity to attain a college degree in the first…

  20. Relation of Opportunity to Learn Advanced Math to the Educational Attainment of Rural Youth

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Irvin, Matthew; Byun, Soo-yong; Smiley, Whitney S.; Hutchins, Bryan C.

    2017-01-01

    Our study examined the relation of advanced math course taking to the educational attainment of rural youth. We used data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. Regression analyses demonstrated that when previous math achievement is accounted for, rural students take advanced math at a significantly lower rate than urban students.…

  1. Educational Aspirations among UK Young Teenagers: Exploring the Role of Gender, Class and Ethnicity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Berrington, Ann; Roberts, Steven; Tammes, Peter

    2016-01-01

    Large socio-economic differences in educational attainment and participation in Higher Education (HE) are seen in the United Kingdom (UK). Furthermore, improvements in attainment and in rates of progression to university have been much faster for most ethnic minority groups than for White children. Political rhetoric explains these differences in…

  2. Reducing Risk for Substance Use by Economically Disadvantaged Young Men: Positive Family Environments and Pathways to Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin, Monica J.; Conger, Rand D.; Sitnick, Stephanie L.; Masarik, April S.; Forbes, Erika E.; Shaw, Daniel S.

    2015-01-01

    Using prospective, longitudinal data spanning 10 years (age = 10-20) from a study of 295 economically disadvantaged males, the current investigation evaluated a developmental model that links early family environment and later educational aspirations, extracurricular activities, and educational attainment to substance use in early adulthood. The…

  3. Modeling the Role of Community Colleges in Increasing Educational Attainment and Workforce Preparedness. BHEF Working Paper

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Business-Higher Education Forum (NJ1), 2010

    2010-01-01

    In light of recent data showing that educational attainment rates in the United States have stagnated, the Obama administration and others have called for renewed efforts to bolster higher education outcomes. Strengthening the role of community colleges is undoubtedly an important component of any plan to dramatically increase the number of…

  4. Education and Earnings: Empirical Findings from Alternative Operationalizations.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kominski, Robert

    Data from the third-wave interview of the 1984 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) are used to assess the empirical impact of a SIPP item concerning educational attainment on the regression of earnings on educational attainment. The SIPP is a longitudinal survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau to measure…

  5. The Effects of an Upper Secondary Education Reform on the Attainment of Immigrant Youth

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brinch, Christian N.; Bratsberg, Bernt; Raaum, Oddbjorn

    2012-01-01

    The national Norwegian school reform of 1994, which gave students statutory rights to at least 3 years of upper secondary education, had a significant impact on educational attainment among immigrant youth. In particular, we find that the immigrant transition rate from compulsory schooling to completion of the first year of upper secondary…

  6. Well "and" Well-Off: Decreasing Medicaid and Health-Care Costs by Increasing Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    DeBaun, Bill; Roc, Martens

    2013-01-01

    Cutting the number of high school dropouts in half nationally would save $7.3 billion in annual Medicaid spending, according to a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. "Well 'and' Well-Off: Decreasing Medicaid and Health-Care Costs by Increasing Educational Attainment" examines Medicaid spending for all fifty states and…

  7. The Attainment of Ethnic Minority Students in UK Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Richardson, John T. E.

    2008-01-01

    Recent studies have suggested that academic attainment by ethnic minority graduates at UK institutions of higher education is lower than that by White graduates. This was confirmed using a database of all UK-domiciled graduates from UK higher education institutions in 2004-05. The trend was greater in older students than in younger students, in…

  8. Access to Democracy Project: Community Report on Attitudes Regarding Educational Attainment. Grand Rapids (Michigan) Surrounding Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Daun-Barnett, Nathan J.; Bowman, Nicholas A.

    2005-01-01

    The "Access to Democracy" project has two broad goals. It is an effort to understand community beliefs, attitudes and conditions that shape educational outcomes for community youth, and it is a way to focus community discussions on efforts that support higher educational attainment for residents. This report focuses on the lessons…

  9. Supporting Students' College Success: The Role of Assessment of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Herman, Joan, Ed.; Hilton, Margaret, Ed.

    2017-01-01

    The importance of higher education has never been clearer. Educational attainment--the number of years a person spends in school--strongly predicts adult earnings, as well as health and civic engagement. Yet relative to other developed nations, educational attainment in the United States is lagging, with young Americans who heretofore led the…

  10. Postsecondary Education Expectations and Attainment of Rural and Nonrural Students. Stated Briefly. REL 2017-233

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Molefe, Ayrin; Proger, Amy; Burke, Matthew R.

    2017-01-01

    This study examined rural-nonrural differences in postsecondary educational expectations and the attainment of expectations for grade 10 students attending rural and nonrural high schools in the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest region and how these differences compare with rural-nonrural differences in the rest of the nation. For…

  11. Access, Outcomes, and Social Mobility in a Stratified System of Postsecondary Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thompson, Jason

    2017-01-01

    Educational attainment sits at the core of research on social stratification in the United States. An extensive literature details the inequalities in access to levels of education, the socioeconomic rewards conferred upon those reaching higher levels of schooling, and the prospects for social mobility among those able to attain a college degree.…

  12. Colorism and Educational Outcomes of Asian Americans: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ryabov, Igor

    2016-01-01

    Using a nationally representative longitudinal data set, the current study examines the link between colorism and educational attainment of Asian American young adults. Three levels of educational attainment are used as outcomes: high school diploma, some college and a Bachelor's degree or higher. Independent variables include skin tone, ethnic…

  13. The Challenges of Attaining Millennium Development Goals in Education in Africa by 2015

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ojogwu, C. N.

    2009-01-01

    Millennium Development Goals were established by the United Nations to help underdeveloped countries to overcome problems of illiteracy, poverty, low health status and quality of life. Much emphasis was placed on the attainment of MDG targets in education because of its pivotal role in national development. The targets include education for all…

  14. Influence of spousal education on partner's self-rated health: cross-sectional study among 1382 married couples in Shanghai, China.

    PubMed

    Li, Yang; Fu, Hua; Zhao, Fang; Luo, Jianfeng; Kawachi, Ichiro

    2013-09-01

    The effect of individual educational attainment on health has been extensively documented in western countries, whereas empirical evidence of education spillover effects in marital dyads is scarce and inconsistent. A total of 2764 individuals (or 1382 marital dyads) were surveyed in the Shanghai Healthy City Project 2008. Logistic regression models were used for analysis, and all analyses were stratified by gender. Significant protective associations were observed in univariate models linking general health status to the individual's own educational attainment and to their partner's educational level. After controlling for presence of chronic conditions, lifestyle factors, and social support, these associations were attenuated. The authors found a gender difference in the association of spouse's educational attainment with self-rated health. The influence of education on health may be partly mediated by lifestyle and other factors.

  15. Educational Attainment of the Public Health Workforce and Its Implications for Workforce Development.

    PubMed

    Leider, Jonathon P; Harper, Elizabeth; Bharthapudi, Kiran; Castrucci, Brian C

    2015-01-01

    Educational attainment is a critical issue in public health workforce development. However, relatively little is known about the actual attainment of staff in state health agencies (SHAs). Ascertain the levels of educational attainment among SHA employees, as well as the correlates of attainment. Using a stratified sampling approaching, staff from SHAs were surveyed using the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) instrument in late 2014. A nationally representative sample was drawn across 5 geographic (paired adjacent HHS) regions. Descriptive and inferential statistics were analyzed using balanced repeated replication weights to account for complex sampling. A logistic regression was conducted with attainment of a bachelor's degree as the dependent variable and age, region, supervisory status, race/ethnicity, gender, and staff type as independent variables. Web-based survey of SHA central office employees. Educational attainment overall, as well as receipt of a degree with a major in public health. A total of 10,246 permanently-employed SHA central office staff participated in the survey (response rate 46%). Seventy-five percent (95% confidence interval [CI], 74-77) had a bachelor's degree, 38% (95% CI, 37-40) had a master's degree, and 9% (95% CI, 8%-10%) had a doctoral degree. A logistic regression showed Asian staff had the highest odds of having a bachelor's degree (odds ratio [OR] = 2.8; 95% CI, 2.2-3.7) compared with non-Hispanic whites, and Hispanic/Latino staff had lower odds (OR = 0.6; 95% CI, 0.4-0.8). Women had lower odds of having a bachelor's degree than men (OR = 0.5; 95% CI, 0.4-0.6). About 17% of the workforce (95% CI, 16-18) had a degree in public health at any level. Educational attainment among SHA central office staff is high, but relatively few have formal training of any sort in public health. This makes efforts to increase availability of on-the-job training and distance learning all the more critical.

  16. Educational Attainment and Gestational Weight Gain among U.S. Mothers.

    PubMed

    Cohen, Alison K; Kazi, Chandni; Headen, Irene; Rehkopf, David H; Hendrick, C Emily; Patil, Divya; Abrams, Barbara

    2016-01-01

    Education is an important social determinant of many health outcomes, but the relationship between educational attainment and the amount of weight gained over the course of a woman's pregnancy (gestational weight gain [GWG]) has not been established clearly. We used data from 1979 through 2010 for women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979) cohort (n = 6,344 pregnancies from 2,769 women). We used generalized estimating equations to estimate the association between educational attainment and GWG adequacy (as defined by 2009 Institute of Medicine guidelines), controlling for diverse social factors from across the life course (e.g., income, wealth, educational aspirations and expectations) and considering effect measure modification by race/ethnicity and prepregnancy overweight status. In most cases, women with more education had increased odds of gaining a recommended amount of gestational weight, independent of educational aspirations and educational expectations and relatively robust to sensitivity analyses. This trend manifested itself in a few different ways. Those with less education had higher odds of inadequate GWG than those with more education. Among those who were not overweight before pregnancy, those with less education had higher odds of excessive GWG than college graduates. Among women who were White, those with less than a high school degree had higher odds of excessive GWG than those with more education. The relationship between educational attainment and GWG is nuanced and nonlinear. Copyright © 2016 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Towards the Education Nation: Revisiting the Impact of Financial Aid, College Experience, and Institutional Context on Baccalaureate Degree Attainment Using a Propensity Score Matching, Multilevel Modeling Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Franke, Ray

    2012-01-01

    To compete in the global marketplace, the U.S. economy heavily relies on higher education institutions to educate the college graduates and knowledge workers needed to create the innovative products and services of tomorrow. And yet, where once America led the world in educational attainment, recent data from the Organization for Economic…

  18. A Stronger Nation through Higher Education: How and Why Americans Must Meet a "Big Goal" for College Attainment. A Special Report from Lumina Foundation for Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Matthews, Dewayne

    2009-01-01

    College attainment is increasingly important to the U.S. economy as the workforce demands education and training that properly prepare citizens for success in the global, knowledge economy. Lumina Foundation for Education has embraced a single, specific goal that will help address the economic and social trends that cloud this nation's future. Its…

  19. How Has Educational Expansion Shaped Social Mobility Trends in the United States?

    PubMed Central

    Pfeffer, Fabian T.; Hertel, Florian R.

    2015-01-01

    This contribution provides a long-term assessment of intergenerational social mobility trends in the United States across the 20th and early 21st century and assesses the determinants of those trends. In particular, we study how educational expansion has contributed to the observed changes in mobility opportunities for men across cohorts. Drawing on recently developed decomposition methods, we empirically identify the contribution of each of the multiple channels through which changing rates of educational participation shape mobility trends. We find that a modest but gradual increase in social class mobility can nearly exclusively be ascribed to an interaction known as the compositional effect, according to which the direct influence of social class backgrounds on social class destinations is lower among the growing number of individuals attaining higher levels of education. This dominant role of the compositional effect is also due to the fact that, despite pronounced changes in the distribution of education, class inequality in education has remained stable while class returns to education have shown no consistent trend. Our analyses also provide a cautionary tale about mistaking increasing levels of social class mobility for a general trend towards more fluidity in the United States. The impact of parental education on son's educational and class attainment has grown or remained stable, respectively. Here, the compositional effect pertaining to the direct association between parental education and son's class attainment counteracts a long-term trend of increasing inequality in educational attainment tied to parents' education. PMID:26306053

  20. Equality in Educational Policy and the Heritability of Educational Attainment

    PubMed Central

    Colodro-Conde, Lucía; Rijsdijk, Frühling; Tornero-Gómez, María J.; Sánchez-Romera, Juan F.; Ordoñana, Juan R.

    2015-01-01

    Secular variation in the heritability of educational attainment are proposed to be due to the implementation of more egalitarian educational policies leading to increased equality in educational opportunities in the second part of the 20th century. The action of effect is hypothesized to be a decrease of shared environmental (e.g., family socioeconomic status or parents’ education) influences on educational attainment, giving more room for genetic differences between individuals to impact on the variation of the trait. However, this hypothesis has not yet found consistent evidence. Support for this effect relies mainly on comparisons between countries adopting different educational systems or between different time periods within a country reflecting changes in general policy. Using a population-based sample of 1271 pairs of adult twins, we analyzed the effect of the introduction of a specific educational policy in Spain in 1970. The shared-environmental variance decreased, leading to an increase in heritability in the post-reform cohort (44 vs. 67%) for males. Unstandardized estimates of genetic variance were of a similar magnitude (.56 vs. .57) between cohorts, while shared environmental variance decreased from .56 to .04. Heritability remained in the same range for women (40 vs. 34%). Our results support the role of educational policy in affecting the relative weight of genetic and environmental factors on educational attainment, such that increasing equality in educational opportunities increases heritability estimates by reducing variation of non-genetic familial origin. PMID:26618539

  1. The Challenges and Issues of Undergraduate Student Retention and Attainment in UK Veterinary Medical Education.

    PubMed

    Jackson, Elizabeth L; Armitage-Chan, Elizabeth

    Student retention and attainment has recently been identified as a key area for development in veterinary medical education enquiry. Woodfield's research on retention and attainment across the UK disciplines has yielded some unique information about the challenges and issues of students who study veterinary medicine and related subjects. The present literature review aims to expand on Woodfield's findings and explain important issues about retention and attainment across veterinary medicine. Overall, the subject of retention and attainment in undergraduate veterinary medical education needs a great deal more empirical attention, such as data on the retention and attainment of mature and widening access students, and the effects of students being placed at remote locations during their studies. Our findings also cover some unsurprising issues: the dominance of women in a profession that is principally lead by men, the underrepresentation of black and minority ethnic (BME) students in veterinary medicine, and the effects of content overload in the veterinary medical curriculum. Based on data gathered by Woodfield and our investigation of the scholarly and gray literatures, we offer an overview of gaps in current knowledge and recommendations for further research.

  2. Perceptions of nursing students of educational environment at a private undergraduate School of Nursing in Karachi.

    PubMed

    Farooq, Salima; Rehman, Rehana; Hussain, Mehwish; Dias, Jacqueline Maria

    2018-02-01

    To assess educational environment at a nursing school.. The cross-sectional survey was carried out from May to October 2016 at Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery, Karachi, using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure tool. The scores were obtained by merging five sub-scales of the inventory. The average scores of the scale and sub-scales were compared in terms of age, year of study, and living status using Mann-Whitney U test, and among years of study by Kruskal Wallis test.. Of the 442 students, 228(51.6%) had age below 20 years. Overall, 131(29.1%) subjects were in the first year, 152(33.8%) second year, 91(20.2%) third year and 76(16.9%) fourth year. The average Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure score was 129.92±19.97 with reliability of 88.9%. Students aged 20 years and less had more positive perceptions than students over 20 years (p<0.0001). Students living in hostel secured higher scores (p<0.0001). First year nursing students attained significant highest scores in all sub-scales compared to the rest (p<0.0001). Scores reveal better perception from younger nursing students, as well as those living in the hostel and those who were in their initial years of nursing education.

  3. Influence of family and school-level factors on age of sexual initiation.

    PubMed

    White, Candace N; Warner, Lynn A

    2015-02-01

    This study examined the association of individual, family, and school-level characteristics with age of sexual initiation (ASI) and focused specifically on school context as a moderator of known predictors of ASI. Data are from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 10,596). Predictors include grade point average, physical development, attitudes about sex, likelihood of higher education, alcohol use, delinquency, family structure, parents' education level, childhood abuse, maternal approval of sex, parental monitoring, and parent-child relationship quality. School-level predictors are averages of adolescents' attitudes about sex and likelihood of higher education and parents' education. Hierarchical linear models run separately by sex were used to predict ASI. When school-level attitudes about sex are more favorable, both boys and girls report younger ASI, and school mean parental education attainment moderates the influence of individual adolescents' attitudes about sex on ASI. More of the predictors are significant for girls than boys, whereas perception of maternal and peer approval of sexual activity are the most salient predictors of younger ASI for boys. Results highlight the importance of school context for understanding adolescents' motivations for early ASI. Findings support the need for school-wide prevention interventions that engage adolescents, peers, and parents in addressing attitudes about early sex. Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Schooling, Skills, and Self-Rated Health: A Test of Conventional Wisdom on the Relationship between Educational Attainment and Health

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Duke, Naomi; Macmillan, Ross

    2016-01-01

    Education is a key sociological variable in the explanation of health and health disparities. Conventional wisdom emphasizes a life course--human capital perspective with expectations of causal effects that are quasi-linear, large in magnitude for high levels of educational attainment, and reasonably robust in the face of measured and unmeasured…

  5. Raising Educational Attainment: How Young People's Experiences Speak Back to the "Compact with Young Australians"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    te Riele, Kitty

    2011-01-01

    In the context of international consensus that the knowledge economy requires more highly educated people, the Australian federal, state and territory governments agreed on a set of policies and targets for lifting the minimum level of educational attainment of young people, which are analysed in Part 1 of this paper. This "Compact with young…

  6. Intergenerational Correlations in Educational Attainment: Birth Order and Family Size Effects Using Canadian Data

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sen, Anindya; Clemente, Anthony

    2010-01-01

    We exploit the 1986, 1994, and 2001 waves of the Canadian general social surveys in order to estimate intergenerational correlations in education. The use of these specific data is important because of available information on the final educational attainment of survey respondents and both parents, as well as family size and birth order. OLS…

  7. Boys and Girls Educational Opportunities in Thailand: The Effects of Siblings, Migrations, School Proximity, and Village Remoteness. Working Paper Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Curran, Sara; Chung, Chang; Cadge, Wendy; Varangrat, Anchalee

    Within individual countries, the paths toward increasing educational attainment are not always linear, and individuals are not equally affected. Differences between boys' and girls' educational attainments are a common expression of this inequality, as boys are more often favored for continued schooling. This paper examines the importance of birth…

  8. Cross-National Study of Educational Attainment: Stage I of the I.E.A. Investigation in Six Subject Areas. Final Report. Volume I.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bloom, Benjamin S.

