Browsing by Subject "Educational attainment"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    The contexts of parental job loss and children's educational attainment
    (2014-12) Arbeit, Caren
    Prior research on the effects of parental job loss on children has paid little attention to the life course and contextual features of parental job loss. In my dissertation, I examine three such contexts: timing of job loss in the child's life, family socioeconomic status, the number of parental job losses and the duration of parental unemployment spells. The dissertation contains three related papers; I focus on a cohort of children in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, to examine the relationship between these contexts of parental job loss and educational attainment at age 25. In the first paper, I draw from interdisciplinary research on parental job loss, sibling differences and life course theories. I consider whether the timing of a parent's job loss moderates the impact of the event on children's educational attainment in adulthood. The results suggest that, contrary to theory, timing is not a significant moderator. In the second paper, I examine the educational attainment of children born into socioeconomically similar families, but whom have divergent experiences related to parental job loss. I find that family SES primarily moderates the probability of experiencing a parental job loss. Finally, I focus on the impact of the number of parental job losses, the duration of parental unemployment spells and the interaction between number of job losses and the length of unemployment spells. I find that any parental job loss harms educational attainment, with a non-linear relationship between exposure to parental job loss and educational attainment at age 15. This dissertation on the timing of parental job loss, family socioeconomic background and exposure to job loss/unemployment helps create a fuller picture of the potential consequences of parental job loss on children's educational attainment.
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    A continuum of persistence: low-income and first-generation college students' Perceptions of critical factors for postsecondary success
    (2014-03) Ganuza Hoaglund, Zoila M.
    The purpose of this study was to explore similarities and differences among low-income and first-generation (LIFG) students' perceptions of influential academic, psychosocial, and contextual factors that shaped their persistence at different stages at the postsecondary level. This study consisted of 29 LIFG students from a large, urban research university in the Midwest who had not declared a major, had declared a major, and had graduated. Student academic data were analyzed quantitatively to supplement information regarding the postsecondary experience and indicated significant group differences in high school performance, high school ability, and college performance. A qualitative interview approach explored influential psychosocial and contextual factors through data gathered from semi-structured interviews. Several themes emerged: high academic expectations held by students, commitment to college to attain career/degree goals, belief that ability could change with effort, problem-solving skills, and high postsecondary expectations held by both their high school staff and parents. Common factors between groups and factors that were unique to each group also emerged and are discussed. In addition, the importance of understanding students' background, perceptions of low academic self-efficacy and lack of college knowledge permeated throughout the student responses. Nevertheless, LIFG students expressed a willingness to work hard, and often, a need to invest more time and effort than their higher socioeconomic status peers. Merits and limitations, implications for research, practice, and policy and directions for future research are discussed.
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    Long-term effects of Head Start enrollment on adulthood educational attainment and economic status: a Propensity Score Matching approach.
    (2009-06) Ju, Eunsu
    In 1965, the Head Start program was introduced as part of War on Poverty. There was a hope that intergenerational transmission of poverty could be broken down by a comprehensive preschool program for low income children and their families. Since then, a number of studies have explored the impact of the program. The majority of those studies have focused on cognitive development and educational outcomes, and they generally suggest that the program produces short-term effects, but that most of them disappear in the long-term. However, most previous studies suffered from comparability problems (i.e. different background characteristics) between program participants and non-participants. Further, although the main purpose of the program was to reduce poverty in the long run, confirmation of the idea has been almost ignored from the research for the last 40-plus years. The main purpose of this study is to conduct a more rigorous evaluation in regard to the long-term effects of the Head Start participation on adulthood educational attainment and economic status (as measured by personal earned income, the family income to poverty ratio, and welfare dependency). This study utilized data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) from 1970 to 2005. To examine the effects of Head Start participation on adulthood income, a total of 1,765 young adults (aged 19 to 35 in 2005) were selected from the original PSID sample: 161 with long-term Head Start participation, 171 with short-term Head Start participation, 611 with other preschool participation, and 822 with no preschool participation. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) analysis was employed to control preexisting differences that might have an influence on preschool experience. To ensure whether the findings are consistent regardless of how control groups are matched, four matching models were examined: one-to-one matching without replacement, one-to-one matching with replacement, two-nearest neighborhood matching, and radius matching. Using the matched samples, a series of multivariate analyses were conducted: ordered logistic regression for educational attainment, Tobit analysis for personal earned income, OLS regression for family income to poverty ratio, and logistic regression for welfare dependency. To control the influence of other factors, a variety of variables at the community, family, and child levels were also included in the analyses. Most of the pre-existing differences between groups were sufficiently controlled by the PSM. According to the results of the following multivariate analyses, Head Start provided sizeable gains to its participants in terms of educational attainment if they attended the program at least one year. Long-term Head Starters were more likely to have higher level of educational attainment by approximately 1.5 to 2 times than no preschool children, 2 to 3.2 times than other preschool children, and 1.9 to 2.1 times than short-term Head Starters. However, no significant effects were found among short-term Head Start participants. Regarding the effects on economic status, long-term Head Start participation had indirect effects on personal earnings and family income to poverty ratio through higher educational attainment as compared to short-term Head Start participation or no preschool experience. However, the effects on welfare dependency were not clear. Although some studies have questioned the long-term effects of Head Start participation, this study confirmed that Head Start had provided long lasting effects to its participants on their adulthood educational attainment and economic status. Consequently, more efforts should be made to minimize the barriers that interfere for low income children to attend the program. The programs’ coverage should be expanded and the quality of the program increased to reduce intergenerational poverty.
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    Uncovering the genetic and environmental mediators of parent-offspring transmission of educational attainment: An adoption study
    (2019-12) Anderson, Elise
    While research has consistently found a strong, parent-to-offspring transmission of educational attainment, understanding the mechanisms underlying this relationship remains tentative. Genetically informative methods using a longitudinal, adoption sample was used to better understand possible mediators for this relationship. Data was drawn the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (SIBS) which consists of 409 adoptive and 208 nonadoptive families consisting of two offspring followed from adolescence into young adulthood and their rearing parents. Four domains of mechanisms by which parents might foster the educational achievement of the children they rear were examined: 1) skill enhancement; 2) academic support; 3) material advantage; 4) supportive family environment. Analysis revealed evidence for genetic mediation within the skills domain and shared, environmental mediation for academic expectations and family income.