Age 7 intelligence and paternal education appear best predictors of educational attainment: The Port Pirie Cohort Study
Corresponding Author
Hannah A.D. Keage
Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Correspondence: Hannah Keage, PhD, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, GPO BOX 2741, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorGraciela Muniz
MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, London, UK
Search for more papers by this authorLisa Kurylowicz
Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorMiranda Van Hooff
Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies, School of Population Health, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorLevina Clark
School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorAmelia K. Searle
Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies, School of Population Health, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorMichael G. Sawyer
Discipline of Paediatrics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Research and Evaluation Unit, Women's and Children's Health Network, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorPeter Baghurst
Discipline of Public Health, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorAlexander McFarlane
Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies, School of Population Health, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Hannah A.D. Keage
Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Correspondence: Hannah Keage, PhD, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, GPO BOX 2741, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorGraciela Muniz
MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, London, UK
Search for more papers by this authorLisa Kurylowicz
Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorMiranda Van Hooff
Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies, School of Population Health, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorLevina Clark
School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorAmelia K. Searle
Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies, School of Population Health, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorMichael G. Sawyer
Discipline of Paediatrics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Research and Evaluation Unit, Women's and Children's Health Network, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorPeter Baghurst
Discipline of Public Health, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorAlexander McFarlane
Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies, School of Population Health, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Objective
The number of years of education an individual completes is related to their future morbidity and mortality. There are obvious drivers for educational attainment such as childhood intellect, parental intelligence and education attainment, as well as socioeconomic status; and associations may be age-dependent. We investigated associations between intelligence across childhood (collected at two, four, seven and between eleven and thirteen years) and educational attainment (total years) by the late 20s in the Port Pirie Cohort Study, taking into account maternal intelligence, parental schooling and occupational prestige.
Method
There were 388 individuals from the population-based longitudinal Port Pirie Cohort Study (South Australia) who provided educational attainment data in the 2008-9 data collection wave. A Structural Equation Model was employed to test associations between educational attainment and childhood cognitive/IQ measures, taking into account parental factors of IQ, schooling and socioeconomic status.
Results
The vast majority of variables displayed significant simple correlations with each other in expected directions, e.g. child cognitive/IQ measures with maternal IQ. In the full structural equation model, paternal schooling and child intelligence at seven years were the only variables significantly related to educational attainment by the late 20s; maternal intelligence was strongly associated with early life but not adolescent intelligence.
Conclusions
These findings highlight the complex inter-generational transmission of social advantages, and substantiate the independent effects of education and intelligence on later morbidly and mortality.
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