    Twelve chapters describe an 18-nation study of educational attainment at the elementary and secondary school levels. Professional researchers participated in the project, developed through UNESCO and conducted under the auspices of educational research centers in Australia, Belgium, Chile, England, the Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France,…

  9. Staff Helping Attain Relevant Education (Project SHARE): Final Evaluation Report, 1992-93. OREA Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ranadive, Jyoti

    Project SHARE (Staff Helping Attain Relevant Education), a project funded by Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, was in its third and final year of operation in 1992-93, in eight primary schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan (New York). The project served 141 limited English proficient students from low-income families…

  10. Work-Family Conflict: Does Educational Attainment Influence the Amount of Negative Spillover?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Erarslan, Ayse Burcin

    2009-01-01

    Using a data from a purposive sample of 216 women and 218 men in Turkey, the relationship between educational attainment and the amount of negative spillover from job-to-home and home-to-job was examined. It was hypothesized that men and women with higher levels of education have less amount of negative spillover in both directions. Certain work…

  11. Quantity of Parental Involvement: The Influence of the Level of Educational Attainment of Elementary Private School Parents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Secord, Deborah K.

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to determine the influence of the custodial parents' level of educational attainment on the quantity of parental involvement in the areas of assistance with homework, time spent in home activities with the child, communication with teachers, participation in school events, educational discussions with the child,…

  12. Higher education is an age-independent predictor of white matter integrity and cognitive control in late adolescence.

    PubMed

    Noble, Kimberly G; Korgaonkar, Mayuresh S; Grieve, Stuart M; Brickman, Adam M

    2013-09-01

    Socioeconomic status is an important predictor of cognitive development and academic achievement. Late adolescence provides a unique opportunity to study how the attainment of socioeconomic status (in the form of years of education) relates to cognitive and neural development, during a time when age-related cognitive and neural development is ongoing. During late adolescence it is possible to disambiguate age- and education-related effects on the development of these processes. Here we assessed the degree to which higher educational attainment was related to performance on a cognitive control task, controlling for age. We then used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to assess the degree to which white matter microstructure might mediate this relationship. When covarying age, significant associations were found between educational attainment and fractional anisotropy (FA) in the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and cingulum bundle (CB). Further, when covarying age, FA in these regions was associated with cognitive control. Finally, mediation analyses revealed that the age-independent association between educational attainment and cognitive control was completely accounted for by FA in these regions. The uncinate fasciculus, a late-myelinated control region not implicated in cognitive control, did not mediate this effect. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. The Intergenerational Effects of Changes in Women's Educational Attainments

    PubMed Central

    Mare, Robert D.; Maralani, Vida

    2015-01-01

    The effect of the socioeconomic characteristics in one generation on the socioeconomic achievement of the next generation is the central concern of social stratification research. Researchers typically address this issue by analyzing the associations between the characteristics of parents and offspring. This approach, however, focuses on observed parent–offspring pairs and ignores that changes in the socioeconomic characteristics of one generation may alter the numbers and types of intergenerational family relationships created in the next one. Models of intergenerational effects that include marriage and fertility as well as the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status yield a richer account of intergenerational effects at both the family and population levels. When applied to a large sample of Indonesian women and their families, these models show that the effects of women's educational attainment on the educational attainments of the next generation are positive. However, the beneficial effects of increases in women's schooling on the educational attainment of their children are partially offset at the population level by a reduction in the overall number of children that a more educated population of women bears and enhanced by the more favorable marriage partners of better educated women. PMID:25843957

  14. Distinct association between educational attainment and overweight/obesity in unmarried and married women: evidence from a population-based study in Japan.

    PubMed

    Murakami, Keiko; Ohkubo, Takayoshi; Hashimoto, Hideki

    2017-11-25

    Associations between education and obesity have been consistently reported among women in developed countries, but few studies have considered the influence of marital status and husbands' education. This study aimed to examine differences in the association between education and overweight/obesity by marital status and to determine the contribution of husbands' education to overweight/obesity among community-dwelling Japanese women. A questionnaire survey was conducted from 2010 to 2011 among residents aged 25-50 years in Japanese metropolitan areas. Of 2145 women who agreed to participate and completed the survey, 582 were unmarried and 1563 were married. Overweight/obesity was defined as body mass index ≥25 kg/m 2 . Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine whether women's or their husbands' education was associated with overweight/obesity after adjusting for age, work status, and equivalent income. The prevalence of overweight/obesity was 11.9% among unmarried women and 10.3% among married women. Women's own education was significantly associated with overweight/obesity among unmarried women but not among married women. The multivariate-adjusted odds ratio of high school education or lower compared with university education or higher was 3.21 (95% confidence interval: 1.59-6.51) among unmarried women. Among married women, husbands' education was significantly associated with overweight/obesity: women whose husbands' educational attainment was high school or lower had significantly higher odds of overweight/obesity than did those whose husbands had a university education or higher (1.67, 95% confidence interval: 1.10-2.55). Among married women whose educational attainment was college or higher, women whose husbands' educational attainment was high school or lower had a significantly higher risk for overweight/obesity when compared with women whose husbands' educational attainment was college or higher. Associations between women's own education and overweight/obesity varied by marital status, and husbands' educational level was important for married women's overweight/obesity. These findings indicate that the social influences bound to educational background affect women's overweight/obesity.

  15. Early emotional and behavioral difficulties and adult educational attainment: an 18-year follow-up of the TEMPO study.

    PubMed

    Zbar, Ariella; Surkan, Pamela J; Fombonne, Eric; Melchior, Maria

    2016-10-01

    Children who experience behavioral difficulties often have short and long-term school problems. However, the relationship between emotional difficulties and later academic achievement has not been thoroughly examined. Using data from the French TEMPO study (n = 666, follow-up 1991, 1999, 2009, mean age = 10.5, sd = 4.9 at baseline), we studied associations between internalizing and externalizing symptoms in: (a) childhood and (b) adolescence and educational attainment by young adulthood (< vs. ≥ high school degree), accounting for participants' age, sex, juvenile academic difficulties, and family income. High levels of childhood (but not adolescent) internalizing and externalizing symptoms were associated with low educational attainment; however, in multivariate models only the association with childhood internalizing symptoms remained statistically significant (OR = 1.75, 95 % CI 1.00-3.02). Supporting children with internalizing problems early on could help improve their long-term educational attainment.

  16. Intercountry comparisons of labor force trends and of related developments: an overview.

    PubMed

    Mincer, J

    1985-01-01

    This paper is a survey of analyses of women's labor force growth in 12 industrialized countries, presented at a conference in Sussex, England in 1983. The main focus is on growth of the labor force of married women from 1960-1980; trends in fertility, wages, and family instability are discussed. In all countries, wages of women were lower than wages of men, although between 1960 and 1980 labor force rates of married women rose in most of the industrialized countries. 2 factors that are associated with this growth are declines in fertility and increases in divorce rates. The 12 countries studied are: 1) Australia, 2) Britain, 3) France, 4) Germany, 5) Israel, 6) Italy, 7) Japan, 8) Netherlands, 9) Spain, 10) Sweden, 11) US, and 12) USSR. The substitution variables (wages of women or their education) have strong positive effects on labor force participation in most cases, and in most cases the positive wage elasticities exceed the negative income elasticities by a sizable margin. A summary table estimating parameters of the P-function for each country, and their predictive performance in time series, are included. From 1960-1980 the average per country growth in participation of married women was 2.84% per year. Wages of working women, in this same period grew, on average, faster than wages of men in most countries, in part due to selectivity by education in labor force growth. While growth rates of real wages across countries have a weak relation with the differential growth rates of married women's labor force, the relation is strong when country parameters are taken into account. The dominance of the "discouraged" over the "added" workers in female labor force growth appears to be upheld internationally. On the average, total fertility rate dropped from 2.42 in 1970 to 1.85 in 1980. Both fertility declines and the growth of family instability appear to represent lagged effects of longer term developments in the labor force of women. Women's wages are lower than men's wages in all countries; wage differentials narrowed in all other countries over the past 2 decades. This narrowing was due both to women's educational attainment catching up with men's, and to a positive educational selectivity of women's labor force growth during this period. Ultimately, without labor market discrimination and with equal educational attainment, the wage gap can be eliminated only when sex differences in lifetime work experience vanish.

  17. Myopia and educational attainment in 421,116 young Singaporean males.

    PubMed

    Tay, M T; Au Eong, K G; Ng, C Y; Lim, M K

    1992-11-01

    Data of 421,116 Singaporean males aged 15 to 25 (mean 17.75) years who underwent compulsory medical examination in 1974-84 and 1987-91 were used to estimate the prevalence of myopia and to study the correlation between the prevalence and severity of myopia and educational attainment. The estimated myopia prevalence rate was 26.3% in 1974-84 and 43.3% in 1987-91. This rise in the rate was accompanied by an increase in the proportion of males who achieved higher levels of education over the same period. The overall myopia prevalence rate was 30.4%. Both the prevalence and severity of myopia were higher as the level of education attained increased. The myopia prevalence rate was 15.4% in males with no formal education and increased steadily through groups with intermediate education to 65.2% among those with GCE 'A' level education, 57.5% among diploma holders and 65.1% among university graduates in 1987-91. Seventy out of 173 (40%) myopes with no formal education compared to 1035 out of 1612 (64%) myopes with university degrees had unaided visual acuity worse than 6/60 in 1987-91. Our findings confirm indications from other sources that the association between the prevalence and severity of myopia and education attainment is real. A combination of genetic and environmental factors may be the cause of this association.

  18. Disparities in Disability by Educational Attainment Across US States.

    PubMed

    Montez, Jennifer Karas; Zajacova, Anna; Hayward, Mark D

    2017-07-01

    To examine how disparities in adult disability by educational attainment vary across US states. We used the nationally representative data of more than 6 million adults aged 45 to 89 years in the 2010-2014 American Community Survey. We defined disability as difficulty with activities of daily living. We categorized education as low (less than high school), mid (high school or some college), or high (bachelor's or higher). We estimated age-standardized disability prevalence by educational attainment and state. We assessed whether the variation in disability across states occurs primarily among low-educated adults and whether it reflects the socioeconomic resources of low-educated adults and their surrounding contexts. Disparities in disability by education vary markedly across states-from a 20 percentage point disparity in Massachusetts to a 12-point disparity in Wyoming. Disparities vary across states mainly because the prevalence of disability among low-educated adults varies across states. Personal and contextual socioeconomic resources of low-educated adults account for 29% of the variation. Efforts to reduce disparities in disability by education should consider state and local strategies that reduce poverty among low-educated adults and their surrounding contexts.

  19. Natural Mentors, Racial Identity, and Educational Attainment among African American Adolescents: Exploring Pathways to Success

    PubMed Central

    Hurd, Noelle M.; Sánchez, Bernadette; Zimmerman, Marc A.; Caldwell, Cleopatra H.

    2012-01-01

    The present study explored how relationships with natural mentors may contribute to African American adolescents’ long-term educational attainment by influencing adolescents’ racial identity and academic beliefs. This study included 541 academically at-risk African American adolescents transitioning into adulthood (54% female). Results of the current study indicated that relationships with natural mentors promoted more positive long-term educational attainment among participants through increased private regard (a dimension of racial identity) and stronger beliefs in the importance of doing well in school for future success. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. PMID:22537308

  20. Educational attainment and obesity: a systematic review.

    PubMed

    Cohen, A K; Rai, M; Rehkopf, D H; Abrams, B

    2013-12-01

    Although previous systematic reviews considered the relationship between socioeconomic status and obesity, almost 200 peer-reviewed articles have been published since the last review on that topic, and this paper focuses specifically on education, which has different implications. The authors systematically review the peer-reviewed literature from around the world considering the association between educational attainment and obesity. Databases from public health and medicine, education, psychology, economics, and other social sciences were searched, and articles published in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish were included. This paper includes 289 articles that report on 410 populations in 91 countries. The relationship between educational attainment and obesity was modified by both gender and the country's economic development level: an inverse association was more common in studies of higher-income countries and a positive association was more common in lower-income countries, with stronger social patterning among women. Relatively few studies reported on lower-income countries, controlled for a comprehensive set of potential confounding variables and/or attempted to assess causality through the use of quasi-experimental designs. Future research should address these gaps to understand if the relationship between educational attainment and obesity may be causal, thus supporting education policy as a tool for obesity prevention. © 2013 The Authors. obesity reviews © 2013 International Association for the Study of Obesity.

  1. Effect of retention in elementary grades on grade 9 motivation for educational attainment.

    PubMed

    Cham, Heining; Hughes, Jan N; West, Stephen G; Im, Myung Hee

    2015-02-01

    This study investigated the effect of grade retention in elementary school on students' motivation for educational attainment in grade 9. We equated retained and promoted students on 67 covariates assessed in grade 1 through propensity score weighting. Retained students (31.55%, nretained=177) and continuously promoted students (68.45%, npromoted=384) were compared on the bifactor model of motivation for educational attainment (Cham, Hughes, West & Im, 2014). This model consists of a General factor (student's overall motivation for educational attainment), and three specific factors: student perceived Teacher Educational Expectations, Peer Educational Aspirations, and Value of Education. Measurement invariance between retained and promoted groups was established. Retained students scored significantly higher than promoted students on each specific factor but not on the General factor. Results showed that the retained and promoted students did not significantly differ on the General factor. The retained students had significantly higher scores on each specific factor than those of the promoted students. The results suggested that grade retention may not have the negative effects so widely assumed in the published literature; it is an expensive intervention with minimal evidence of benefits to the retained student. Copyright © 2014 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Educational attainment and obesity: A systematic review

    PubMed Central

    Cohen, Alison K.; Rai, Manisha; Rehkopf, David H.; Abrams, Barbara

    2013-01-01

    Background Although previous systematic reviews considered the relationship between socioeconomic status and obesity, almost 200 peer-reviewed articles have been published since the last review on that topic, and this paper focuses specifically on education, which has different implications. Methods The authors systematically review the peer-reviewed literature from around the world considering the association between educational attainment and obesity. Databases from public health and medicine, education, psychology, economics, and other social sciences were searched, and articles published in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish were included. Results This paper includes 289 articles that report on 410 populations in 91 countries. The relationship between educational attainment and obesity was modified by both gender and the country's economic development level: an inverse association was more common in studies of higher-income countries and a positive association was more common in lower-income countries, with stronger social patterning among women. Relatively few studies reported on lower-income countries, controlled for a comprehensive set of potential confounding variables, and/or attempted to assess causality through the use of quasi-experimental designs. Conclusions Future research should address these gaps to understand if the relationship between educational attainment and obesity may be causal, thus supporting education policy as a tool for obesity prevention. PMID:23889851

  3. Self-verification as a mediator of mothers' self-fulfilling effects on adolescents' educational attainment.

    PubMed

    Scherr, Kyle C; Madon, Stephanie; Guyll, Max; Willard, Jennifer; Spoth, Richard

    2011-05-01

    This research examined whether self-verification acts as a general mediational process of self-fulfilling prophecies. The authors tested this hypothesis by examining whether self-verification processes mediated self-fulfilling prophecy effects within a different context and with a different belief and a different outcome than has been used in prior research. Results of longitudinal data obtained from mothers and their adolescents (N=332) indicated that mothers' beliefs about their adolescents' educational outcomes had a significant indirect effect on adolescents' academic attainment through adolescents' educational aspirations. This effect, observed over a 6-year span, provided evidence that mothers' self-fulfilling effects occurred, in part, because mothers' false beliefs influenced their adolescents' own educational aspirations, which adolescents then self-verified through their educational attainment. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

  4. Self-Verification as a Mediator of Mothers’ Self-Fulfilling Effects on Adolescents’ Educational Attainment

    PubMed Central

    Scherr, Kyle C.; Madon, Stephanie; Guyll, Max; Willard, Jennifer; Spoth, Richard

    2013-01-01

    This research examined whether self-verification acts as a general mediational process of self-fulfilling prophecies. The authors tested this hypothesis by examining whether self-verification processes mediated self-fulfilling prophecy effects within a different context and with a different belief and a different outcome than has been used in prior research. Results of longitudinal data obtained from mothers and their adolescents (N = 332) indicated that mothers’ beliefs about their adolescents’ educational outcomes had a significant indirect effect on adolescents’ academic attainment through adolescents’ educational aspirations. This effect, observed over a six year span, provided evidence that mothers’ self-fulfilling effects occurred, in part, because mothers’ false beliefs influenced their adolescents’ own educational aspirations which adolescents then self-verified through their educational attainment. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed. PMID:21357755

  5. Fundamental resource dis/advantages, youth health and adult educational outcomes.

    PubMed

    Elman, Cheryl; Wray, Linda A; Xi, Juan

    2014-01-01

    Recent studies find lasting effects of poor youth health on educational attainment but use young samples and narrow life course windows of observation to explore outcomes. We apply a life course framework to three sets of Health and Retirement Study birth cohorts to examine early health status effects on education and skills attainment measured late in life. The older cohorts that we study were the earliest recipients of U.S. policies promoting continuing education through the GI Bill, community college expansions and new credentials such as the GED. We examine a wide range of outcomes but focus on GEDs, postsecondary school entry and adult human capital as job-related training. We find that older U.S. cohorts had considerable exposure to these forms of attainment and that the effects of youth health on them vary by outcome: health selection and ascription group effects are weak or fade, respectively, in outcomes associated with delayed or adult attainment. However, poorer health and social disadvantage in youth and barriers associated with ascription carry forward to limit attainment of key credentials such as diplomas and college degrees. We find that the human capital - health gradient is dynamic and that narrow windows of observation in existing studies miss much of it. National context also matters for studying health-education linkages over the life course. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Emerging disparities in overweight by educational attainment in Chinese adults (1989-2006).

