61 research outputs found

    Effects of family income dynamics and cognitive outcomes in early childhood

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    Background and Aim : Studies suggest that income dynamics (poverty, income loss, gain and volatility) have significant impact on child cognitive outcomes. However, we do not fully understand the psychological mechanisms by which these various forms of income dynamics influence cognitive outcomes and whether they operate through the same mechanisms (Miller & Votruba - Dzral, 2016). Drawing on previous research, this ongoing study examined how different forms of income dynamics affect early cognitive outcomes through family stress and investment pathways (Conger, Conger, & Martin, 2010). Methods : Data for the study is based on the Growing Up in Scotland longitudinal survey (n=3621). Predictors (income dynamics), mediators (parental investment, mental health, and household chaos) and outcome variable (child cognitive outcomes) were selected in line with the temporal ordering of hypothesised pathways. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling techniques. All analyses took into account longitudinal weights, stratification, and clustering in the data. Analyses were undertaken using Mplus 7.4 software. Results and conclusion : Preliminary results suggest that income levels influence child cognitive outcomes through parental educational investment, mental health, and household chaos. Specifically, higher family income was associated with high cognitive outcomes through high levels of educational investment, good levels of parental mental health, and low levels of household chaos. Income gain and income loss on the other hand influenced child cognitive outcomes through household chaos. Income gain was associated with low levels of household chaos while income loss resulted in higher levels of chaos. The policy and practice implications will be explored

    Closing Poverty-Related Attainment Gaps in Scotland's Schools : What Works?

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    The poverty-related attainment gap is an issue for every school and every local authority in Scotland. There are many different ways to tackle it, from greater parental involvement, to improving teacher retention and quality, to pedagogical and curriculum change, to school and authority-wide management measures. Successful change will be informed by research evidence of 'what works'. This IPPI Policy Brief distills research evidence into an "at a glance" guide to reducing poverty-related attainment gaps. Its aim is to inform teaching professionals, school and education leaders, policy makers, politicians, parents and citizens about the issue

    Growing up in Scotland : predictors of parental aspirations for their children's education

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    The role of parents in the education of children is widely acknowledged. As a result, most European countries have developed strategies to encourage parental participation. A key element of involvement that has received some attention is parental aspirations. This examines the level of education that parents would like their children to attain (Spera, Wentzel & Matto, 2009). Various studies suggest that parental aspirations play a significant role in a childā€™s academic success, and is potentially the most crucial component of parental involvement (Jeynes, 2007). For instance, parental aspirations has been linked to childrenā€™s academic goals, persistence in school, intellectual accomplishment, and childrenā€™s own academic aspirations (see e.g., Areepattamannil, 2010; Bronstein et al., 2005; Jeynes 2007; Wigfield, 1995). One suggestion is that, aspirations drive parental decisions and creates a ā€œself-fulfilling prophecyā€ (e.g., Wentzel, 1998). Examination of the literature however shows that only limited attention has been devoted to understanding what determines parental aspirations (Spera et al., 2009). The scant evidence suggests that parental aspirations may be influenced by discrete factors such as the parents own education, perception of school related factors, and a childā€™s academic performance (Goldenberg, Gallimore, Reese & Garnier, 2001; Spera et al., 2009), although this evidence is sometimes contradictory (e.g., Kirk et al., 2011). Additionally, current studies on aspirations have not proposed any coherent theoretical model in explaining the determinants of parental aspirations. Further, studies aimed at understanding the influences on parental aspirations have been focused on parents with older children. An interesting issue for the current study is the aspirations of parents whose children are much younger and have just started school. This is because childrenā€™s earliest experiences are thought to have a significant influence on their future education success. As a result, parental decisions - which may result from their aspirations for the child at a young age - may have significant repercussions for a childā€™s future education. The current study therefore aims to explore two research questions: a) what factors predict parental aspirations for their childrenā€™s education? and (b) how do these factors interact in providing a coherent explanation for parental aspirations? It can be argued that understanding determinants of parental aspirations when children are still young could lead to early interventions that give all children a head start. Findings may provide suggestion for how schools can work with parents in the bid to raise pupilā€™s achievement and break the cycle of poverty between parents and their children

    School absenteeism and academic achievement : Is missing-out on school more detrimental to students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds?

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    Significant social inequalities in academic achievement are well established. Evidence suggests that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more frequently absent from school. Whereas school absenteeism is a potential mechanism for explaining the social inequality in academic achievement, empirical evidence on the link between absenteeism and achievement is sparse. Additionally, it is not clear if different forms of absenteeism have the same detrimental effect on achievement. Absent students miss out on teacher-led lessons, peer interactions or activities that may stimulate their learning and ultimately their performance in exams. In addition, they might feel less integrated into their class and struggle to participate in classroom activities and interactions with peers and teachers which, in turn, is harmful to their learning. Importantly, school absenteeism may be particularly detrimental to children from lower socio-economic backgrounds as their parents have neither the time nor resources to compensate for school absence by supporting their children in engaging with the content of the missed school lessons. In this paper, we first examine the association between different types of school absenteeism (legitimate absence, truancy and exclusion) and academic achievement in secondary school. Besides, we consider whether the association between absenteeism and academic achievement varies between different socioeconomic groups and family structures. We analysed a sample (N=5,000) from the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) by linking census, school administrative and achievement, and administrative health data. The unique SLS data provided us with a rich set of confounders from the Census and health data in estimating the adjusted association between school absenteeism and academic achievement using regression-based approaches. We will discuss the data linkage process as well as the policy and practice implications of our findings

    Who Is missing-out on school? Exploring socioeconomic inequalities in school absenteeism

