Statistical Analysis Plan: Young Journalist Academy

Young Journalist Academy (YJA) is an intervention that establishes journalism programmes or ‘newsrooms’ in primary schools. Primary school pupils, typically in Year 5 (9 to 10 years old), receive training from YJA staff and then develop and lead their own ‘newsrooms’ in their schools. They produce journalistic outputs in various forms over the course of a school year. These outputs could include print, audio or video content, which are published for the school and on the YJA website for a wider audience. The programme has been developed to stimulate interest in journalism as well as improve pupils’ writing skills and motivation for learning

Bullshitters. Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives?

'Bullshitters' are individuals who claim knowledge or expertise in an area where they actually have little experience or skill. Despite this being a well-known and widespread social phenomenon, relatively few large-scale empirical studies have been conducted into this issue. This paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by examining teenagers' propensity to claim expertise in three mathematics constructs that do not really exist. Using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from nine Anglophone countries and over 40,000 young people, we find substantial differences in young people's tendency to bullshit across countries, genders and socio-economic groups. Bullshitters are also found to exhibit high levels of overconfidence and believe they work hard, persevere at tasks, and are popular amongst their peers. Together this provides important new insight into who bullshitters are and the type of survey responses that they provide

Does academic self-concept predict further and higher education participation?

Despite the major increase in university student numbers in recent years there remains a strong negative socio-economic gradient in participation. The main reason for these differences has been shown to be educational factors, including prior attainment, family background and perceptions about costs and returns to education. In this paper, we examine the role of young people’s belief in their own academic ability (academic self-concept) as a way to explain differences in university participation rates. Using Next Steps data, we examine whether young people with higher academic self-concept are more likely to study A Levels, participate in further education and attend university. For those who do attend university, we examine whether young people with higher self-belief attend high status universities or study high status subjects. Results show that on average, controlling for prior attainment and other background characteristics, having high academic self-concept increases the odds in participating in A Level study, decreases the odds in taking part in further education, increases the odds in taking part in higher education (but the significance level disappears after taking A Levels is taken into account) and increases the odds of studying at a high-status university. While academic self-concept is an important predictor of later educational transitions, it does not entirely account for the social gradient in participation of university, further education or higher education. These findings have important policy implications for higher education participation and widening participation in particular

School Hours and Maternal Labor Supply

This paper examines the effect of extending the primary school day on maternal labor supply. I exploit the staggered nature of the recent German reform to extend school hours and assess whether or not gaining access to a full day school increases the likelihood that mothers enter into the labor market or extend their hours worked if already employed. I use the German Socio‐Economic Panel data set (GSOEP) and link it to a self‐collected school‐level data set with geographical information software (GIS). Using a flexible difference‐in‐difference approach in the estimation of linear probability and logit models, I find that the policy has a statistically significant effect of approximately five percentage points at the extensive margin, drawing more women into the labor market. I find no significant effect of the policy at the intensive margin; women who were already working do not extend their hours worked. This has implications for policies to extend the school day that do not correspond to the working day

Is 'First in Family' a Good Indicator for Widening University Participation?

Universities use ‘first in family’ or ‘first generation’ as an indicator to increase the diversity of their student intake, but little is known about whether it is a good indicator of disadvantage. We use nationally representative, longitudinal survey data linked to administrative data from England to provide the first comprehensive analysis of this measure. We employ parametric probability (logit) and non-parametric classification (random forest) models to look at its relative predictive power of university participation and graduation. We find that being first in family is an important barrier to university participation and graduation, over and above other sources of disadvantage. This association seems to operate through the channel of early educational attainment. Our findings indicate that the first in family indicator could be key in efforts to widen participation at universities

'First in Family' University Graduates in England

Universities around the world are attempting to increase the diversity of their student population. This includes individuals who are 'first in family' (FiF), those who achieve a university degree, but whose (step) parents did not. We provide the first large scale, quantitative evidence on FiF graduates in England using a nationally representative survey linked to administrative education data. We find that FiF young people make up 18 percent of a recent cohort, comprising nearly two-thirds of all university graduates. Comparing individuals with no parental higher education we show that ethnic minorities and those with higher levels of prior attainment are more likely to experience intergenerational educational mobility and become a FiF. Once at university, those who are FiF are more likely to study Law, Economics and Management and less likely to study other Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities than students whose parents are university graduates. We also find evidence that FiF students are less likely to graduate from elite universities and have a higher probability of dropping out, even after prior educational attainment, individual characteristics and socio-economic status are taken into account

Physical activity in adolescence: cross-national comparisons of levels, distributions and disparities across 52 countries

Introduction: Despite global concerns regarding physical inactivity, limited cross-national evidence exists to compare adolescents’ physical activity participation. We analysed 52 high- and low-middle income countries, with activity undertaken inside and outside of school in 2015. We investigated gender- and socioeconomic-disparities, and additionally examined correlations with country-level indices of physical education (PE) curriculum time allocation, wealth, and income inequality. / Methods: We used the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of 15-year-olds (N=347,935). Students reported average attendance (days/week) in PE classes, and the days/week engaged in moderate activity (MPA) and vigorous activity (VPA) outside of school. Both the mean and distributions of outcomes were evaluated, as were gender- and socioeconomic-disparities. Pearson’s correlations (r) between the physical activity outcomes and PE curriculum time allocation, wealth (indexed by GDP) and income inequality (indexed by the Gini coefficient) were calculated. / Results: Activity levels inside and outside of school were higher in Eastern Europe than Western Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East/North Africa. Comparisons of average levels masked potentially important differences in distributions. For example, activity levels inside school showed a bimodal distribution in the US (mean PE class attendance 2.4 days/week; 41.3%, 6.3% and 33.1% of students attended PE classes on 0, 2 and 5 days/week respectively). In contrast, most other countries exhibited more centrally shaped distributions. Pro-male and pro-high socioeconomic disparities were modest for participation inside school, but higher for MPA and VPA outside of school. The magnitude of these also differed markedly by country. Activity in school was weakly positively correlated with PE curriculum time allocation (r=0.33); activity outside of school was strongly negatively correlated with income inequality (e.g. r=-0.69 for MPA). / Conclusion: Our findings reveal extensive cross-country differences in adolescents’ physical activity; in turn, these highlight policy areas that could ultimately improve global adolescent health, such as the incorporation of minimum country-level PE classes, and the targeting of gender- and socioeconomic- disparities in activity conducted outside of school. Our findings also highlight the utility of educational databases such as PISA for use in global population health research