    PubMed

    Jones-Smith, J C; Gordon-Larsen, P; Siddiqi, A; Popkin, B M

    2012-06-01

    To test whether a disparity in overweight by socioeconomic status (SES; represented by educational attainment) has emerged among men or women during a recent 17-year period in China. Data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), a panel study including 7314 women and 6492 men, are used to longitudinally track the body mass index (BMI) and odds of overweight by educational attainment among Chinese adults (baseline age 18-50) from 1989 to 2006 to determine whether individuals of low (secondary school) educational attainment experienced a disproportionately faster increase in BMI or odds of overweight (BMI≥25) over time. The unadjusted mean BMI and prevalence of overweight by education are presented. Sex-stratified, random-effects models are used to estimate the associations, and interactions by birth cohort are included. Overweight prevalence doubled for women and tripled for men. In 1989, among women, the odds of overweight were not different for those of high versus those of low educational attainment; however, by 2006, the odds of overweight were significantly lower for those with the highest education in both the younger (odds ratio (OR) 0.22 (CI 0.11, 0.42)) and the older (OR 0.27 (CI 0.10, 0.72)) birth cohorts. The reverse trend is seen for men, who also begin with no difference in odds of overweight by SES, but by 2006, the OR for the highest versus the lowest education group was 3.4 (CI 1.82, 6.18). Over 17 years, low SES has become associated with higher BMI and odds of overweight among Chinese women, whereas high SES remains a risk factor for overweight among Chinese men.

  7. Trends and Group Differences in the Association between Educational Attainment and U.S. Adult Mortality: Implications for Understanding Education’s Causal Influence*

    PubMed Central

    Hayward, Mark D.; Hummer, Robert A.; Sasson, Isaac

    2014-01-01

    Has the shape of the association between educational attainment and U.S. adult mortality changed in recent decades? If so, is it changing consistently across demographic groups? What can changes in the shape of the association tell us about the possible mechanisms in play for improving health and lowering mortality risk over the adult life course? This paper develops the argument that societal technological change may have had profound effects on the importance of educational attainment – particularly advanced education – in the U.S. adult population for garnering health advantages and that these changes should be reflected in changes in the functional form of the association between educational attainment and mortality. We review the historical evidence on the changing functional form of the association, drawing on studies based in the United States, to assess whether these changes are consistent with our argument about the role of technological change. We also provide an updated analysis of these functional form patterns and trends, contrasting data from the early 21st Century with data from the late 20th Century. This updated evidence suggests that the shape of the association between educational attainment and U.S. adult mortality appears to be reflecting lower and lower adult mortality for very highly educated Americans compared to their low-educated counterparts in the 21st Century. We draw on this review and updated evidence to reflect on the question whether education’s association with adult mortality has become increasingly causal in recent decades, why, and the potential research, policy, and global implications of these changes. PMID:25440841

  8. Educational achievement among long-term survivors of congenital heart defects: a Danish population-based follow-up study.

    PubMed

    Olsen, Morten; Hjortdal, Vibeke E; Mortensen, Laust H; Christensen, Thomas D; Sørensen, Henrik T; Pedersen, Lars

    2011-04-01

    Congenital heart defect patients may experience neurodevelopmental impairment. We investigated their educational attainments from basic schooling to higher education. Using administrative databases, we identified all Danish patients with a cardiac defect diagnosis born from 1 January, 1977 to 1 January, 1991 and alive at age 13 years. As a comparison cohort, we randomly sampled 10 persons per patient. We obtained information on educational attainment from Denmark's Database for Labour Market Research. The study population was followed until achievement of educational levels, death, emigration, or 1 January, 2006. We estimated the hazard ratio of attaining given educational levels, conditional on completing preceding levels, using discrete-time Cox regression and adjusting for socio-economic factors. Analyses were repeated for a sub-cohort of patients and controls born at term and without extracardiac defects or chromosomal anomalies. We identified 2986 patients. Their probability of completing compulsory basic schooling was approximately 10% lower than that of control individuals (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.79, ranged from 0.75 to 0.82 0.79; 95% confidence interval: 0.75-0.82). Their subsequent probability of completing secondary school was lower than that of the controls, both for all patients (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.74; 95% confidence interval: 0.69-0.80) and for the sub-cohort (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.80; 95% confidence interval: 0.73-0.86). The probability of attaining a higher degree, conditional on completion of youth education, was affected both for all patients (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.88; 95% confidence interval: 0.76-1.01) and for the sub-cohort (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.92; 95% confidence interval: 0.79-1.07). The probability of educational attainment was reduced among long-term congenital heart defect survivors.

  9. A Stronger Nation through Higher Education: How and Why Americans Must Meet a "Big Goal" for College Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Matthews, Dewayne

    2010-01-01

    For the past two years, Lumina Foundation for Education has been calling for the United States to increase higher education attainment rates--the proportion of the population that holds a high-quality postsecondary degree or credential--to 60 percent by the year 2025. This call--Lumina's Big Goal--has been taken up by many others. In February…

  10. "Girls Have More of an Educational Brain": A Qualitative Exploration of the Gender Gap in Educational Attainment among Black Bermudian Adolescents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jethwani, Monique M.

    2015-01-01

    Although Black boys throughout the African diaspora are dropping out of high school in alarming rates, little is known about how educational identity and attainment is shaped by the intersection of race and gender in the high school environment. Utilizing an ecological and intersectionality theoretical lens, this study draws on data gleaned from…

  11. Case-based Learning Outperformed Simulation Exercises in Disaster Preparedness Education Among Nursing Trainees in India: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

    PubMed

    Aluisio, Adam R; Daniel, Pia; Grock, Andrew; Freedman, Joseph; Singh, Ajai; Papanagnou, Dimitrios; Arquilla, Bonnie

    2016-10-01

    In resource-constrained environments, appropriately employing triage in disaster situations is crucial. Although both case-based learning (CBL) and simulation exercises (SEs) commonly are utilized in teaching disaster preparedness to adult learners, there is no substantial evidence supporting one as a more efficacious methodology. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluated the effectiveness of CBL versus SEs in addition to standard didactic instruction in knowledge attainment pertaining to disaster triage preparedness. This RCT was performed during a one-day disaster preparedness course in Lucknow, India during October 2014. Following provision of informed consent, nursing trainees were randomized to knowledge assessment after didactic teaching (control group); didactic plus CBL (Intervention Group 1); or didactic plus SE (Intervention Group 2). The educational curriculum used the topical focus of triage processes during disaster situations. Cases for the educational intervention sessions were scripted, identical between modalities, and employed structured debriefing. Trained live actors were used for SEs. After primary assessment, the groups underwent crossover to take part in the alternative educational modality and were re-assessed. Two standardized multiple-choice question batteries, encompassing key core content, were used for assessments. A sample size of 48 participants was calculated to detect a ≥20% change in mean knowledge score (α=0.05; power=80%). Robustness of randomization was evaluated using X 2, anova, and t-tests. Mean knowledge attainment scores were compared using one- and two-sample t-tests for intergroup and intragroup analyses, respectively. Among 60 enrolled participants, 88.3% completed follow-up. No significant differences in participant characteristics existed between randomization arms. Mean baseline knowledge score in the control group was 43.8% (standard deviation=11.0%). Case-based learning training resulted in a significant increase in relative knowledge scores at 20.8% (P=0.003) and 10.3% (P=.033) in intergroup and intragroup analyses, respectively. As compared to control, SEs did not significantly alter knowledge attainment scores with an average score increase of 6.6% (P=.396). In crossover intra-arm analysis, SEs were found to result in a 26.0% decrement in mean assessment score (P < .001). Among nursing trainees assessed in this RCT, the CBL modality was superior to SEs in short-term disaster preparedness educational translation. Simulation exercises resulted in no detectable improvement in knowledge attainment in this population, suggesting that CBL may be utilized preferentially for adult learners in similar disaster training settings. Aluisio AR , Daniel P , Grock A , Freedman J , Singh A , Papanagnou D , Arquilla B . Case-based learning outperformed simulation exercises in disaster preparedness education among nursing trainees in India: a randomized controlled trial. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016;31(5):516-523.

  12. 75 FR 68736 - Approval of One-Year Extension for Attaining the 1997 8-Hour Ozone Standard for the Delaware...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-11-09

    ... 4th highest daily 8-hour monitored ozone value during the 2009 ozone season is 0.084 parts per million... extensions of the attainment date if: (a) For the first 1-year extension, the area's 4th highest daily 8...'s 4th highest daily 8-hour value, averaged over both the original attainment year and the first...

  13. Time Use and Educational Attainment: A Study of Undergraduate Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Etcheverry, Emily J.; And Others

    1993-01-01

    A Canadian university study of 308 students' time use in academic areas used a model relating variables of social background, social psychological characteristics, time use, and educational attainment. Findings suggested that, taking into account these other variables, the time students spend on academic activities and paid employment has little…

  14. Does Parental Employment Affect Children's Educational Attainment?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schildberg-Hoerisch, Hannah

    2011-01-01

    This paper analyzes whether there exists a causal relationship between parental employment and children's educational attainment. We address potential endogeneity problems due to (i) selection of parents in the labor market by estimating a model on sibling differences and (ii) reverse causality by focusing on parents' employment when children are…

  15. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivational Factors Related to Educators' Pursuit of Doctoral Degrees

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    George-Reid, Kimberly A.

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to identify intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors for professional doctoral degree attainment among educators. The researcher examined the following intrinsic motivating factors: personal attainment, skill and ability enhancement, and goals. The researcher also included the following extrinsic factors:…

  16. Neighborhoods and Schools as Competing and Reinforcing Contexts for Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Owens, Ann

    2010-01-01

    Scholars hypothesize that both neighborhood and school contexts influence educational attainment, but few have considered both contexts simultaneously. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the author analyzes how school and neighborhood contexts are jointly related to high school and college graduation. She finds…

  17. Keyboarding Coursework and Employment, Earnings, and Educational Attainment.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hearn, James C.; And Others

    1993-01-01

    Survey data from 6,476 postsecondary students and 2,525 nonstudents were examined for postschool effects of student participation in typing and keyboarding coursework on employment, earnings, further education attainment, and related equity and cost-effectiveness issues. Results indicate significant positive effects on almost all aspects examined.…

  18. Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Educational Attainment in Australia.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Paul; Mulvey, Charles; Martin, Nick

    2001-01-01

    Data from a large sample of Australian twins indicate that 50 to 65 percent of variance in educational attainments can be attributed to genetic endowments. Only about 25 to 40 percent may be due to environmental factors, depending on adjustments for measurement error and assortative mating. (Contains 51 references.) (MLH)

  19. Educational Attainment: Understanding the Data

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baum, Sandy; Cunningham, Alisa; Tanenbaum, Courtney

    2015-01-01

    The level of educational attainment in the United States is a central focus of public policy. The Obama administration, some states, large national foundations, and other organizations have set near-term goals to increase the number of Americans with college degrees. Achieving these goals is likely to involve a combination of increasing…

  20. Female Supervisors of Arab School Education in Israel

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Arar, Khalid Husny

    2014-01-01

    This paper discusses the characteristics of women discipline supervisors in the Arab education system in Israel, through their professional development to their attainment of senior supervisory posts. It examines how they attain supervision posts and perform various managerial functions in what is considered a male role, in a patriarchal society,…

  1. Family Dynamics, Gender Differences and Educational Attainment in Filipino Adolescents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hindin, M.J.

    2005-01-01

    The relationship between parenting style, marital relationships and subsequent educational attainment is explored among 1428 Filipino adolescents attending school in 1994 and 1096 attending school in 1999. Girls in households where their fathers physically abused their mothers were significantly less likely to complete primary school, and girls…

  2. Institutional Factors Contributing to Hispanic Male Nursing Degree Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rios, Deidre M.

    2013-01-01

    President Obama's 2009 graduation initiative has emphasized the shift in the national academic focus from access to higher education to graduation, making degree attainment one of the most important factors of measurement and accountability for institutions of higher education. Students of color, in particular, Hispanic males, have not fared well…

  3. Classroom Carbon Dioxide Concentration, School Attendance, and Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gaihre, Santosh; Semple, Sean; Miller, Janice; Fielding, Shona; Turner, Steve

    2014-01-01

    Background: We tested the hypothesis that classroom carbon dioxide (CO[subscript 2]) concentration is inversely related to child school attendance and educational attainment. Methods: Concentrations of CO[subscript 2] were measured over a 3-5?day period in 60 naturally ventilated classrooms of primary school children in Scotland. Concentrations of…

  4. A Developmental Process Analysis of Cross-Generational Continuity in Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pettit, Gregory S.; Yu, Tianyi; Dodge, Kenneth A.; Bates, John E.

    2009-01-01

    In this prospective longitudinal study (N = 585) we examined intergenerational links in level of educational attainment. Of particular interest was whether family background characteristics, parenting in early childhood and early adolescence, and school adjustment and performance in middle childhood accounted for (i.e., mediated) continuity and…

  5. Parental Risk Attitudes and Children's Secondary School Track Choice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wolfel, Oliver; Heineck, Guido

    2012-01-01

    Although it is well-known that individuals' risk attitudes are related to behavioral outcomes such as smoking, portfolio decisions, and educational attainment, there is virtually no evidence of whether parental risk attitudes affect the educational attainment of their dependent children. We add to this literature and examine children's secondary…

  6. Expanding Notions of Social Reproduction: Grandparents' Educational Attainment and Grandchildren's Cognitive Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ferguson, Jason L.; Ready, Douglas D.

    2011-01-01

    Inherited privilege and status remain powerful factors in the distribution of opportunity in American life. These transfers of socioeconomic resources across generations are facilitated by the links between adult educational attainment and children's cognitive skills. Our current study expands the notion of social reproduction beyond this narrow…

  7. Educational Attainments of Immigrant Offspring: Success or Segmented Assimilation?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boyd, Monica

    2002-01-01

    Examined the educational attainments of adult offspring of immigrants age 20-64 years, analyzing data from Canada's 1996 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics. Contrary to second generation decline and segmented underclass assimilation found in the United States, Canadian adult visible-minority immigrant offspring did not have lower educational…

  8. Framing the Future: Revisiting the Place of Educational Expectations in Status Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bozick, Robert; Alexander, Karl; Entwisle, Doris; Dauber, Susan; Kerr, Kerri

    2010-01-01

    This study revisits the Wisconsin model of status attainment from a life course developmental perspective. Fixed-effects regression analyses lend strong support to the Wisconsin framework's core proposition that academic performance and significant others' influence shape educational expectations. However, investigating the process of expectation…

  9. 20 CFR 666.100 - What performance indicators must be included in a State's plan?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... employment; and (iv) Attainment of a recognized credential related to achievement of educational skills (such as a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent), or occupational skills, by participants... employment; and (iv) Attainment of a recognized credential related to achievement of educational skills (such...

  10. Field Theory in Cultural Capital Studies of Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Krarup, Troels; Munk, Martin D.

    2016-01-01

    This article argues that there is a double problem in international research in cultural capital and educational attainment: an empirical problem, since few new insights have been gained within recent years; and a theoretical problem, since cultural capital is seen as a simple hypothesis about certain isolated individual resources, disregarding…

  11. Making the Grade: Assessing the Evidence for Integrated Student Supports. Publication #2014-07

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Child Trends, 2014

    2014-01-01

    Integrated student supports (ISS), sometimes referred to as integrated student services, represents an emerging field of practice that aims to address persistent disparities in educational achievement and attainment. ISS is a school-based approach to promoting students' academic achievement and educational attainment by coordinating a seamless…

  12. Educational Attainment in South Africa: A View from the Census 1865-2011

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Christopher, A. J.

