UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

The intergenerational transmission of language skill

Sullivan, A; Moulton, V; Fitzsimons, E; (2021) The intergenerational transmission of language skill. British Journal of Sociology 10.1111/1468-4446.12780. (In press). Green open access

[thumbnail of 1468-4446.12780.pdf]
Preview
Text
1468-4446.12780.pdf - Published Version

Download (630kB) | Preview

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between parents' and children's language skills for a nationally representative birth cohort born in the United Kingdom-the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). We investigate both socioeconomic and ethnic differentials in children's vocabulary scores and the role of differences in parents' vocabulary scores in accounting for these. We find large vocabulary gaps between highly educated and less educated parents, and between ethnic groups. Nevertheless, socioeconomic and ethnic gaps in vocabulary scores are far wider among the parents than among their children. Parental vocabulary is a powerful mediator of inequalities in offspring's vocabulary scores at age 14, and also a powerful driver of change in language skills between the ages of five and 14. Once we account for parental vocabulary, no ethnic minority group of young people has a negative "vocabulary gap" compared to whites.

Type: Article
Title: The intergenerational transmission of language skill
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.12780
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12780
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: education, ethnicity, inequality, intergenerational, language, vocabulary
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10122411
Downloads since deposit
168Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item