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Do early life cognitive ability and self-regulation skills explain socio-economic inequalities in academic achievement? An effect. decomposition analysis in UK and Australian cohorts

Pearce, A; Sawyer, ACP; Chittleborough, CR; Mittinty, MN; Law, C; Lynch, JW; (2016) Do early life cognitive ability and self-regulation skills explain socio-economic inequalities in academic achievement? An effect. decomposition analysis in UK and Australian cohorts. Social Science & Medicine , 165 pp. 108-118. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.016. Green open access

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Abstract

Socio-economic inequalities in academic achievement emerge early in life and are observed across the globe. Cognitive ability and “non-cognitive” attributes (such as self-regulation) are the focus of many early years’ interventions. Despite this, little research has compared the contributions of early cognitive and self-regulation abilities as separate pathways to inequalities in academic achievement. We examined this in two nationally representative cohorts in the UK (Millennium Cohort Study, n = 11,168; 61% original cohort) and Australia (LSAC, n = 3028; 59% original cohort). An effect decomposition method was used to examine the pathways from socio-economic disadvantage (in infancy) to two academic outcomes: ‘low’ maths and literacy scores (based on bottom quintile) at age 7–9 years. Risk ratios (RRs, and bootstrap 95% confidence intervals) were estimated with binary regression for each pathway of interest: the ‘direct effect’ of socio-economic disadvantage on academic achievement (not acting through self-regulation and cognitive ability in early childhood), and the ‘indirect effects’ of socio-economic disadvantage acting via self-regulation and cognitive ability (separately). Analyses were adjusted for baseline and intermediate confounding. Children from less advantaged families were up to twice as likely to be in the lowest quintile of maths and literacy scores. Around two-thirds of this elevated risk was ‘direct’ and the majority of the remainder was mediated by early cognitive ability and not self-regulation. For example in LSAC: the RR for the direct pathway from socio-economic disadvantage to poor maths scores was 1.46 (95% CI: 1.17–1.79). The indirect effect of socio-economic disadvantage through cognitive ability (RR = 1.13 [1.06–1.22]) was larger than the indirect effect through self-regulation (1.05 [1.01–1.11]). Similar patterns were observed for both outcomes and in both cohorts. Policies to alleviate social inequality (e.g. child poverty reduction) remain important for closing the academic achievement gap. Early interventions to improve cognitive ability (rather than self-regulation) also hold potential for reducing inequalities in children's academic outcomes.

Type: Article
Title: Do early life cognitive ability and self-regulation skills explain socio-economic inequalities in academic achievement? An effect. decomposition analysis in UK and Australian cohorts
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.016
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.016
Language: English
Additional information: © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Science & Technology, Social Sciences, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Public, Environmental & Occupational Health, Social Sciences, Biomedical, Biomedical Social Sciences, Socio-economic inequalities, Early childhood, Early intervention, Academic achievement, UK millennium cohort study, Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, Avon longitudinal study of parents and their children, NATURAL DIRECT, CHILDREN, INTERVENTION, TECHNOLOGY, READINESS, MEDIATION, OUTCOMES, HEALTH, IMPACT
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1508756
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