    2015-01-01

    Population censuses record considerable volumes of personal information, which when aggregated and tabulated provide significant insights into national societies. South African censuses have recorded levels of educational attainment since their inception in the mid-nineteenth century, initially measuring literacy and later the level of education…

  13. Collaborative care management reduces disparities in dementia care quality for caregivers with less education.

    PubMed

    Brown, Arleen F; Vassar, Stefanie D; Connor, Karen I; Vickrey, Barbara G

    2013-02-01

    To examine educational gradients in dementia care and whether the effect of a dementia collaborative care management intervention varied according to the educational attainment of the informal caregiver. Analysis of data from a cluster-randomized controlled trial. Eighteen clinics in three healthcare organizations in southern California. Dyads of Medicare recipients aged 65 and older with a diagnosis of dementia and an eligible caregiver. Collaborative care management for dementia. Caregiver educational attainment, adherence to four dimensions of guideline-recommended processes of dementia care (assessment, treatment, education and support, and safety) before and after the intervention, and the adjusted intervention effect (IE) for each dimension stratified according to caregiver education. Each IE was estimated by subtracting the difference between pre- and postintervention scores for the usual care participants from the difference between pre- and postintervention scores in the intervention participants. At baseline, caregivers with lower educational attainment provided poorer quality of dementia care for the Treatment and Education dimensions than those with more education, but less-educated caregivers had significantly more improvement after the intervention on the assessment, treatment, and safety dimensions. The IEs for those who had not graduated from high school were 44.4 for the assessment dimension, 36.9 for the treatment dimension, and 52.7 for the safety dimension, versus 29.5, 15.7, and 40.9 respectively, for college graduates (P < .001 for all three). Collaborative care management was associated with smaller disparities in dementia care quality between caregivers with lower educational attainment and those with more education. © 2013, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2013, The American Geriatrics Society.

  14. Educational attainment moderates the associations of diabetes education with health outcomes.

    PubMed

    Kim, Su Hyun

    2016-10-01

    Diabetes education is a critical element of care for people with diabetes. However, the associations between diabetes education and self-care or health outcomes have not been clearly demonstrated at a national level. The aims of this study were to examine the associations of attendance of diabetes education classes with health behaviours and glycaemic control, and to understand whether these associations were moderated by level of educational attainment. Data were analysed for 456 adults from the 2012 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey V, collected from January 2010 to December 2012. No significant differences were observed between patients who had attended diabetes education classes and those who had never attended for factors such as smoking, drinking, exercise, nutrition therapy or glycaemic control. There was a significant interaction effect between receiving diabetes education and level of educational attainment on obtaining optimal glycaemic control. Attending diabetes education was positively associated with optimal glycaemic control among patients with more than a high school education but was negatively associated with it among those with less than middle school education. Diabetes education programmes need to be tailored to the needs and cognitive capacities of the target population. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

  15. A Model and a Metric for the Analysis of Status Attainment Processes. Discussion Paper No. 492-78.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sorensen, Aage B.

    This paper proposes a theory of the status attainment process, and specifies it in a mathematical model. The theory justifies a transformation of the conventional status scores to a metric that produces a exponential distribution of attainments, and a transformation of educational attainments to a metric that reflects the competitive advantage…

  16. Childhood adversity, social support, and telomere length among perinatal women.

    PubMed

    Mitchell, Amanda M; Kowalsky, Jennifer M; Epel, Elissa S; Lin, Jue; Christian, Lisa M

    2018-01-01

    Adverse perinatal health outcomes are heightened among women with psychosocial risk factors, including childhood adversity and a lack of social support. Biological aging could be one pathway by which such outcomes occur. However, data examining links between psychosocial factors and indicators of biological aging among perinatal women are limited. The current study examined the associations of childhood socioeconomic status (SES), childhood trauma, and current social support with telomere length in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in a sample of 81 women assessed in early, mid, and late pregnancy as well as 7-11 weeks postpartum. Childhood SES was defined as perceived childhood social class and parental educational attainment. Measures included the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and average telomere length in PBMCs. Per a linear mixed model, telomere length did not change across pregnancy and postpartum visits; thus, subsequent analyses defined telomere length as the average across all available timepoints. ANCOVAs showed group differences by perceived childhood social class, maternal and paternal educational attainment, and current family social support, with lower values corresponding with shorter telomeres, after adjustment for possible confounds. No effects of childhood trauma or social support from significant others or friends on telomere length were observed. Findings demonstrate that while current SES was not related to telomeres, low childhood SES, independent of current SES, and low family social support were distinct risk factors for cellular aging in women. These data have relevance for understanding potential mechanisms by which early life deprivation of socioeconomic and relationship resources affect maternal health. In turn, this has potential significance for intergenerational transmission of telomere length. The predictive value of markers of biological versus chronological age on birth outcomes warrants investigation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Longitudinal Associations between Physical Activity and Educational Outcomes.

    PubMed

    Kari, Jaana T; Pehkonen, Jaakko; Hutri-Kähönen, Nina; Raitakari, Olli T; Tammelin, Tuija H

    2017-11-01

    This longitudinal study examined the role of leisure-time physical activity in academic achievement at the end of compulsory basic education and educational attainment in adulthood. The data were drawn from the ongoing longitudinal Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study, which was combined with register-based data from Statistics Finland. The study consisted of children who were 12 yr (n = 1723, 49% boys) and 15 yr (n = 2445, 48% boys) of age at the time when physical activity was measured. The children were followed up until 2010, when their mean age was 40 yr. Physical activity was self-reported and included several measurements: overall leisure-time physical activity outside school hours, participation in sports club training sessions, and participation in sports competitions. Individuals' educational outcomes were measured with the self-reported grade point average at age 15 yr and register-based information on the years of completed postcompulsory education in adulthood. Ordinary least squares models and the instrumental variable approach were used to analyze the relationship between physical activity and educational outcomes. Physical activity in adolescence was positively associated with educational outcomes. Both the physical activity level at age 15 yr and an increase in the physical activity level between the ages of 12 and 15 yr were positively related to the grade point average at age 15 yr and the years of postcompulsory education in adulthood. The results were robust to the inclusion of several individual and family background factors, including health endowments, family income, and parents' education. The results provide evidence that physical activity in adolescence may not only predict academic success during compulsory basic education but also boost educational outcomes later in life.

  18. Longitudinal Associations between Physical Activity and Educational Outcomes

    PubMed Central

    KARI, JAANA T.; PEHKONEN, JAAKKO; HUTRI-KÄHÖNEN, NINA; RAITAKARI, OLLI T.; TAMMELIN, TUIJA H.

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT Purpose This longitudinal study examined the role of leisure-time physical activity in academic achievement at the end of compulsory basic education and educational attainment in adulthood. Methods The data were drawn from the ongoing longitudinal Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study, which was combined with register-based data from Statistics Finland. The study consisted of children who were 12 yr (n = 1723, 49% boys) and 15 yr (n = 2445, 48% boys) of age at the time when physical activity was measured. The children were followed up until 2010, when their mean age was 40 yr. Physical activity was self-reported and included several measurements: overall leisure-time physical activity outside school hours, participation in sports club training sessions, and participation in sports competitions. Individuals’ educational outcomes were measured with the self-reported grade point average at age 15 yr and register-based information on the years of completed postcompulsory education in adulthood. Ordinary least squares models and the instrumental variable approach were used to analyze the relationship between physical activity and educational outcomes. Results Physical activity in adolescence was positively associated with educational outcomes. Both the physical activity level at age 15 yr and an increase in the physical activity level between the ages of 12 and 15 yr were positively related to the grade point average at age 15 yr and the years of postcompulsory education in adulthood. The results were robust to the inclusion of several individual and family background factors, including health endowments, family income, and parents’ education. Conclusion The results provide evidence that physical activity in adolescence may not only predict academic success during compulsory basic education but also boost educational outcomes later in life. PMID:29045322

  19. Association of Educational Attainment With Lifetime Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.

    PubMed

    Kubota, Yasuhiko; Heiss, Gerardo; MacLehose, Richard F; Roetker, Nicholas S; Folsom, Aaron R

    2017-08-01

    Estimates of lifetime risk may help raise awareness of the extent to which educational inequalities are associated with risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). To estimate lifetime risks of CVD according to categories of educational attainment. Participants were followed from 1987 through December 31, 2013. All CVD events (coronary heart disease, heart failure, and stroke) were confirmed by physician review and International Classification of Diseases codes. A total of 13 948 whites and African Americans who were 45 to 64 years old and free of CVD at baseline were included from 4 US communities (Washington County, Maryland; Forsyth County, North Carolina; Jackson, Mississippi; and suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota). The data analysis was performed from June 7 to August 31, 2016. Educational attainment. We used a life table approach to estimate lifetime risks of CVD from age 45 through 85 years according to educational attainment. We adjusted for competing risks of death from underlying causes other than CVD. The sample of 13 948 participants was 56% female and 27% African American. During 269 210 person-years of follow-up, we documented 4512 CVD events and 2401 non-CVD deaths. Educational attainment displayed an inverse dose-response relation with cumulative risk of CVD, which became evident in middle age, with the most striking gap between those not completing vs completing high school. In men, lifetime risks of CVD were 59.0% (95% CI, 54.0%-64.1%) for grade school, 52.5% (95% CI, 47.7%-56.8%) for high school education without graduation, 50.9% (95% CI, 47.3%-53.9%) for high school graduation, 47.2% (95% CI, 41.5%-52.5%) for vocational school, 46.4% (95% CI, 42.8%-49.6%) for college with or without graduation, and 42.2% (95% CI, 36.6%-47.0%) for graduate/professional school; in women, 50.8% (95% CI, 45.7%-55.8%), 49.3% (95% CI, 45.1%-53.1%), 36.3% (95% CI, 33.4%-39.1%), 32.2% (95% CI, 26.0%-37.3%), 32.8% (95% CI, 29.1%-35.9%), and 28.0% (95% CI, 21.9%-33.3%), respectively. Educational attainment was inversely associated with CVD even within categories of family income, income change, occupation, or parental educational level. More than 1 in 2 individuals with less than high school education had a lifetime CVD event. Educational attainment was inversely associated with the lifetime risk of CVD, regardless of other important socioeconomic characteristics. Our findings emphasize the need for further efforts to reduce CVD inequalities related to educational disparities.

  20. Impact of Educational Attainment on Health Outcomes in Moderate to Severe CKD.

    PubMed

    Morton, Rachael L; Schlackow, Iryna; Staplin, Natalie; Gray, Alastair; Cass, Alan; Haynes, Richard; Emberson, Jonathan; Herrington, William; Landray, Martin J; Baigent, Colin; Mihaylova, Borislava

    2016-01-01

    The inverse association between educational attainment and mortality is well established, but its relevance to vascular events and renal progression in a population with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is less clear. This study aims to determine the association between highest educational attainment and risk of vascular events, cause-specific mortality, and CKD progression. Prospective epidemiologic analysis among participants in the Study of Heart and Renal Protection (SHARP), a randomized controlled trial. 9,270 adults with moderate to severe CKD (6,245 not receiving dialysis at baseline) and no history of myocardial infarction or coronary revascularization recruited in Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Highest educational attainment measured at study entry using 6 levels that ranged from "no formal education" to "tertiary education." Any vascular event (any fatal or nonfatal cardiac, cerebrovascular, or peripheral vascular event), cause-specific mortality, and CKD progression during 4.9 years' median follow-up. There was a significant trend (P<0.001) toward increased vascular risk with decreasing levels of education. Participants with no formal education were at a 46% higher risk of vascular events (relative risk [RR], 1.46; 95% CI, 1.14-1.86) compared with participants with tertiary education. The trend for mortality across education levels was also significant (P<0.001): all-cause mortality was twice as high among those with no formal education compared with tertiary-educated individuals (RR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.62-2.58), and significant increases were seen for both vascular (RR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.21-2.81) and nonvascular (RR, 2.15; 95% CI, 1.60-2.89) deaths. Lifestyle factors and prior disease explain most of the excess mortality risk. Among 6,245 participants not receiving dialysis at baseline, education level was not significantly associated with progression to end-stage renal disease or doubling of creatinine level (P for trend = 0.4). No data for employment or health insurance coverage. Lower educational attainment is associated with increased risk of adverse health outcomes in individuals with CKD. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Educational Attainment of the Public Health Workforce and Its Implications for Workforce Development

    PubMed Central

    Leider, Jonathon P.; Harper, Elizabeth; Bharthapudi, Kiran; Castrucci, Brian C.

    2015-01-01

    Context: Educational attainment is a critical issue in public health workforce development. However, relatively little is known about the actual attainment of staff in state health agencies (SHAs). Objective: Ascertain the levels of educational attainment among SHA employees, as well as the correlates of attainment. Design: Using a stratified sampling approaching, staff from SHAs were surveyed using the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) instrument in late 2014. A nationally representative sample was drawn across 5 geographic (paired adjacent HHS) regions. Descriptive and inferential statistics were analyzed using balanced repeated replication weights to account for complex sampling. A logistic regression was conducted with attainment of a bachelor's degree as the dependent variable and age, region, supervisory status, race/ethnicity, gender, and staff type as independent variables. Setting and Participants: Web-based survey of SHA central office employees. Main Outcome Measure: Educational attainment overall, as well as receipt of a degree with a major in public health. Results: A total of 10 246 permanently-employed SHA central office staff participated in the survey (response rate 46%). Seventy-five percent (95% confidence interval [CI], 74-77) had a bachelor's degree, 38% (95% CI, 37-40) had a master's degree, and 9% (95% CI, 8%-10%) had a doctoral degree. A logistic regression showed Asian staff had the highest odds of having a bachelor's degree (odds ratio [OR] = 2.8; 95% CI, 2.2-3.7) compared with non-Hispanic whites, and Hispanic/Latino staff had lower odds (OR = 0.6; 95% CI, 0.4-0.8). Women had lower odds of having a bachelor's degree than men (OR = 0.5; 95% CI, 0.4-0.6). About 17% of the workforce (95% CI, 16-18) had a degree in public health at any level. Conclusions: Educational attainment among SHA central office staff is high, but relatively few have formal training of any sort in public health. This makes efforts to increase availability of on-the-job training and distance learning all the more critical. PMID:26422495

  2. Genome-wide association study of cognitive functions and educational attainment in UK Biobank (N=112 151)

    PubMed Central

    Davies, G; Marioni, R E; Liewald, D C; Hill, W D; Hagenaars, S P; Harris, S E; Ritchie, S J; Luciano, M; Fawns-Ritchie, C; Lyall, D; Cullen, B; Cox, S R; Hayward, C; Porteous, D J; Evans, J; McIntosh, A M; Gallacher, J; Craddock, N; Pell, J P; Smith, D J; Gale, C R; Deary, I J

    2016-01-01

    People's differences in cognitive functions are partly heritable and are associated with important life outcomes. Previous genome-wide association (GWA) studies of cognitive functions have found evidence for polygenic effects yet, to date, there are few replicated genetic associations. Here we use data from the UK Biobank sample to investigate the genetic contributions to variation in tests of three cognitive functions and in educational attainment. GWA analyses were performed for verbal–numerical reasoning (N=36 035), memory (N=112 067), reaction time (N=111 483) and for the attainment of a college or a university degree (N=111 114). We report genome-wide significant single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based associations in 20 genomic regions, and significant gene-based findings in 46 regions. These include findings in the ATXN2, CYP2DG, APBA1 and CADM2 genes. We report replication of these hits in published GWA studies of cognitive function, educational attainment and childhood intelligence. There is also replication, in UK Biobank, of SNP hits reported previously in GWA studies of educational attainment and cognitive function. GCTA-GREML analyses, using common SNPs (minor allele frequency>0.01), indicated significant SNP-based heritabilities of 31% (s.e.m.=1.8%) for verbal–numerical reasoning, 5% (s.e.m.=0.6%) for memory, 11% (s.e.m.=0.6%) for reaction time and 21% (s.e.m.=0.6%) for educational attainment. Polygenic score analyses indicate that up to 5% of the variance in cognitive test scores can be predicted in an independent cohort. The genomic regions identified include several novel loci, some of which have been associated with intracranial volume, neurodegeneration, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. PMID:27046643

  3. Understanding the Educational Attainment of Sexual Minority Women and Men*

    PubMed Central

    Mollborn, Stefanie; Everett, Bethany

    2015-01-01

    National studies have not analyzed sexual identity disparities in high school completion, college enrollment, or college completion in the United States. Using Add Health data, we document the relationship between adult sexual orientation and each of these outcomes. Many sexual minority respondents experienced disadvantages in adolescent academic achievement, school experiences, and social environments. This translates into educational attainment in complex, gendered ways. We find that the socially privileged completely heterosexual identity predicts higher educational attainment for women, while for men it is often a liability. Mostly heterosexual and gay identities are educationally beneficial for men but not women. There are college completion disparities between gay and mostly heterosexual women and their completely heterosexual counterparts. Bisexual respondents, especially women, have particularly problematic outcomes. Adolescent experiences, attitudes, and social contexts explain some of these differences. From adolescence through college, sexual minority groups, but especially females, need intervention to reduce substantial educational disparities. PMID:26257457

  4. Social Change and the Relationships between Education and Employment.

    PubMed

    Yabiku, Scott T; Schlabach, Sarah

    2009-08-01

    The relationships between education and employment have long been of interest to social scientists. During the transition from a completely agricultural economy to one that is developing nonfarm opportunities, however, the relationships between education and employment may dramatically change. We examine how two components of education-schooling enrollment and attainment-affect the transition to employment for men and women in the Chitwan Valley of Nepal. Using discrete-time event history models, we find that school enrollment tends to delay employment, while school attainment accelerates employment. We also test how these effects may have changed across successive cohorts. Over time, the effects of enrollment have become stronger, while the effects of attainment appear to have weakened. These shifts in the nature of education may be related to increasing conflict between student and employee roles, as well as changes in the types and availability of employment.

