Self-Productivity and Complementarities in Human Development: Evidence from MARS

Abstract

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp08067.pdf Nontechnical SummaryEconomists and psychologists share a common interest in research on ability and health development. Deep-seated capabilities formed in early childhood, a period of dramatic growth and intensive interaction with parents and the environment, have long-term implications for human development and personality. The relationship between initial risk conditions (both from the organic and the psychosocial perspective) investments and ability development is analyzed to gain an understanding of the formation of capability and resilience in childhood.We regard our study as a starting point for research on sensitive and critical investment periods in human development. The paper contributes to uncovering the relationship between home resources and self-productivity during the development of basic abilities in childhood. We investigate complementarities between the basic abilities and children's achievement using data taken from the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk (MARS), an epidemiological cohort study from birth to adulthood.Our findings demonstrate that interpersonal differences in cognitive and noncognitive capabilities are consistently associated with socio-emotional home resources, the relationship being stage-specific. Individual differences in basic abilities amplify between the ages of 3 months and 11 years. Adversarial consequences of initial organic and psychosocial risks cumulate and persist until adolescence. Noncognitive abilities are related to home resources until secondary school age, and to cognitive abilities until preschool age. For motor abilities, self-productivity seems to be high throughout the development process. Persistence fosters cognitive abilities and school achievement. Basic abilities at preschool age significantly predict social competencies and school grades. Higher basic abilities at primary school age and home resources predict a higher-track secondary school attendance.The other side of the coin of inequality evolution in the early life cycle is the high stability of home resources. Advantages from favourable socio-emotional home resources and disadvantages from insufficient home resources cumulate during the developmental stages. Starting with risk and growing up in an unfavourable environment impedes the development of basic cognitive and motor abilities. The disadvantage continues during the early life cycle until s...

Initial Risk Matrix, Home Resources, Ability Development, and Children's Achievement

“…From the comparison discussed above and further regressions (available upon request, see Blomeyer et al, 2008) we conclude that the OLS estimates presented in Table 2 are robust. However, we refrain from interpreting the findings in a causal way, for reasons presented above.…”

“…2 Details on the initial risk matrix, the psychometric assessments of abilities, competences, as well as home resources are discussed in Blomeyer et al (2008). Figure 1 summarizes the means of the abilities IQ, MQ and P in the nine risk groups at the ages of 3 months and 11 years.…”

Initial Risk Matrix, Home Resources, Ability Development and Children's Achievement

“…Table 1 presents their first-order 2. Details on the initial risk matrix, the psychometric assessments of abilities, competences, as well as home resources are discussed in Blomeyer et al (2008). temporal correlations.…”

The Role of Parental Investments for Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation – Evidence for the First 11 Years of Life

“…low birth weight (LBW) or asphyxia, and children born with psychosocial risk, e.g. low educational level of the parents or early parenthood (for a detailed description of organic and psychosocial risk, see Blomeyer et al (2008)). …”