A Cross-National Study of SES Differences in and Adult Correlates of Age 7-10 Achievement, Attention, and Behavioral Skills

Investigator: Greg Duncan

Funding: Russell Sage Foundation

This project investigates social class differences in various skills and capacities among primary school children and associations between these skills and adult (age 27-50) education and labor market attainment. Our investigation will be a comparative one, involving five data sets drawn from four countries:

• Finland: Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development

• Great Britain: Cohort Study (1970 birth cohort)

• Great Britian: National Child Development Study (1958 birth cohort)

• Sweden: Study of Individual Development and Adaptation

• United States: Baltimore Beginning School Study

The data sets share two crucial properties for this investigation: (1) measurement of achievement, attention, and behavioral skills on large and diverse samples of children between ages 7 and 10; and (2) measurement of adult earnings, work hours, occupational attainment, completed schooling, and crime during both the childhood and adult (ages 27-50) years.

Collaborators on this project with Dr. Duncan include:

Lars Bergman, Professor, Head of the Laboratory for Developmental Science, Head of the research program Individual Development and Adaptation, University of Stockholm, lrb@psychology.su.se

Kathryn Duckworth, Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Quantitative Social Science, Institute of Education, London, K.Duckworth@ioe.ac.uk

Katja Kokko, Academy Research Fellow, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, katja.kokko@psyka.jyu.fi

Molly Metzger, Graduate Student, Northwestern University m-metzger@northwestern.edu

Sharon Simonton, Research Investigator, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, simonton@isr.umich.edu