  5. Cognitive, Noncognitive, and Family Background Contributions to College Attainment: A Behavioral Genetic Perspective.

    PubMed

    McGue, Matt; Rustichini, Aldo; Iacono, William G

    2017-02-01

    There is considerable evidence that college attainment is associated with family background and cognitive and noncognitive skills. Behavioral genetic methods are used to determine whether the family background effect is mediated through cognitive and noncognitive skill development. We analyze data from two longitudinal behavioral genetic studies: the Minnesota Twin Family Study, consisting of 1,382 pairs of like-sex twins and their parents, and the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study, consisting of 409 adoptive and 208 nonadoptive families with two offspring and their rearing parents. Cognitive ability, noncognitive skills, and family background are all associated with offspring college attainment. Biometric analysis shows that the intergenerational transmission of college attainment owes to both genetic and shared environmental factors. The shared environmental influence was not due to highly educated parents fostering noncognitive skill development in their children, and there was limited evidence that they foster cognitive skill development. The environmental transmission of educational attainment does not appear to be a consequence of highly educated parents fostering cognitive and noncognitive skill development. Alternative mechanisms are needed to explain the strong shared environmental influence on college attainment. Possibilities include academic expectations, social network effects, and the economic benefits of having wealthy parents. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. The Economic Effects of Cognitive and Educational Differences Among Low-Ability and Blue-Collar Origin Men: A Comparative Analysis.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Olneck, Michael R.

    This study used five data sets to investigate the effects of measured cognitive skills on educational attainment, and the effects of cognitive skills and educational attainment on occupational status and earning among men with low test scores, as compared to men with high test scores, and among men with blue-collar fathers, as compared to men with…

  7. Higher educational attainment but not higher income is protective for cardiovascular risk in Deaf American Sign Language (ASL) users.

    PubMed

    McKee, Michael M; McKee, Kimberly; Winters, Paul; Sutter, Erika; Pearson, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    Higher educational attainment and income provide cardiovascular protection in the general population. It is unknown if the same effect is seen among Deaf American Sign Language (ASL) users who face communication barriers in health care settings. We sought to examine whether educational attainment and/or annual household income were inversely associated with cardiovascular risk in a sample of Deaf ASL users. This cross-sectional study included 302 Deaf respondents aged 18-88 years from the Deaf Health Survey (2008), an adapted and translated Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) administered in sign language. Associations between the self-reported cardiovascular disease equivalents (CVDE; any of the following: diabetes, myocardial infarction (MI), cerebral vascular attack (CVA), and angina) with educational attainment (≤high school [low education], some college, and ≥4 year college degree [referent]), and annual household income (<$25,000, $25,000-<$50,000, or ≥$50,000 [referent]) were assessed using a multivariate logistic regression adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and smoking history. Deaf respondents who reported ≤high school education were more likely to report the presence of a CVDE (OR = 5.76; 95% CI = 2.04-16.31) compared to Deaf respondents who reported having ≥4 year college degree after adjustment. However, low-income Deaf individuals (i.e., household incomes <$25,000) were not more likely to report the presence of a CVDE (OR = 2.24; 95% CI = 0.76-6.68) compared to high-income Deaf respondents after adjustment. Low educational attainment was associated with higher likelihood of reported cardiovascular equivalents among Deaf individuals. Higher income did not appear to provide a cardiovascular protective effect for Deaf respondents. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Higher Educational Attainment but not Higher Income is Protective for Cardiovascular Risk in Deaf American Sign Language (ASL) Users

    PubMed Central

    McKee, Michael M.; McKee, Kimberly; Winters, Paul; Sutter, Erika; Pearson, Thomas

    2013-01-01

    Background Higher educational attainment and income provide cardiovascular protection in the general population. It is unknown if the same effect is seen among Deaf American Sign Language (ASL) users who face communication barriers in healthcare settings. Objective We sought to examine whether educational attainment and/or annual household income were inversely associated with cardiovascular risk in a sample of Deaf ASL users. Methods This cross-sectional study included 302 Deaf respondents aged 18-88 years from the Deaf Health Survey (2008), an adapted and translated Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) administered in sign language. Associations between the self-reported cardiovascular disease equivalents (CVDE; any of the following: diabetes, myocardial infarction (MI), cerebral vascular attack (CVA), and angina) with educational attainment (≤high school [low education], some college, and ≥4 year college degree [referent]), and annual household income (<$25,000, $25,000-<$50,000, or ≥$50,000 [referent]) were assessed using a multivariate logistic regression adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and smoking history. Results Deaf respondents who reported ≤high school education were more likely to report the presence of a CVDE (OR 5.92; 95% CI 2.12-16.57) compared to Deaf respondents who reported having ≥4 year college degree after adjustment. However, low-income Deaf individuals (i.e. household incomes <$25,000) were not more likely to report the presence of a CVDE (OR=2.24; 95% CI 0.76-6.68) compared to high-income Deaf respondents after adjustment. Conclusion Low educational attainment was associated with higher likelihood of reported cardiovascular equivalents among Deaf individuals. Higher income did not appear to provide a cardiovascular protective effect for Deaf respondents. PMID:24411507

  9. Impact of Educational Attainment on Health Outcomes in Moderate to Severe CKD

    PubMed Central

    Morton, Rachael L.; Schlackow, Iryna; Staplin, Natalie; Gray, Alastair; Cass, Alan; Haynes, Richard; Emberson, Jonathan; Herrington, William; Landray, Martin J.; Baigent, Colin; Mihaylova, Borislava

    2016-01-01

    Background The inverse association between educational attainment and mortality is well established, but its relevance to vascular events and renal progression in a population with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is less clear. This study aims to determine the association between highest educational attainment and risk of vascular events, cause-specific mortality, and CKD progression. Study Design Prospective epidemiologic analysis among participants in the Study of Heart and Renal Protection (SHARP), a randomized controlled trial. Setting & Participants 9,270 adults with moderate to severe CKD (6,245 not receiving dialysis at baseline) and no history of myocardial infarction or coronary revascularization recruited in Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Predictor Highest educational attainment measured at study entry using 6 levels that ranged from “no formal education” to “tertiary education.” Outcomes Any vascular event (any fatal or nonfatal cardiac, cerebrovascular, or peripheral vascular event), cause-specific mortality, and CKD progression during 4.9 years’ median follow-up. Results There was a significant trend (P < 0.001) toward increased vascular risk with decreasing levels of education. Participants with no formal education were at a 46% higher risk of vascular events (relative risk [RR], 1.46; 95% CI, 1.14-1.86) compared with participants with tertiary education. The trend for mortality across education levels was also significant (P < 0.001): all-cause mortality was twice as high among those with no formal education compared with tertiary-educated individuals (RR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.62-2.58), and significant increases were seen for both vascular (RR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.21-2.81) and nonvascular (RR, 2.15; 95% CI, 1.60-2.89) deaths. Lifestyle factors and prior disease explain most of the excess mortality risk. Among 6,245 participants not receiving dialysis at baseline, education level was not significantly associated with progression to end-stage renal disease or doubling of creatinine level (P for trend = 0.4). Limitations No data for employment or health insurance coverage. Conclusions Lower educational attainment is associated with increased risk of adverse health outcomes in individuals with CKD. PMID:26385817

  10. National IQs Calculated and Validated for 108 Nations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lynn, Richard; Meisenberg, Gerhard

    2010-01-01

    We estimate the validity of the national IQs presented by Lynn and Vanhanen (2002, 2006) by examining whether they are consistent with the educational attainment of school students in math, science and reading comprehension in 108 countries and provinces. The educational attainment scores in a number of studies are integrated to give EAs…

  11. Educational Attainment and Labor Force Participation of U.S. Immigrant Offspring from Southeast Asia.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Poch, Bunnak

    This study uses the most recent data from the Current Population Survey to examine socioeconomic standing (mainly educational attainment and labor force participation) of Southeast Asian (SEA) immigrants. The study focuses on what progress SEA immigrants and refugees have made after 2 decades of resettlement, whether second generation children…

  12. Gender Differences in Educational Attainment: The Case of Doctoral Degrees in Norway

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mastekaasa, Arne

    2005-01-01

    Despite strong trends in most Western countries towards gender equality in educational attainments, men are still considerably more likely to obtain doctoral degrees. Using data comprising nearly all students graduating from Norwegian universities during 1981-1996, separate event history analyses are carried out of recruitment to and completion of…

  13. Reverse Transfer: The Path Less Traveled. ECS Education Trends

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anderson, Lexi

    2015-01-01

    As the nation works toward higher postsecondary attainment goals, states are looking into ways to increase successful degree completion for students in higher education. A broad consensus between states, philanthropic interests, and the business and labor communities is that higher attainment rates are required to meet the workforce demands of the…

  14. Ethnicity, Disadvantage and Other Variables in the Analysis of Birmingham Longitudinal School Attainment Datasets

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Parsons, Carl; Thompson, Trevor

    2017-01-01

    Explaining and responding to inequalities in attainment are significant educational policy challenges in England as elsewhere. Data on four cohorts of Birmingham Local Education Authority (LEA) pupils, each approximately 13,000, were analysed by ethnicity, deprivation, gender and other relevant individual pupil variables. For the four successive…

  15. Health and the Educational Attainment of Adolescents: Evidence from the NLSY97

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Haas, Steven A.; Fosse, Nathan Edward

    2008-01-01

    This article examines the mechanisms linking health to the educational attainment of adolescents. In particular, it investigates the role of cognitive/academic achievement and a variety of psychosocial adjustment factors in explaining this relationship. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (NLSY97), we estimate…

  16. Democracy, Human Development, and Happiness Indices as Precursors of International Student Success

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Demirbolat, Ayse Ottekin

    2018-01-01

    This paper aims to explore the relationships between educational attainment as expressed in PISA scores and several socio-economic and political variables some of which are sub-indices of Human Development Index. The correlation analysis reveals that there are highly significant associations between educational attainment and civil liberties,…

  17. The Impact of Repealing Sunday Closing Laws on Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lee, Dara N.

    2013-01-01

    Adolescents face daily tradeoffs between human capital investment, labor, and leisure. This paper exploits state variation in the repeal of Sunday closing laws to examine the impact of a distinct and plausibly exogenous rise in the quantity of competing diversions available to youth on their educational attainment. The results suggest that the…

  18. Beliefs and Values among Rural Citizens: Shared Expectations for Educational Attainment?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Deggs, David M.; Miller, Michael T.

    2011-01-01

    Discussions at the local, state, and national level have been focused on the importance of providing access and opportunity for college attendance. While these discussions are important to raising public interest in higher education attainment, they often negate how community values influence the college attendance decision process. This study…

  19. The Effect of Public Support on College Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Trostel, Philip A.

    2012-01-01

    This study estimates the extent that state financial support for higher education raises college attainment. Despite its manifest importance for policy, this is the first study to estimate this effect directly. Many studies have estimated the effect of college price on attendance, but state support for higher education and college price do not…

  20. General Education Development (GED®) Credential Attainment, Externalizing Disorders, and Substance Use Disorders in Disconnected Emerging Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bergman, Andrea; Kong, Grace; Pope, Alice

    2014-01-01

    There are many benefits for emerging adults, both financial and personal, in obtaining a General Education Development (GED®) credential (Ou, 2008). However, little is known about the correlates of GED® credential attainment in "disconnected" emerging adults attending GED® programs. Our goal was to examine whether externalizing…

  1. The Link between Educational Expectations and Effort in the College-for-All Era

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Domina, Thurston; Conley, AnneMarie; Farkas, George

    2011-01-01

    From the Wisconsin status attainment model to rational choice, classical sociological, social-psychological, and economic theories of student educational transitions have assumed that students' expectations are positively related to their ultimate attainment. However, the growth of the college-for-all ethos raises questions about that assumption.…

  2. The Fiscal Impacts of College Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Trostel, Philip A.

    2010-01-01

    This study quantifies one part of the return to U.S. public investment in college education, namely, the fiscal benefits associated with greater college attainment. College graduates pay much more taxes than those not going to college. Government expenditures are also much less for college graduates than for those without a college education.…

  3. Parent Resources during Adolescence: Effects on Education and Careers in Young Adulthood

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Faas, Caitlin; Benson, Mark J.; Kaestle, Christine E.

    2013-01-01

    Building on the Wisconsin Model of Status Attainment, this study examined the contextual process of obtaining educational attainment and the subsequent work outcomes and career satisfaction. This study used the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) with structural equation modeling techniques to assess US participants from…

  4. TVET and the Poor: Challenges and Possibilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lamb, Stephen

    2011-01-01

    Recent educational attainment targets set by Australian governments recognise education and training as pivotal to the economic and social well-being of Australians. The targets seek to close the gaps in attainment that socially and economically divide the population, and, in doing so, raise the levels of skills of the workforce and improve the…

  5. Do ICT Competences Support Educational Attainment at University?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    De Wit, Kurt; Heerwegh, Dirk; Verhoeven, Jef C.

    2012-01-01

    Taking into account that universities assume students will have at least some basic knowledge of the use of computers and the Internet, we hypothesize that the command of ICT skills by freshmen could have an influence on their educational attainment. To test this hypothesis an online questionnaire was used, which was answered by a representative…

  6. Protective Connections and Educational Attainment among Young Adults with Childhood-Onset Chronic Illness

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maslow, Gary; Haydon, Abigail A.; McRee, Annie-Laurie; Halpern, Carolyn T.

    2012-01-01

    Background: Youth with childhood-onset chronic illness (COCI) are at risk of poor educational attainment. Specific protective factors that promote college graduation in this population have not been studied previously. In this study, we examine the role protective factors during adolescence play in promoting college graduation among young adults…

  7. The Unanswered Question: How Will We Pay for Aggressive Attainment Goals?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jones, Dennis

    2014-01-01

    The concern about the United States' education attainment levels as compared with those of other countries, and the consequences of this poor showing, were given visibility by the inclusion of international statistics in the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education publication, "Measuring Up 2008." That concern was…

  8. Improving Educational Attainment: Recent Trends and Challenges

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chingos, Matthew; McPherson, Michael

    2011-01-01

    A large majority of full-time students pursuing bachelor's degrees at four-year colleges and universities in the United States attend public universities. The struggle, therefore, to improve educational attainment and reduce the marked disparities in outcomes that lead to greater inequalities of all kinds will take place mainly within our nation's…

  9. The Fiscal Consequences of Adult Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Khatiwada, Ishwar; McLaughlin, Joseph; Sum, Andrew; Palma, Sheila

    2007-01-01

    This research monograph prepared for the National Commission on Adult Literacy is primarily designed to describe and analyze the net annual fiscal contributions (tax payments minus cash and in-kind transfers and institutionalization costs) of U.S. adults (ages 16-64) by their educational attainment in recent years. The report begins with an…

  10. Household Structure and Children's Educational Attainment: A Perspective on Coresidence with Grandparents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Monserud, Maria A.; Elder, Glen H., Jr.

    2011-01-01

    Children from alternative households complete fewer years of schooling. Yet little is known about the implications of coresidence with grandparents for educational attainment. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 10,083), this study found that extended households with two biological parents were not detrimental…

  11. Education and Success: A Case Study of the Thai Public Service.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fry, Gerald W.

    1980-01-01

    Studied is the bureaucracy in Thailand, and access to an promotion within the system--or the "degree of openness" in the Thai public service. The key dependent variable is occupational attainment. Some key intervening variables include educational attainment, total job experience, sex, and regional remoteness of early schooling. (KC)

  12. National Differences in Intelligence and Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lynn, Richard; Mikk, Jaan

    2007-01-01

    We examine the correlations between the national IQs of Lynn and Vanhanen (Lynn, R. and Vanhanen, T. (2002). "IQ and the wealth of nations". Westport, CT: Praeger. Westport, CT: Praeger, Lynn, R. and Vanhanen, T. (2006). "IQ and global inequality". Athens, GA: Washington Summit Books.) and educational attainment scores in math and science for 10-…

  13. Educational Attainment of 25 Year Old Norwegians According to Birth Order and Gender

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kristensen, Petter; Bjerkedal, Tor

    2010-01-01

    This register-based longitudinal study of 392 969 Norwegians examined associations between birth order, gender and educational attainment at age 25 years within families (fixed effects regression) and between families (ordinary OLS regression). Data were retrieved from national registers for births of mothers with single births only and a first…

  14. The Urban and Rural Fellowship School Experiments in Pakistan: Design, Evaluation, and Sustainability.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Orazem, Peter F.

    The province of Balochistan has the worst educational attainment in Pakistan, which has low educational attainment compared to countries with similar income levels. In light of several factors constraining the Balochistan government's ability to expand school supply in poor areas, private schools were thought to offer potential benefits for…

  15. How Is Postsecondary Education Associated with Membership in the American Corporate Elite?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ott, Molly C.

    2011-01-01

    This study contributes to the discussion around the value of a college degree and associated career advantages by considering how postsecondary education contributes to the attainment of the most powerful and prestigious positions in the American corporate world. Guided by a conceptual framework informed by status attainment, power elite, and…

  16. The population attributable fraction of low education for mortality in South Korea with improvement in educational attainment and no improvement in mortality inequalities.

    PubMed

    Lim, Dohee; Kong, Kyoung Ae; Lee, Hye Ah; Lee, Won Kyung; Park, Su Hyun; Baik, Sun Jung; Park, Hyesook; Jung-Choi, Kyunghee

    2015-03-31

    The educational attainment of Koreans has greatly increased, which was expected to reduce the magnitude of the population attributable fraction (PAF) of mortality associated with low education levels. However, increase in the relative risk (RR) of mortality among those with lower educational levels actually increased the PAF. The purpose of this study was to examine the change in the PAF of lower educational levels for mortality in Korea, where educational attainment has improved and is associated with the exacerbation of inequalities in mortality levels. National census data were used to derive educational levels. The mortality-associated RR of lower educational levels was calculated by reference to national census and death certificate data from 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010. PAFs were calculated for all-cause mortality, malignant neoplasms, cerebrovascular disease, heart disease, and suicide by gender and age group (30-44 and 45-59 years). The PAF of low educational level in terms of total mortality has decreased since 1995 in both genders. This trend was more prominent among those aged 30-44 years. However, the PAFs of suicide in younger females (30-44 years) and of cerebrovascular disease in older males (45-59 years) have increased. The RRs of all-cause mortality and those of the four leading causes of death in those with the lowest educational levels have increased, especially in females aged 30-44 years. The consistent and sharp increase in the attainment of education has contributed to the reduction in the PAFs of lower education for mortality, despite the fact that mortality inequalities have not improved. Efforts to reduce health inequalities must promote healthy public policy and address public health policies.

