Persistent association between family socioeconomic status and primary school performance in Britain over 95 years

Abstract

In Britain and elsewhere, the influence of family socioeconomic status (SES) on education is already evident in primary school, and it persists and increases throughout the school years, with children from impoverished families earning lower grades and obtaining fewer educational qualifications than children from more privileged backgrounds. Reducing the effect of family background on children’s education is a pivotal aim of educators, policymakers, and researchers, but the success of their efforts is poorly evidenced to date. Here, we show for the first time that over 95 years in Britain the association between family SES and children’s primary school performance has remained stable. Across 16 British population cohorts born between 1921 and 2011 (N = 91,935), we confirmed previous findings of a correlation between family SES and children’s school performance of 0.28 [95% Confidence Interval 0.22–0.34], after adjusting for cohort-specific confounders. Contrary to the popular assumption that family background inequality has increased over time, we observed only minimal differences in the association between family SES and school performance across British cohorts. We argue that education policies must prioritize equity in learning outcomes over equality in learning opportunities, if they seek to disrupt the perpetuation of social and economic inequality across generations. We speculate that the influence of family SES on children’s education will only noticeably weaken if primary education settings become better equipped to meet and remediate the children’s differential learning needs.

The mediating effect of geospatial thinking on the relationship between family capital and academic achievement in geography

“…A possible explanation for this is that advantaged families use direct resources and indirect cultural transmission to turn family capital advantages into educational opportunity advantages, which influences individual academic achievement (Green et al, 2015). Conversely, children from less privileged families have less access to education, which is detrimental to cognitive development (Brooks-Gunn and Duncan, 1997;Von Stumm et al, 2022).…”

The developmental interplay between household chaos and educational achievement from age 9 through 16 years: A genetically informative study

“…Children's family background is the major source of their differences in educational achievement, which are evident from the first day of school (Heckman, 2006;von Stumm, 2017;von Stumm, Cave, & Wakeling, 2022). Much prior research has focused on identifying the characteristics of children's rearing environments that are likely to drive the transmission of family background inequality in education (Evans, 2004;, in the hope that these are modifiable and thus, suitable intervention targets.…”

Using DNA to predict Education: A Meta-Analytic Review

“…Education equips us with the skills and knowledge that we need to navigate through and master our lives. People's differences in educational success have pervasive, long-term influence on their life course development, and they predict a wide range of outcomes, including lifetime cognitive functioning (Chen et al, 2019;Lövdén et al, 2020), socioeconomic status attainment (Mackenbach et al, 2008), the likelihood of becoming employed (Oreopoulos & Savenes, 2011), marriage partner choice (Cave et al, 2022), health (Cutler & Lleras-Muney, 2010, and life expectancy (Montez & Hayward, 2014). From the first day of primary school, vast individual differences in educational achievement can be observed between children, and these differences manifest and magnify as children grow older (Heckman, 2006;Schoon et al, 2002;von Stumm, 2017;.…”

“…Yet, because children differ in their abilities, skills, and interests, some can benefit from these opportunities more than others, which renders them therefore unequal to begin with (e.g., von Stumm et al, 2022). The differences in children's ability to utilize the learning opportunities that education affords them are sizeable and stable across generations and countries (Chmielewski, 2019;von Stumm et al, 2022).…”