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    The strong relationship between family background and school performance among secondary pupils is a well-established finding in the cross-national comparative literature (Van de Werfhorst and Mijs 2010) and for Scotland (Sosu and Ellis 2014). ā€œClosing the attainment gapā€ between children from lower and higher socioeconomic backgrounds is the main priority of the Scottish governmentā€™s education policy (Scottish Government 2016). A potential mechanism that may help to account for the association between family background and school performance is school absenteeism. Being absent from school may result from legitimate (e.g. sickness) or illegitimate reasons (e.g. truancy), as well as exclusion from school. In the school year 2014/2015, the total rate of absence for secondary schools in Scotland was 8.1% with significant differences between low (12%) and high-income (5.5%) neighbourhoods (Scottish Government, 2015). Several studies have found that school absenteeism is linked to lower educational achievement (Aucejo and Romano 2016; Buscha and Conte 2014; Gottfried 2011; London, Sanchez and Castrechini 2016; Steward et al. 2008). This is because absent students miss out on teacher-led lessons, peer interactions or activities that may stimulate their learning and ultimately their performance in exams. In addition, they might feel less integrated into their class and struggle to participate in classroom activities and interactions with peers and teachers which, in turn, is detrimental to their learning. Importantly, school absenteeism may be particularly harmful for children from lower socio-economic backgrounds as their parents have neither the time nor resources to compensate for school absence by supporting their children in engaging with the content of the missed school lessons. The relationship between family background and school absenteeism may operate through health-related behaviour (e.g. Moonie et al. 2006), environmental hazards (e.g. Currie et al. 2009), residential and school mobility (Nolan et al. 2013), family structure and environment (Evans 2004), and parental employment characteristics (Han 2005). Although a few studies show that students from the lower socio-economic background are more often absent from school (Attwood and Croll 2006; Nolan et al. 2013; Theriot, Craun and Dupper 2010), they do not address if and and to what extent parental resources are associated with absenteeism. Additionally, it is not clear if students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds or specific family structures are more likely to experience particular forms of absenteeism- such as exclusion- possibly due to the tendency for teacher bias towards students from low-income households (Campbell, 2015). Finally, it is not clear if boys and girls from different socioeconomic backgrounds experience absenteeism in the same way. This study attempts to fill the existing knowledge gaps in trying to answer the following questions: 1. To what extent do different socioeconomic factors (parental education, parental class or neighbourhood deprivation) and family structures (Eg. single parent, number of siblings) determine school absenteeism? 2. Do students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds or specific family structures differ in their experience of particular forms of school absenteeism (legitimate absence, truancy and exclusion)? 3. Drawing on the theory of intersectionality, does the relationship between socioeconomic backgrounds and school absenteeism differ between boys and girls

    'You have to be a bit brave' : barriers to Scottish student-teachers' participation in study-abroad programmes

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    This article reports on a study that examined Scottish student teachersā€™ attitudes to study-abroad and the reasons underpinning their reluctance to participate in these programmes. Data collection comprised a mixed-methods approach consisting of a survey of 318 student-teachers in one Scottish university followed by semi-structured interviews with 12 volunteers. Descriptive and thematic data analyses revealed that the majority of student-teachers perceived international study experience as useful to their development as teachers. However, their lack of confidence and anxiety about travel were significant reasons about why they did not take up opportunities to study abroad. In particular, fear of not being understood and fear of different cultural norms and practices shaped their decision to remain in Scotland. In order to allay these fears and increase studentā€“teacher participation, the authors suggest universities invest in intercultural competence training, language education and provide detailed briefings as part of the recruitment process into study-abroad programmes

    School Absenteeism and Academic Achievement:Does the Reason for Absence Matter?

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    Studies consistently show associations between school absences and academic achievement. However, questions remain about whether this link depends on the reason for children's absence. Using a sample of the Scottish Longitudinal Study (n = 4,419), we investigated whether the association between school absenteeism and achievement in high-stakes exams at the end of compulsory and post-compulsory schooling varies with the reason for absence. In line with previous research, our findings show that overall absences are negatively associated with academic achievement at both school stages. Likewise, all forms of absences (truancy, sickness absence, exceptional domestic circumstances, family holidays) are negatively associated with achievement at the end of compulsory and post-compulsory schooling. First difference regressions confirm these negative associations, except for family holidays. These results suggest that, in addition to lost instruction, other mechanisms such as behavioral, health-related, and psychosocial pathways may account for the association between absenteeism and achievement. The findings have implications for designing tailored absenteeism interventions to improve pupils' academic achievement

    Teacher characteristics and childrenā€™s educational attainment in Ghana: do some teacher characteristics matter more for children attending disadvantaged schools?

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    Funding Information: The authors are grateful to both the Government of Ghana and their partners for permission to use the data. All results from this research are the responsibility of the authors and do not implicate the custodians of the primary data in any way. Funding. This research relied on data from the Ghana Education Service and RTI International in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development. This study was partly supported through the Scottish Funding Council GCRF Institutional grant awarded to ES. Publisher Copyright: Ā© Copyright Ā© 2020 Nyatsikor, Sosu, Mtika and Robson. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

    The influence of poverty on children's school experiences : pupils' perspectives

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    This study examined the potential influence of policies and practices on the ability of children from low-income families to participate fully in the school day. Pupils from six schools participated in 71 focus groups and revealed a range of barriers affecting their school experience: transport costs and limited support; clothing costs, stigma and enforcement of school dress codes; material barriers to learning at school and home; concerns about free school meals; missing out on school trips, clubs and events. Findings on school uniform were an important catalyst towards a recent policy change in Scotland in increasing the school clothing grant
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