  17. Educational Inequalities in Post-Hip Fracture Mortality: A NOREPOS Study.

    PubMed

    Omsland, Tone K; Eisman, John A; Naess, Øyvind; Center, Jacqueline R; Gjesdal, Clara G; Tell, Grethe S; Emaus, Nina; Meyer, Haakon E; Søgaard, Anne Johanne; Holvik, Kristin; Schei, Berit; Forsmo, Siri; Magnus, Jeanette H

    2015-12-01

    Hip fractures are associated with high excess mortality. Education is an important determinant of health, but little is known about educational inequalities in post-hip fracture mortality. Our objective was to investigate educational inequalities in post-hip fracture mortality and to examine whether comorbidity or family composition could explain any association. We conducted a register-based population study of Norwegians aged 50 years and older from 2002 to 2010. We measured total mortality according to educational attainment in 56,269 hip fracture patients (NORHip) and in the general Norwegian population. Both absolute and relative educational inequalities in mortality in people with and without hip fracture were compared. There was an educational gradient in post-hip fracture mortality in both sexes. Compared with those with primary education only, the age-adjusted relative risk (RR) of mortality in hip fracture patients with tertiary education was 0.82 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.77-0.87) in men and 0.79 (95% CI 0.75-0.84) in women. Additional adjustments for Charlson comorbidity index, marital status, and number of children did not materially change the estimates. Regardless of educational attainment, the 1-year age-adjusted mortality was three- to fivefold higher in hip fracture patients compared with peers in the general population without fracture. The absolute differences in 1-year mortality according to educational attainment were considerably larger in hip fracture patients than in the population without hip fracture. Absolute educational inequalities in mortality were higher after hip fracture compared with the general population without hip fracture and were not mediated by comorbidity or family composition. Investigation of other possible mediating factors might help to identify new targets for interventions, based on lower educational attainment, to reduce post-hip fracture mortality. © 2015 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

  18. Achievement goals in adult learners: evidence from distance education.

    PubMed

    Remedios, Richard; Richardson, John T E

    2013-12-01

    There is evidence that learners may adopt different kinds of achievement goals: mastery approach, mastery avoidance, performance approach, and performance avoidance. In higher education, this evidence has mainly come from young people who have recently gone straight from secondary education to higher education. However, higher education is increasingly populated by older students, and it has been theorised that the relationship between goals and achievement might be very different for adult learners. The aim of the present study was to examine whether the relationships between achievement, drop-out rate, and goal orientation observed for non-adult populations are mirrored in adult learners. The Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ) was administered to adult learners taking courses by distance learning. Respondents were 195 men and 586 women between the ages of 19 and 87. The results confirmed the reliability of the 2 × 2 version of the AGQ for this distinctive population. As in previous studies of younger students, mastery-approach goals were unrelated to attainment, performance-approach goals tended to facilitate attainment, and performance-avoidance goals tended to impair attainment. In addition, mastery-avoidance goals tended to impair students' attainment and also increased the likelihood that they would drop out of their course altogether. The achievement-goal framework is as appropriate for understanding influences on attainment in adult learners as it is in younger students. Adult learners may be more sensitive to the deleterious effects of adopting mastery-avoidance achievement goals. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.

  19. Receptive language and educational attainment for sexually abused females.

    PubMed

    Noll, Jennie G; Shenk, Chad E; Yeh, Michele T; Ji, Juye; Putnam, Frank W; Trickett, Penelope K

    2010-09-01

    The objective of this study was to test whether the experience of childhood sexual abuse is associated with long-term receptive language acquisition and educational attainment deficits for females. Females with substantiated familial childhood sexual abuse (n=84) and a nonabused comparison group (n=102) were followed prospectively for 18 years. Receptive language ability was assessed at 6 time points across distinct stages of development, including childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Rates of high school graduation and total educational attainment were assessed during young adulthood. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that receptive language did not differ between the groups at the initial assessment point in childhood; however, a significant group by time interaction was observed across development with abused females (1) acquiring receptive language at a significantly slower rate throughout development and (2) achieving a lower overall maximum level of proficiency. Significant differences in receptive language scores emerged as early as midadolescence. In addition, abused females reported significantly lower rates of high school graduation and lower overall educational attainment when compared with their nonabused peers. Exposure to childhood sexual abuse may be a significant risk factor for cognitive performance and achievement deficits for victims. These findings have particular public health relevance given the high prevalence of sexual abuse and that poor cognitive functioning and low levels of educational attainment can contribute to continued adversity throughout the life course. Early intervention may assist victims in improving cognitive functioning, altering deleterious trajectories, and promoting greater life successes.

  20. The impact of education on sexual behavior in sub-Saharan Africa: a review of the evidence.

    PubMed

    Zuilkowski, Stephanie Simmons; Jukes, Matthew C H

    2012-01-01

    Many studies have attempted to determine the relationship between education and HIV status. However, a complete and causal understanding of this relationship requires analysis of its mediating pathways, focusing on sexual behaviors. We developed a series of hypotheses based on the differential effect of educational attainment on three sexual behaviors. We tested our predictions in a systematic literature review including 65 articles reporting associations between three specific sexual behaviors -- sexual initiation, number of partners, and condom use -- and educational attainment or school enrollment in sub-Saharan Africa. The patterns of associations varied by behavior. The findings for condom use were particularly convergent; none of the 44 studies using educational attainment as a predictor reviewed found that more educated people were significantly less likely to use condoms. Findings for sexual initiation and number of partners were more complex. The contrast between findings for condom use on the one hand and sexual initiation and number of partners on the other supports predictions based on our theoretical framework.

  1. Effects of education on cognition at older ages: evidence from China's Great Famine.

    PubMed

    Huang, Wei; Zhou, Yi

    2013-12-01

    This paper explores whether educational attainment has a cognitive reserve capacity in elder life. Using pilot data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we examined the impact of education on cognitive abilities at old ages. OLS results showed that respondents who completed primary school obtained 18.2 percent higher scores on cognitive tests than those who did not. We then constructed an instrumental variable (IV) by leveraging China's Great Famine of 1959-1961 as a natural experiment to estimate the causal effect of education on cognition. Two-stage least squares (2SLS) results provided sound evidence that completing primary school significantly increases cognition scores, especially in episode memory, by almost 20 percent on average. Moreover, Regression Discontinuity (RD) analysis provides further evidence for the causal interpretation, and shows that the effects are different for the different measures of cognition we explored. Our results also show that the Great Famine can result in long-term health consequences through the pathway of losing educational opportunities other than through the pathway of nutrition deprivation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Sexual orientation disparities in mental health: the moderating role of educational attainment.

    PubMed

    Barnes, David M; Hatzenbuehler, Mark L; Hamilton, Ava D; Keyes, Katherine M

    2014-09-01

    Mental health disparities between sexual minorities and heterosexuals remain inadequately understood, especially across levels of educational attainment. The purpose of the present study was to test whether education modifies the association between sexual orientation and mental disorder. We compared the odds of past 12-month and lifetime psychiatric disorder prevalence (any Axis-I, any mood, any anxiety, any substance use, and comorbidity) between lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual individuals by educational attainment (those with and without a bachelor's degree), adjusting for covariates, and tested for interaction between sexual orientation and educational attainment. Data are drawn from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, a nationally representative survey of non-institutionalized US adults (N = 34,653; 577 LGB). Sexual orientation disparities in mental health are smaller among those with a college education. Specifically, the disparity in those with versus those without a bachelor's degree was attenuated by 100 % for any current mood disorder, 82 % for any current Axis-I disorder, 76 % for any current anxiety disorder, and 67 % for both any current substance use disorder and any current comorbidity. Further, the interaction between sexual orientation and education was statistically significant for any current Axis-I disorder, any current mood disorder, and any current anxiety disorder. Our findings for lifetime outcomes were similar. The attenuated mental health disparity at higher education levels underscores the particular risk for disorder among LGBs with less education. Future studies should consider selection versus causal factors to explain the attenuated disparity we found at higher education levels.

  3. The impact of education and globalization on sexual and reproductive health: retrospective evidence from eastern and southern Africa.

    PubMed

    Van Stam, Marie-Anne; Michielsen, Kristien; Stroeken, Koen; Zijlstra, Bonne J H

    2014-01-01

    The objective of this study is to qualify the relationship between sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and educational attainment in eastern and southern Africa (ESA). We hypothesize that the regional level of globalization is a moderating factor in the relationship between SRH and educational attainment. Using retrospective data from Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia, the associations between SRH (eight indicators), educational attainment, and globalization were examined using multilevel logistic regression analysis. It was found that the model fit for every SRH outcome indicator increased significantly after including the interaction between globalization and educational attainment, supporting the hypothesis. Depending on the level of globalization, three types of relationships between education and SRH were found: (1) for the indicators "more than four children," "intercourse before 17 years," "first child before 20 years," and "one or more child died" education is risk-decreasing, and the reduction is stronger in more globalized regions; (2) for the indicators "condom use at last intercourse" and "current contraceptive use" education is risk-decreasing, and the reduction is stronger in less globalized regions; (3) for the indicators "HIV positive" and "more than four lifetime sexual partners" education is risk increasing, but only in less globalized regions. In conclusion, these effects are related to three types of access: (1) access to services, (2) access to information, and (3) access to sexual networks. The findings highlight the relevance of globalization when analyzing the association between SRH and education, and the importance of structural factors in the development of effective SRH promotion interventions.

  4. The relationship between educational attainment and waiting time among the elderly in Norway.

    PubMed

    Carlsen, Fredrik; Kaarboe, Oddvar Martin

    2015-11-01

    We investigate whether educational attainment affects waiting time of elderly patients in somatic hospitals. We consider three distinct pathways; that patients with different educational attainment have different disease patterns, that patients with different levels of education receive treatments at different hospitals, and that patient choice and supply of local health services within hospital catchment areas explain unequal waiting time of different educational groups. We find evidence of an educational gradient in waiting time for male patients, but not for female patients. Conditional on age, male patients with tertiary education wait 45% shorter than male patients with secondary or primary education. The first pathway is not quantitatively important as controlling for disease patters has little effect on relative waiting times. The second pathway is important. Relative to patients with primary education, variation in waiting time and education level across local hospitals contributes to higher waiting time for male patients with secondary education and female patients with secondary or tertiary education and lower waiting time for male patients with tertiary education. These effects are in the order of 15-20%. The third pathway is also quantitatively important. The educational gradients within catchment areas disappear when we control for travel distance and supply of private specialists. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Assessing the benefits of a rising tide: Educational attainment and increases in neighborhood socioeconomic advantage.

    PubMed

    Johnston, William R

    2017-02-01

    An emerging approach to studying associations between neighborhood contexts and educational outcomes is to estimate the outcomes of adolescents growing up in neighborhoods that are experiencing economic growth in comparison to peers that reside in economically stable or declining communities. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), I examine the association between education attainment and changes in socioeconomic advantage in urban neighborhoods between 1990 and 2000. I find that residing in a neighborhood that experiences economic improvements has a positive association with educational attainment for urban adolescents. Furthermore, race-based analyses suggest consistently positive associations for all race subgroups, lending support to protective models of neighborhood effects that argue high neighborhood SES supports positive outcomes for adolescents residing in these contexts. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Education attainment is associated with patient-reported outcomes: findings from the Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register.

    PubMed

    Greene, Meridith E; Rolfson, Ola; Nemes, Szilard; Gordon, Max; Malchau, Henrik; Garellick, Göran

    2014-06-01

    Age, sex, and medical comorbidities may be associated with differences in patient-reported outcome scores after THA. Highest level of education may be a surrogate for socioeconomic status, but the degree to which this is associated with patient-reported outcomes after THA is not known. We investigated the national Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register for the association of education attainment on patient-reported outcomes 1 year after THA; specifically, we evaluated level of education attainment against health-related quality of life (HRQoL), pain reduction, and satisfaction with treatment 1 year after THA. All THAs for osteoarthritis performed from 2005 through 2007 with complete patient-reported outcome measures (representing 49% of the THAs performed for this diagnosis) were selected from the Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register. These cases were merged with national databases containing education attainment, marital status, and comorbidities (n = 11,464; mean age of patients, 64 years). The patient-reported outcome measure protocol included the HRQoL measure EuroQol five-dimension scale (EQ-5D), a VAS for pain, the Charnley classification survey, and a VAS addressing THA satisfaction. Linear regression analyses determined the association of preoperative patient factors with patient-reported outcomes. High education attainment was associated with higher HRQoL (EQ-5D index ß(high) = 0.03 ± 0.01; EQ VAS ß(high) = 2.6 ± 0.5) after THA, whereas those with low and medium education were at risk for lower HRQoL. High education was associated with less pain after treatment (ß(high) = -3.3 ± 0.05). Individuals with low or medium education were at risk for less satisfaction with THA (p < 0.001). Our results suggest clinicians should support patients with low and medium education to a greater extent. Identification of patients who will benefit most from THA and educating those at risk for poorer outcomes, like patients with low and medium education, ultimately may improve patient satisfaction, HRQoL, pain, and the cost utility of THA. Level III, therapeutic study. See the Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

  7. Preferential Policies and Secondary School Attainment in Peninsular Malaysia.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pong, Suet-ling

    1993-01-01

    Examines the effects of Malaysia's preferential educational policies regarding secondary school attainment for the nation's three ethnic groups. Investigates trends in gender and socioeconomic differences within each ethnic group. Finds that, over time, Malays were increasingly more likely to attain secondary school than were non-Malays. (CFR)

  8. Commentary: Centering the "Marginalized Majority"--How Hispanic-Serving Institutions Advance Postsecondary Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Núñez, Anne-Marie

    2017-01-01

    Advancing the educational success of the Latinx population can significantly affect overall postsecondary attainment since Latinxs comprise the largest and fastest growing non-White population in the country yet historically have among the lowest rates of postsecondary attainment (Kelly, Schneider, & Carey, 2010). Arguably, Hispanic-Serving…

  9. Social Background, Composition and Educational Growth.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mare, Robert D.

    1979-01-01

    Studies the impact of changes in family background on grade-level attainment for White males between 1907-1951. Findings show that the effects of social background on grade attainment decrease with increasing levels of attainment. Reprint available from Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI 53706. (AM)

  10. The Educational Attainment Process among Adolescents with Disabilities and Children of Parents with Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shandra, Carrie L.; Hogan, Dennis P.

    2009-01-01

    This article uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) to examine the relationship between disability, parental and youth university expectations in 1997, and youth high school completion and university enrolment by 2003. Results indicate that educational attainment is not equal for young adults with and without…

  11. The Influence of Ethnicity and Adverse Life Experiences during Adolescence on Young Adult Socioeconomic Attainment: The Moderating Role of Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wickrama, K. A. S.; Simons, Leslie Gordon; Baltimore, Diana

    2012-01-01

    Previous research has documented that adverse life experiences during adolescence, particularly for ethnic minorities, have a long-term influence on income and asset attainment and that this relationship is largely mediated by educational achievement. We extend prior research by investigating three research questions. First, we investigate the…

  12. Beyond Educational Attainment: The Importance of Skills and Lifelong Learning for Social Outcomes. Evidence for Europe from PIAAC

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vera-Toscano, Esperanza; Rodrigues, Margarida; Costa, Patricia

    2017-01-01

    Empirical evidence suggests that educational attainment nurtures people's social outcomes and promotes active participation in society and stability. However, it is unclear to what extent other types of human capital also correlate with social outcomes. Hence, we explored the opportunity offered by the PIAAC survey through its provision of…

  13. Educational Attainment: Success to the Successful

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anthony, Peter; Gould, David; Smith, Gina

    2013-01-01

    Systems archetypes are patterns of structure found in systems that are helpful in understanding some of the dynamics within them. The intent of this study was to examine educational attainment data using the success-to-the-successful archetype as a model to see if it helps to explain the inequality observed in the data. Data covering 1990 to 2009…

  14. The Impact of Parental Divorce on Children's Educational Attainment, Marital Timing, and Likelihood of Divorce.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Keith, Verna M.; Finlay, Barbara

    1988-01-01

    Examined combined sample of national data to determine impact of parental divorce on children. Found parental divorce associated with lower educational attainment and earlier age at marriage for sons and daughters. Daughters of divorced parents had higher probability of being divorced. For sons of divorced parents, probability of ever marrying and…

  15. Individual Heterogeneity and Reverse Causality in the Relationship between Migraine Headache and Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sabia, Joseph J.; Rees, Daniel I.

    2011-01-01

    A recent study by Rees and Sabia (2011) found migraine headache was negatively related to educational attainment even after accounting for the influence of family-level unobservables. The current study explores whether this relationship is attributable to unmeasured individual heterogeneity in the form of personality by using non-migraine headache…

  16. The Effects of Early Bilateral Otitis Media with Effusion on Educational Attainment: A Prospective Cohort Study.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Peters, Sylvia A. F.; And Others

    1994-01-01

    Examination of the relationship between educational attainment and long-lasting, bilateral otitis media with effusion (OME) in 270 Dutch children (ages 2 to 4) found that, at age 7, early bilateral OME affected spelling ability but not reading ability. Effects of treatment with ventilation tubes were not found. (DB)

  17. The Future Value of Interscholastic Participation: An Analysis of the Impact of Participation on Future Earnings and Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watson, William R.

