Literacy news

Influence of parental income and education on children

21 Oct 2010

A paper has been published that explores the relationship between the variations in parental background and how long their children remain in education. The paper investigates the different effects of parental income and parental education levels, and how they influence their children leaving school at 16. It also allows for the separate effects of maternal and paternal levels of education. Exploring causal effects of pupils leaving school at 16 is interesting in light of the recent Government commitment to gradually raise the minimum age at which young people can leave education and training.

The study identified stronger effects of maternal than paternal education on early school leaving in their children, with a greater influence over sons than daughters. It also found that income plays a strong role, indicating financial reasons why children may not continue into non-compulsory education. However, when paternal income was controlled, the data set found that maternal education played a much bigger role, considerably so for daughters. Within this control set, paternal education had little statistical effect.

The authors conclude that policies aimed at relieving the financial constraints of remaining in education or training past the compulsory age, such as the UK’s Education Maintenance Allowance, may not be so effective in promoting higher levels of education. Instead, they feel their results demonstrate greater benefit in increasing permanent parental income and parental education.

The Impact of Parental Income and Education on the Schooling of their Children, by A. Chevalier, C. Harmon, V. O'Sullivan and I. Walker, was published by the Lancaster University. Read the paper at www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/publications/view/2510/

Tags: Adult literacy, Families, Schools & teaching

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