Kathryn Duckworth

School readiness and later achievement.

Using 6 longitudinal data sets, the authors estimate links between three key elements of school readiness--school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills--and later school reading and math achievement. In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, the authors ensured that most of their regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures. Across all 6 studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills. A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading and then attention skills. By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior. Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Early Predictors of High School Mathematics Achievement

Identifying the types of mathematics content knowledge that are most predictive of students’ long-term learning is essential for improving both theories of mathematical development and mathematics education. To identify these types of knowledge, we examined long-term predictors of high school students’ knowledge of algebra and overall mathematics achievement. Analyses of large, nationally representative, longitudinal data sets from the United States and the United Kingdom revealed that elementary school students’ knowledge of fractions and of division uniquely predicts those students’ knowledge of algebra and overall mathematics achievement in high school, 5 or 6 years later, even after statistically controlling for other types of mathematical knowledge, general intellectual ability, working memory, and family income and education. Implications of these findings for understanding and improving mathematics learning are discussed.

Young People's Leisure Contexts and their Relation to Adult Outcomes

Leisure activity plays a significant role in identity formation during the teens, both reinforcing previous developmental trends and shaping new ones. The context for leisure activity—youth club, church club, sports club, and so on—is important in signifying the probable social mix and interactions of the young people participating. This paper summarises findings from exploratory research using age-16 data from the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study (BCS70) to investigate the relation of age-16 leisure contexts to later adult outcomes, taking account of the family background and individual characteristics that predict participation in these contexts. Using logistic regression modelling, a range of binary outcome variables indicating experience of social exclusion at age 30 were regressed on variables measuring frequency of participation in different types of leisure activity, holding constant prior family circumstances and developmental characteristics. The analysis demonstrated the attraction of youth clubs, compared with other out-of-school activities, for young people with disadvantaged backgrounds and poor school achievement. Over and above these latter factors, youth club participation, compared with other forms of activity, was associated with increased probability of social exclusion outcomes, up to the age of 30, including lack of qualifications, unemployment, smoking, drinking, and crime. Other settings such as sports clubs and church clubs showed no associations of this kind or associations in the opposite direction. It was concluded that youth clubs are important settings for positive influence and inhibiting social exclusion processes, but more development of the provision in more structured directions is needed.

Beating the Odds: Exploring the Impact of Social Risk on Young People's School-to-Work Transitions during Recession in the UK

Drawing on nationally representative data collected for two age cohorts in the UK, this paper a) assesses the effect of multiple independent socioeconomic risk factors in shaping the transition from school to work; and b) identifies potential protective factors enabling young people to beat the odds. By comparing experiences and findings across two cohorts we assess the generalisability of findings across contexts, i.e. the 2008 and 1980s recessions. The results show that some young people exposed to even severe socioeconomic risks avoid being NEET (not in education, employment or training). Factors that appear to reduce the cumulative risk effect in both cohorts include prior attainment, educational aspirations and school engagement, as well as the social mix of the school environment.

The Role of Mediators in the Development of Longitudinal Mathematics Achievement Associations

Despite research demonstrating a strong association between early and later mathematics achievement, few studies have investigated mediators of this association. Using longitudinal data (n = 1,362), this study tested the extent to which mathematics self-concepts, school placement, executive functioning, and proficiency in fractions and division account for the association between mathematics achievement in first grade and at age 15. As hypothesized, a strong longitudinal association between first-grade and adolescent mathematics achievement was present (β = .36) even after controlling for a host of background characteristics, including cognitive skills and reading ability. The mediators accounted for 39% of this association, with mathematics self-concept, gifted and talented placement, and knowledge of fractions and division serving as significant mediators.

Social Competencies in Childhood and Adolescence and Entrepreneurship in Young Adulthood: A Two-study Analysis

Contributing to the literature on early precursors of entrepreneurship, this study investigated the role of early social competencies for an entrepreneurial career choice and entrepreneurial success in young adulthood. We utilized data from the British Cohort Study and the Thuringian Founder Study (Germany), thereby comparing results across countries, study designs (e.g., retrospective vs. prospective), and concepts of early social competencies and entrepreneurship. In the British analyses, which concentrated on self-employment among the creative class, we found that social competencies in childhood (i.e., social skills and peer popularity at age 10) predicted entrepreneurial status at age 34, continuity in entrepreneurial activity (age 30 and 34) as well as earnings among the self-employed (age 34). In the German data, we found that entrepreneurial forms of social competencies in adolescence (i.e., leadership and early commercialization activities at age 14 or 15) predicted the process of starting an innovative business in young adulthood (entrepreneurial intentions, progress in the venture creation process, and business success in the post-startup phase). The results are discussed with an emphasis on possible pathways connecting early social competencies and enterprising behavior in young adulthood.

The impact of mothers’ adult learning on their children’s academic performance at Key Stage 3: evidence from ALSPAC

This paper investigates whether the inter-generational benefits of parental adult education exist over and above the achievement of parental educational qualifications during schooling and whether returns to parental adult learning are greatest for children of parents with low levels of education. Using data from the UK Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, ALSPAC, results show that mothers’ participation in adult education is not associated with improvements in their children’s academic attainment in English and mathematics at age 14 once the previous parental academic qualifications are included. This lack of relationship was found for the overall sample, and for subgroups defined by the type of adult education (accredited, unaccredited or informal learning), the intensity of learning (duration and engagement) and by mothers’ prior educational qualifications. Although our results suggest that maternal adult learning is not a key factor for improvement in children’s test scores at age 14, further research is needed to investigate the role of parental adult learning at other stages of children’s cognitive development.

Maternal schooling and children's relative inequalities in developmental outcomes: Evidence from the 1947 school leaving age reform in Britain

This paper investigates whether mothers’ participation in post‐compulsory education impacts on children’s relative inequalities across four developmental outcomes. The empirical analysis uses information from children born in 1958 in Britain. Mothers of the 1958 British cohort were affected by the 1947 school leaving age reform, which increased the age of compulsory schooling from 14 to 15 years. We selected the first‐born cohort members whose mothers were born in 1933 and 1934 and whose mothers completed compulsory schooling only. We found that the additional year of maternal schooling was significantly associated with relative improvements in mathematics attainment for their children, but no significant differences for reading or behavioural outcomes. The impact on mathematics was mainly for boys. These results suggest wider dispersion in mathematics attainment between sons whose mothers benefited from the additional year of schooling in 1947 and those whose mothers did not.

Corrigendum to Early Predictors of High School Mathematics Achievement (Psychological Science (2012), 23(7), (691-697), 10.1177/0956797612440101)

Siegler, Robert S., Duncan, Greg J., Davis-Kean, Pamela E., Duckworth, Kathryn, Claessens, Amy, Engel, Mimi, Susperreguy, Maria I., & Chen, Meichu. (2012). Early Predictors of High School Mathematics Achievement. Psychological Science, 23(7), 691–697. (Original DOI: 10.1177/0956797612440101)