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to investigate the future value of interscholastic participation in extracurricular activities on the individual student level. In this study, two relationships were examined: (a) the relationship between high school student participation and postsecondary educational attainment, and (b) the relationship between…

  18. Convergence of Educational Attainment Levels in the OECD: More Data, More Problems?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Crespo Cuaresma, Jesus

    2006-01-01

    This note shows that the dynamics of the dispersion of educational attainment across OECD countries in the period 1960-1990 differ enormously depending on the dataset used, as do the results of the test of significance in the change of the cross-country standard deviation of schooling years between subperiods. The three datasets studied (the…

  19. Birth Order, Family Size and Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    de Haan, Monique

    2010-01-01

    This paper investigates the effect of family size and birth order on educational attainment. An instrumental variables approach is used to identify the effect of family size. Instruments for the number of children are twins at last birth and the sex mix of the first two children. The effect of birth order is identified, by examining the relation…

  20. Penalized or Privileged? Sexual Identity, Gender, and Postsecondary Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fine, Leigh E.

    2015-01-01

    Prior literature on educational attainment indicates that there is both a female advantage and an LGB bonus: women are more likely to have earned bachelor's degrees than men, and lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons are more likely to have earned a bachelor's degree than heterosexuals. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of…

  1. A Stronger Nation through Higher Education: Metropolitan Areas. A Policy Brief from Lumina Foundation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lumina Foundation for Education, 2012

    2012-01-01

    Increasing college attainment is an urgent national need--a fact that is being acknowledged by policymakers, economists and labor experts at every level. They agree that, in order for the United States to sustain the economic recovery and assure long-term growth and social stability, the nation's educational attainment rate must improve steadily…

  2. Professional School Aspirations of First Generation Latino Transfer Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lipiz Gonzalez, Elaine M.

    2014-01-01

    The low rate of Latino graduate and professional degree attainment is a problem for the Latinos who are not attaining high levels of education, for their families, for the institutions of higher education that suffer from a lack of diversity, and for the local, state, and federal governments that lose tax revenue from the potentially higher income…

  3. Amotivation in Physical Education: Relationships with Physical Self-Concept and Teacher Ratings of Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jackson-Kersey, Rachel; Spray, Christopher

    2013-01-01

    The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Amotivation Inventory in Physical Education (AI-PE). In addition, the study sought to identify the relationships between students' amotivation, physical self-concept, and teacher ratings of National Curriculum attainment levels in PE. Students ("N" = 510) from a…

  4. Doubling Up: Intensive Math Instruction and Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cortes, Kalena; Goodman, Joshua; Nomi, Takako

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this research is to study the long-run impacts (i.e. on educational attainment) of a freshman math intervention called "double-dose algebra". The intervention was conducted in 2003 and 2004 within the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), a large, poor urban school district. In response to low passing rates in 9th grade algebra,…

  5. Social Status, Cognitive Ability, and Educational Attainment as Predictors of Liberal Social Attitudes and Political Trust

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schoon, Ingrid; Cheng, Helen; Gale, Catharine R.; Batty, G. David; Deary, Ian J.

    2010-01-01

    We examined the prospective associations between family socio-economic background, childhood intelligence ("g") at age 11, educational and occupational attainment, and social attitudes at age 33 in a large (N = 8804), representative sample of the British population born in 1958. Structural equation Modeling identified a latent trait of…

  6. Effect of Intervention with the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction on Access and Goal Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shogren, Karrie A.; Palmer, Susan B.; Wehmeyer, Michael L.; Williams-Diehm, Kendra; Little, Todd D.

    2012-01-01

    Promoting self-determination has been identified as best practice in special education and transition services and as a means to promote goal attainment and access to the general education curriculum for students with disabilities. There have been, however, limited evaluations of the effects of interventions to promote self-determination on…

  7. The Psychology of Working: A Case Study of Mexican American Women with Low Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guerrero, Laura; Singh, Satvir

    2013-01-01

    Using Blustein's (2006) psychology of working and Hackman and Oldham's (1975) job characteristics theory, the authors investigated the job attribute preferences of Mexican American women with low educational attainment. They used content analysis to code and analyze the interview transcripts of 27 women. The most valued job attributes were not…

  8. Educational Goal Attainment: A Three-Year Follow-Up Study of Nonreturning 1986-87 Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson County Community Coll., Overland Park, KS. Office of Institutional Research.

    A study was conducted in summer 1990 to measure the educational goal attainment of students who were enrolled at Johnson County Community College (JCCC) during 1986-87, and who had not re-enrolled at the college since that time. Questionnaires requesting information on JCCC experiences and outcomes, level of satisfaction with JCCC, current…

  9. The impact of goal attainment on behavioral and mediating variables among low income women participating in an Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program intervention study

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    This study examined the relationships between participant goal attainment, and changes in mediating variables, and food choice outcomes from a modified curriculum for the Texas Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), promoting healthy home food environments and parenting skills relate...

  10. Relative Age Effects on Physical Education Attainment and School Sport Representation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cobley, Stephen; Abraham, Colin; Baker, Joseph

    2008-01-01

    Background: The "Relative Age Effect" (RAE) has consistently been demonstrated to influence attainment in various contexts. In education, RAE appears to provide an advantage to those born during initial months of an academic year, compared with those born in later months. A similar effect has been noted in many sports, with those born…

  11. Improving the Postsecondary Educational Attainment of Youth in Foster Care

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dworsky, Amy

    2018-01-01

    This chapter examines what we know about the disparity in postsecondary educational attainment between youth in foster care and their non-foster care peers, the reasons for it, and the policies and programs that have been developed to address that disparity. It also discusses the unique role that community colleges can play in reducing this…

  12. The Effects of Public Support on College Attainment. WISCAPE Working Paper

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Trostel, Philip A.

    2009-01-01

    This study estimates the extent that state financial support for higher education raises college attainment. Despite its manifest importance for policy, this is the first study to estimate this effect directly. Many studies have estimated the effect of college price on attendance, but state support for higher education and college price do not…

  13. Relative Age Effect and Gender Differences in Physical Education Attainment in Norwegian Schoolchildren

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Aune, Tore Kristian; Pedersen, Arve Vorland; Ingvaldsen, Rolf Petter; Dalen, Terje

    2017-01-01

    The relative age effect (RAE) refers to that children born early in their year of birth show higher performance compared to children born late in the same cohort. The present study evaluated whether RAE exists within non-competitive physical education (PE) attainments, change in RAE magnitude with age, and possible gender differences. The results…

  14. Early Childhood Intervention and Educational Attainment: Age 22 Findings from the Chicago Longitudinal Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ou, Suh-Ruu; Reynolds, Arthur J.

    2006-01-01

    This study investigated whether participation in the Chicago Child-Parent Center (CPC) Preschool Program associated with higher educational attainment (high school completion, highest grade completed, and college attendance) at age 22. The study sample included 1,334 youth (869 in the preschool group and 465 in the comparison group) from the…

  15. Only Fools? Reconsidering the Relationship between Commitment to the Work Ethic and Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dunn, Andrew

    2013-01-01

    This article argues that work ethic research has suffered from a tendency to conflate preference and morality, and that this has been particularly detrimental to our understanding of the relationship between commitment to the work ethic and educational attainment. The work ethic is almost always measured quantitatively, yet in-depth research…

  16. Demography, Education, and Democracy: global trends and the case of Iran.

    PubMed

    Lutz, Wolfgang; Cuaresma, Jesús Crespo; Abbasi-Shavazi, Mohammad Jalal

    2010-01-01

    Reconstructions and projections of populations by age, sex, and educational attainment for 120 countries since 1970 are used to assess the global relationship between improvements in human capital and democracy. Democracy is measured by the Freedom House indicator of political rights. Similar to an earlier study on the effects of improving educational attainment on economic growth, the greater age detail of this new dataset resolves earlier ambiguities about the effect of improving education as assessed using a global set of national time series. The results show consistently strong effects of improving overall levels of educational attainment, of a narrowing gender gap in education, and of fertility declines and the subsequent changes in age structure on improvements in the democracy indicator. This global relationship is then applied to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Over the past two decades Iran has experienced the world's most rapid fertility decline associated with massive increases in female education. The results show that based on the experience of 120 countries since 1970, Iran has a high chance of significant movement toward more democracy over the following two decades.

  17. Benefits of educational attainment on adult fluid cognition: international evidence from three birth cohorts

    PubMed Central

    Clouston, Sean AP; Kuh, Diana; Herd, Pamela; Elliott, Jane; Richards, Marcus; Hofer, Scott M

    2012-01-01

    Background Educational attainment is highly correlated with social inequalities in adult cognitive health; however, the nature of this correlation is in dispute. Recently, researchers have argued that educational inequalities are an artefact of selection by individual differences in prior cognitive ability, which both drives educational attainment and tracks across the rest of the life course. Although few would deny that educational attainment is at least partly determined by prior cognitive ability, a complementary, yet controversial, view is that education has a direct causal and lasting benefit on cognitive development. Methods We use observational data from three birth cohorts, with cognition measured in adolescence and adulthood. Ordinary least squares regression was used to model the relationship between adolescent cognition and adult fluid cognition and to test the sensitivity of our analyses to sample selection, projection and backdoor biases using propensity score matching. Results We find that having a university education is correlated with higher fluid cognition in adulthood, after adjustment for adolescent cognition. We do not find that adolescent cognition, gender or parental social class consistently modify this effect; however, women benefited more in the 1946 sample from Great Britain. Conclusions In all three birth cohorts, substantial educational benefit remained after adjustment for adolescent cognition and parental social class, offsetting an effect equivalent of 0.5 to 1.5 standard deviations lower adolescent cognition. We also find that the likelihood of earning a university degree depends in part on adolescent cognition, gender and parental social class. We conclude that inequalities in adult cognition derive in part from educational experiences after adolescence. PMID:23108707

  18. Benefits of educational attainment on adult fluid cognition: international evidence from three birth cohorts.

    PubMed

    Clouston, Sean A P; Kuh, Diana; Herd, Pamela; Elliott, Jane; Richards, Marcus; Hofer, Scott M

    2012-12-01

    Educational attainment is highly correlated with social inequalities in adult cognitive health; however, the nature of this correlation is in dispute. Recently, researchers have argued that educational inequalities are an artefact of selection by individual differences in prior cognitive ability, which both drives educational attainment and tracks across the rest of the life course. Although few would deny that educational attainment is at least partly determined by prior cognitive ability, a complementary, yet controversial, view is that education has a direct causal and lasting benefit on cognitive development. We use observational data from three birth cohorts, with cognition measured in adolescence and adulthood. Ordinary least squares regression was used to model the relationship between adolescent cognition and adult fluid cognition and to test the sensitivity of our analyses to sample selection, projection and backdoor biases using propensity score matching. We find that having a university education is correlated with higher fluid cognition in adulthood, after adjustment for adolescent cognition. We do not find that adolescent cognition, gender or parental social class consistently modify this effect; however, women benefited more in the 1946 sample from Great Britain. In all three birth cohorts, substantial educational benefit remained after adjustment for adolescent cognition and parental social class, offsetting an effect equivalent of 0.5 to 1.5 standard deviations lower adolescent cognition. We also find that the likelihood of earning a university degree depends in part on adolescent cognition, gender and parental social class. We conclude that inequalities in adult cognition derive in part from educational experiences after adolescence.

  19. Education attainment of head of households associated with insecticide-treated net utilization among five to nineteen-year old individuals: evidence from the malaria indicator survey 2010 in Zambia.

    PubMed

    Sichande, Mwamba; Michelo, Charles; Halwindi, Hikabasa; Miller, John

    2014-09-23

    Education attainment may be a factor potentially influencing health-seeking behaviour of individuals. The effect of the level of education attainment of head of households of five to nineteen year old individuals in Zambia on ITN utilization was investigated. Data stem from the 2010 Malaria Indicator Survey, which covered the entire Zambia, was used in this study. Of the total number of five to 19-year olds (n = 7,429), only 65% (4, 810) met the inclusion criteria for this study. The education level of the head of households was taken as a household variable and was categorized as "never been to school" for those who had never enrolled in school, Primary for Grades 1 to 7, Secondary for Grades 8 to 12 and Tertiary for beyond Grade 12. Multivariate Logistic regression was used to determine adjusted odds ratios that estimated the effect of education on ITN utilization after controlling for residence, sex, age group and other background factors. Overall (n = 4,810), 48.5% were males and 51.5% were females with the median age of 10 years and 11 years respectively. The ITN utilization among the five to 19 year old individuals from households with the head having Primary and Secondary education were not statistically significant from those who came from households where the head had never been to school. However, those who came from households with the head having tertiary education attainment were 1.7 times more likely to have slept under an ITN a night before the survey than those from households headed by individuals who never attended school or had primary education. (AOR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.19-2.41). Of the eligible population, 35% were excluded from the study due to incomplete records. The findings suggest that tertiary education of the head of head of the household might be important in influencing health behaviour of the members of households. Therefore, health education messages focussing on strategies that aim to increase ITN utilization need to account for these differential variations associated with education attainment in communities.

  20. Effects of neighbourhood-level educational attainment on HIV prevalence among young women in Zambia.

    PubMed

    Kayeyi, Nkomba; Sandøy, Ingvild F; Fylkesnes, Knut

    2009-08-25

    Investigations of the association between socio-economic position indicators and HIV in East, Central and Southern Africa have chiefly focused on factors that pertain to individual-level characteristics. This study investigated the effect of neighbourhood educational attainment on HIV prevalence among young women in selected urban and rural areas in Zambia. This study re-analysed data from a cross-sectional population survey conducted in Zambia in 2003. The analyses were restricted to women aged 15-24 years (n = 1295). Stratified random cluster sampling was used to select 10 urban and 10 rural clusters. A measure for neighbourhood-level educational attainment was constructed by aggregating individual-level years-in-school. Multi-level mixed effects regression models were run to examine the neighbourhood-level educational effect on HIV prevalence after adjusting for individual-level underlying variables (education, currently a student, marital status) and selected proximate determinants (ever given birth, sexual activity, lifetime sexual partners). HIV prevalence among young women aged 15-24 years was 12.5% in the urban and 6.8% in the rural clusters. Neighbourhood educational attainment was found to be a strong determinant of HIV infection in both urban and rural population, i.e. HIV prevalence decreased substantially by increasing level of neighbourhood education. The likelihood of infection in low vs. high educational attainment of neighbourhoods was 3.4 times among rural women and 1.8 times higher among the urban women after adjusting for age and other individual-level underlying variables, including education. However, the association was not significant for urban young women after this adjustment. After adjusting for level of education in the neighbourhood, the effect of the individual-level education differed by residence, i.e. a strong protective effect among urban women whereas tending to be a risk factor among rural women. The findings suggested structural effects on HIV prevalence. Future research should include more detailed mapping of neighbourhood factors of relevance to HIV transmission as part of the effort to better understand the causal mechanisms involved.

  1. Expectancy beliefs and perceived values of Chinese college students in physical education and physical activity.

    PubMed

    Chen, Ang; Liu, Xinlan

    2008-03-01

    The expectancy-value theory postulates that motivation relies on individuals' beliefs of success, perceived Attainment, Intrinsic Interest, and Utility values and Cost. This study examined Chinese college students' expectancy-value motivation in relation to physical education and self-initiated physical activity. A random sample of 368 Chinese university students responded to questionnaires on perceived expectancy beliefs, perceived values, and cost in terms of their experiences in mandatory physical education programs and in self-initiated after-school physical activity. They reported their choice decisions for continuing physical education. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, X2, logistic and linear regressions. The physical education curriculum was perceived as a major cost to motivation. Motivated by the Intrinsic Interest and Utility value, most students chose to continue to take physical education. Self-initiated after-school physical activity was motivated by the Attainment value only. No association was found between self-initiated physical activity and Liking or Disliking of physical education. Motivation for physical education and for self-initiated physical activity derived from different perceived values. The Attainment value motivates the students for self-initiated physical activity, whereas Intrinsic Interest and Utility values motivate them to choose to continue physical education.

  2. Identification of Gene Loci That Overlap Between Schizophrenia and Educational Attainment

    PubMed Central

    Le Hellard, Stéphanie; Wang, Yunpeng; Witoelar, Aree; Zuber, Verena; Bettella, Francesco; Hugdahl, Kenneth; Espeseth, Thomas; Steen, Vidar M.; Melle, Ingrid; Desikan, Rahul; Schork, Andrew J.; Thompson, Wesley K.; Dale, Anders M.; Djurovic, Srdjan

    2017-01-01

    Abstract There is evidence for genetic overlap between cognitive abilities and schizophrenia (SCZ), and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) demonstrate that both SCZ and general cognitive abilities have a strong polygenic component with many single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) each with a small effect. Here we investigated the shared genetic architecture between SCZ and educational attainment, which is regarded as a “proxy phenotype” for cognitive abilities, but may also reflect other traits. We applied a conditional false discovery rate (condFDR) method to GWAS of SCZ (n = 82 315), college completion (“College,” n = 95 427), and years of education (“EduYears,” n = 101 069). Variants associated with College or EduYears showed enrichment of association with SCZ, demonstrating polygenic overlap. This was confirmed by an increased replication rate in SCZ. By applying a condFDR threshold <0.01, we identified 18 genomic loci associated with SCZ after conditioning on College and 15 loci associated with SCZ after conditioning on EduYears. Ten of these loci overlapped. Using conjunctional FDR, we identified 10 loci shared between SCZ and College, and 29 loci shared between SCZ and EduYears. The majority of these loci had effects in opposite directions. Our results provide evidence for polygenic overlap between SCZ and educational attainment, and identify novel pleiotropic loci. Other studies have reported genetic overlap between SCZ and cognition, or SCZ and educational attainment, with negative correlation. Importantly, our methods enable identification of bi-directional effects, which highlight the complex relationship between SCZ and educational attainment, and support polygenic mechanisms underlying both cognitive dysfunction and creativity in SCZ. PMID:27338279

  3. Identification of Gene Loci That Overlap Between Schizophrenia and Educational Attainment.

    PubMed

    Le Hellard, Stéphanie; Wang, Yunpeng; Witoelar, Aree; Zuber, Verena; Bettella, Francesco; Hugdahl, Kenneth; Espeseth, Thomas; Steen, Vidar M; Melle, Ingrid; Desikan, Rahul; Schork, Andrew J; Thompson, Wesley K; Dale, Anders M; Djurovic, Srdjan; Andreassen, Ole A

    2017-05-01

    There is evidence for genetic overlap between cognitive abilities and schizophrenia (SCZ), and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) demonstrate that both SCZ and general cognitive abilities have a strong polygenic component with many single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) each with a small effect. Here we investigated the shared genetic architecture between SCZ and educational attainment, which is regarded as a "proxy phenotype" for cognitive abilities, but may also reflect other traits. We applied a conditional false discovery rate (condFDR) method to GWAS of SCZ (n = 82 315), college completion ("College," n = 95 427), and years of education ("EduYears," n = 101 069). Variants associated with College or EduYears showed enrichment of association with SCZ, demonstrating polygenic overlap. This was confirmed by an increased replication rate in SCZ. By applying a condFDR threshold <0.01, we identified 18 genomic loci associated with SCZ after conditioning on College and 15 loci associated with SCZ after conditioning on EduYears. Ten of these loci overlapped. Using conjunctional FDR, we identified 10 loci shared between SCZ and College, and 29 loci shared between SCZ and EduYears. The majority of these loci had effects in opposite directions. Our results provide evidence for polygenic overlap between SCZ and educational attainment, and identify novel pleiotropic loci. Other studies have reported genetic overlap between SCZ and cognition, or SCZ and educational attainment, with negative correlation. Importantly, our methods enable identification of bi-directional effects, which highlight the complex relationship between SCZ and educational attainment, and support polygenic mechanisms underlying both cognitive dysfunction and creativity in SCZ. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  4. Education moderates the association between supermarket environment and diet

    PubMed Central

    Vogel, Christina; Ntani, Georgia; Inskip, Hazel; Barker, Mary; Cummins, Steven; Cooper, Cyrus; Moon, Graham; Baird, Janis

    2016-01-01

    Introduction Supermarkets are a major source of food for many families. Knowledge of how educational attainment affects the relationship between the in-store environments of supermarkets and diet is needed. This study examined the relationship between maternal dietary quality and overall in-store supermarket environment, and assessed the effect modification of educational attainment. Methods Dietary quality z-scores were calculated for 829 mothers with young children using cross-sectional data collected in 2010-2011 from a 20-item food frequency questionnaire. Information about nine in-store factors (variety, price, quality, promotion, shelf placement, store placement, nutrition information, healthier alternatives and single fruit sale) on 12 foods known to discriminate between better and poorer dietary quality were collected from supermarkets and used to create a standardised ‘healthfulness’ z-score for each supermarket where mothers shopped. Results Multi-level unadjusted linear regression analysis completed in 2014-2015 showed that shopping at more healthful supermarkets was associated with better dietary quality (β=0.39 SD/SD; p=0.01; 95%CI: 0.10, 0.68). However, the relationship differed according to level of educational attainment (interaction p=0.006). Among mothers who left school at 16 years of age, those who shopped at less healthful supermarkets had poorer dietary quality (β=0.31 SD/SD; 95%CI: 0.07, 0.55). Among mothers with degrees, those who shopped at less healthful supermarkets had better dietary quality (β=-0.59 SD/SD; 95%CI: −1.19, 0.00). Conclusions Mothers with low educational attainment showed greater susceptibility to less healthful in-store environments than mothers with higher educational attainment who may be protected by greater psychological and financial resources. Policy initiatives to improve supermarket environments may be necessary to address dietary inequalities. PMID:27067035

  5. Education and the Relationship Between Supermarket Environment and Diet.

    PubMed

    Vogel, Christina; Ntani, Georgia; Inskip, Hazel; Barker, Mary; Cummins, Steven; Cooper, Cyrus; Moon, Graham; Baird, Janis

    2016-08-01

    Supermarkets are a major source of food for many families. Knowledge of how educational attainment affects the relationship between in-store environments of supermarkets and diet is needed. This study examined the relationship between maternal dietary quality and overall in-store supermarket environment, and assessed the effect modification of educational attainment. Dietary quality z-scores were calculated for 829 mothers with young children using cross-sectional data collected in 2010-2011 from a 20-item food frequency questionnaire. Information about nine in-store factors (variety, price, quality, promotion, shelf placement, store placement, nutrition information, healthier alternatives, and single fruit sale) on 12 foods known to discriminate between better and poorer dietary quality were collected to create a standardized "healthfulness" z-score for each supermarket where mothers shopped. Multilevel unadjusted linear regression analysis completed in 2014-2015 showed that shopping at more-healthful supermarkets was associated with better dietary quality (β=0.39 SD/SD, p=0.01, 95% CI=0.10, 0.68). However, the relationship differed according to educational attainment (interaction, p=0.006). Among mothers who left school at age 16 years, those who shopped at less healthful supermarkets had poorer dietary quality (β=0.31 SD/SD, 95% CI=0.07, 0.55). Among mothers with degrees, those who shopped at less healthful supermarkets had better dietary quality (β=-0.59 SD/SD, 95% CI=-1.19, 0.00). Mothers with low educational attainment show greater susceptibility to less healthful in-store environments than mothers with higher educational attainment who may be protected by greater psychological and financial resources. Policy initiatives to improve supermarket environments may be necessary to address dietary inequalities. Copyright © 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Self-compacting concrete for prestressed bridge girders

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Erkmen, Bulent

    The purpose of this study was to examine social mobility as a motivation for first-generation college students in reaching attainment at two-year technical colleges. The research question was to what degree has the perception of social mobility influenced first generation college students at technical colleges to complete their career educational goals. Graduates of a two-year technical college were asked a series of open-ended questions regarding their past experiences and perceptions of attending and completing a two-year technical college program; their childhood perceptions of their social status; and experiences with family members regarding their change in social class status. These questions were designed to determine their feelings, viewpoints, reflections, experiences, struggles, and thoughts about attainment (completing their post-secondary education) and the extent to which social mobility influenced their decision to complete their education. The benefits of this research include an understanding of social mobility and educational attainment. Results of this study could be used to better understand the process that first generation college students go through in order to attain their educational goals. The information from this study may be useful for technical college administrations to help design programs and processes for future first-generation college students' success and aid in retention of these students.

  7. Association between childhood allergic diseases, educational attainment and occupational status in later life: systematic review protocol

    PubMed Central

    von Kobyletzki, Laura Beate; Beckman, Linda; Smeeth, Liam; McKee, Martin; Abuabara, Katrina; Langan, Sinead

    2017-01-01

    Introduction Childhood allergic diseases may prevent affected children from achieving their academic potential. Potential mechanisms include absence from school due to illness and medical appointments. Experience of symptoms in classes or leisure time, and stigma associated with visible signs and symptoms, including skin disease, requirements for medication during school time or the need for specific diets, may also contribute to reduced educational attainment. Studies have investigated the association between specific allergic diseases and educational attainment. The aim of this study is to systematically review the literature on allergic diseases, educational attainment and occupational status, and if possible, calculate meta-analytic summary estimates for the associations. Methods Systematic electronic searches in Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane, Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PsycINFO and education Resources Information Center (ERIC); hand search in reference lists of included papers and conference reports; search for unpublished studies in clinical trial registers and the New York Academy of Medicine Grey Literature Report; data extraction; and study quality assessment (Newcastle-Ottawa Scale) will be performed. Analysis Data will be summarised descriptively, and meta-analysis including meta-regression to explore sources of heterogeneities will be performed if possible. Ethics and dissemination Dissemination in a peer-reviewed, open-access, international scientific journal is planned. PROSPERO registration number CRD42017058036. PMID:29025838

  8. Enterprise Placements: Factors Which Support Learning and Prolonged Attainment in Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gazdula, Joe; Atkin, Chris

    2017-01-01

    This article investigates the learning and academic attainment of undergraduate education students on enterprise placement projects in a longitudinal mixed-methods study. By observing the placement learning and analysing previous and subsequent attainment of a second- and third-year group it adds to the ontology of purpose for enterprise in…

  9. Holistic Goal Attainment To Increase Levels of Self-Help. Teacher's Guide and Learner's Manual.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bosler, Shirley

    This guide demonstrates a holistic approach to goal attainment in adult education, welfare, and work force program. Holistic goal attainment treats the roots of illiteracy, measuring impact on learning and job readiness that increases teachable/reachable moments for instructors and builds self-esteem within the learner. The teacher's guide…

  10. Patterns of Economic Attainment of Foreign-Born Male Workers in the United States.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Poston, Dudley L., Jr.

    1994-01-01

    Examines economic-attainment patterns of foreign-born male workers in the U.S. in 1980 to determine the influence of individual-level factors such as educational attainment, labor market experience, etc. Results indicate that, although microlevel characteristics are not complete answers, they are important for most foreign-born populations in…

  11. Roadmap for Ensuring America's Future by Increasing Latino College Completion

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Santiago, Deborah A.

    2011-01-01

    The nation cannot reach its degree attainment goals without substantially increasing Latino college completion. While all groups will have to increase college degree attainment to meet the goals, increasing Latino educational attainment is crucial for the U.S. to meet its future societal and workforce needs for three main reasons: (1) the Latino…

  12. The effects of the National School Lunch Program on education and health.

    PubMed

    Hinrichs, Peter

    2010-01-01

    This paper estimates the effects of participating in the National School Lunch Program in the middle of the 20th century on adult health outcomes and educational attainment. I utilize an instrumental variables strategy that exploits a change in the formula used by the federal government to allocate funding to the states. Identification is achieved by the fact that different birth cohorts were exposed to different degrees to the original formula and the new formula, along with the fact that the change of the formula affected states differentially by per capita income. Participation in the program as a child appears to have few long-run effects on health, but the effects on educational attainment are sizable. These results may suggest that subsidized lunches induced children to attend school but displaced food consumption from other sources. Alternatively, the program may have had short-run health effects that dissipated over time but that facilitated higher educational attainment.

  13. Attainable and Relevant Moral Exemplars Are More Effective than Extraordinary Exemplars in Promoting Voluntary Service Engagement.

    PubMed

    Han, Hyemin; Kim, Jeongmin; Jeong, Changwoo; Cohen, Geoffrey L

    2017-01-01

    The present study aimed to develop effective moral educational interventions based on social psychology by using stories of moral exemplars. We tested whether motivation to engage in voluntary service as a form of moral behavior was better promoted by attainable and relevant exemplars or by unattainable and irrelevant exemplars. First, experiment 1, conducted in a lab, showed that stories of attainable exemplars more effectively promoted voluntary service activity engagement among undergraduate students compared with stories of unattainable exemplars and non-moral stories. Second, experiment 2, a middle school classroom-level experiment with a quasi-experimental design, demonstrated that peer exemplars, who are perceived to be attainable and relevant to students, better promoted service engagement compared with historic figures in moral education classes.

  14. Attainable and Relevant Moral Exemplars Are More Effective than Extraordinary Exemplars in Promoting Voluntary Service Engagement

    PubMed Central

    Han, Hyemin; Kim, Jeongmin; Jeong, Changwoo; Cohen, Geoffrey L.

    2017-01-01

    The present study aimed to develop effective moral educational interventions based on social psychology by using stories of moral exemplars. We tested whether motivation to engage in voluntary service as a form of moral behavior was better promoted by attainable and relevant exemplars or by unattainable and irrelevant exemplars. First, experiment 1, conducted in a lab, showed that stories of attainable exemplars more effectively promoted voluntary service activity engagement among undergraduate students compared with stories of unattainable exemplars and non-moral stories. Second, experiment 2, a middle school classroom-level experiment with a quasi-experimental design, demonstrated that peer exemplars, who are perceived to be attainable and relevant to students, better promoted service engagement compared with historic figures in moral education classes. PMID:28326045

  15. Sociodemographic characteristics and frequency of consuming home-cooked meals and meals from out-of-home sources: cross-sectional analysis of a population-based cohort study.

    PubMed

    Mills, Susanna; Adams, Jean; Wrieden, Wendy; White, Martin; Brown, Heather

    2018-04-11

    To identify sociodemographic characteristics associated with frequency of consuming home-cooked meals and meals from out-of-home sources. Cross-sectional analysis of a population-based cohort study. Frequency of consuming home-cooked meals, ready meals, takeaways and meals out were derived from a participant questionnaire. Sociodemographic characteristics regarding sex, age, ethnicity, working overtime and socio-economic status (SES; measured by household income, educational attainment, occupational status and employment status) were self-reported. Sociodemographic differences in higher v. lower meal consumption frequency were explored using logistic regression, adjusted for other key sociodemographic variables. Cambridgeshire, UK. Fenland Study participants (n 11 326), aged 29-64 years at baseline. Eating home-cooked meals more frequently was associated with being female, older, of higher SES (measured by greater educational attainment and household income) and not working overtime. Being male was associated with a higher frequency of consumption for all out-of-home meal types. Consuming takeaways more frequently was associated with lower SES (measured by lower educational attainment and household income), whereas eating out more frequently was associated with higher SES (measured by greater educational attainment and household income) and working overtime. Sociodemographic characteristics associated with frequency of eating meals from different out-of-home sources varied according to meal source. Findings may be used to target public health policies and interventions for promoting healthier diets and dietary-related health towards people consuming home-cooked meals less frequently, such as men, those with lower educational attainment and household income, and overtime workers.

  16. The black gender gap in educational attainment: historical trends and racial comparisons.

    PubMed

    McDaniel, Anne; DiPrete, Thomas A; Buchmann, Claudia; Shwed, Uri

    2011-08-01

    It is often asserted that the gender gap in educational attainment is larger for blacks than whites, but historical trends comparing the black and white gender gap have received surprisingly little attention. Analysis of historical data from the U.S. census IPUMS samples shows that the gender gap in college completion has evolved differently for whites and blacks. Historically, the female advantage in educational attainment among blacks is linked to more favorable labor market opportunities and stronger incentives for employment for educated black women. Blacks, particularly black males, still lag far behind whites in their rates of college completion, but the striking educational gains of white women have caused the racial patterns of gender differences in college completion rates to grow more similar over time. While some have linked the disadvantaged position of black males to their high risk of incarceration, our estimates suggest that incarceration has a relatively small impact on the black gender gap and the racial gap in college completion rates for males in the United States.

  17. The knowledge base and acceptability of prenatal diagnosis by pregnant women in Ibadan.

    PubMed

    Adekanbi, Adesina O A; Olayemi, Oladapo O; Fawole, Adeniran O

    2014-03-01

    This cross-sectional study evaluated knowledge and acceptability of prenatal diagnosis among 500 pregnant women at the University College Hospital, Ibadan. Most participants were aged 25-34 years, self-employed, Muslim, monogamy, secondary school leavers, on income of < naira10,000.00 (US$ 67.00)/month. Attitudinal mean score was dependent on age (p = 0.006), educational attainment (p = 0.001), marital status (p = 0.025) and religion (p = 0.012). Knowledge mean score was influenced by marital status (p = 0.028). Overall, acceptance of prenatal diagnosis was high. There was a direct correlation between acceptance and educational attainment: 41.5%, 31.50%, 19%, 19% of women who agreed to have prenatal diagnosis had tertiary, secondary school, primary school and no formal education respectively. Determinants of acceptability were age, educational attainment, marital status and religion. Being married significantly affected knowledge scores, while tertiary education, being divorced, unskilled and self-employed positively influenced attitude towards prenatal diagnosis.

  18. Trajectories from Academic Intrinsic Motivation to Need for Cognition and Educational Attainment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gottfried, Adele Eskeles; Nylund-Gibson, Karen; Gottfried, Allen W.; Morovati, Diane; Gonzalez, Amber M.

    2017-01-01

    This long-term longitudinal study addressed the theoretical underpinning of academic intrinsic motivation (AIM) from childhood through adolescence, to need for cognition (NFC) and educational attainment (EA) during adulthood. AIM was measured from 9 to 17 years old, NFC and EA at 29 years old, and IQ at 8 years old. Latent change and growth…

  19. Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003. Population Characteristics. Current Population Reports. P20-550

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stoops, Nicole

    2004-01-01

    This report provides information on basic educational trends and attainment levels across many segments of the population. The findings are based on data collected in the 2003 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS) and refer to the population 25 years and over unless otherwise specified. The population…

  20. "It's Pretty Cool to Be Clever": The Marginal Relevance of Gender to Educational Practices and Attainment at A/AS Level?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kettley, Nigel

    2006-01-01

    Gender differences in educational attainment have generated considerable debate. Unfortunately, this debate has been constructed in terms of either the measurement of change in the size of the gender gap over time or attempts to theorise such change. This scholarly divide reflects the commitment of researchers to particular methodological…

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