Intergenerational Economic Mobility for Low-Income Parents and Their Children: A Dual Developmental Science Framework

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

In this review we bring a psychological perspective to the issue of intergenerational economic mobility. More specifically, we present a new dual developmental science framework to consider the educational outcomes of parents and children together in order to foster economic mobility. We focus on two key populations: children in early childhood (from birth to age 6) and parents in early adulthood (in their 20s and early 30s). We posit that mastery of three sets of developmental tasks for each generation—academic/language skills, self-regulation/mental health, and parent-child relationship—will lead to improved educational outcomes for both. Taken as a whole, the dual developmental science framework integrates theory and research on single-generation development (i.e., children or parents) with dynamic and bidirectional theories about the interdependence of children and parents over time.We conclude the review by evaluating existing education interventions and research using the dual developmental science framework, and we discuss opportunities for innovation.

Related collections

Most cited references 132

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety.

T Moffitt, L Arseneault, D. Belsky … (2011)

Policy-makers are considering large-scale programs aimed at self-control to improve citizens' health and wealth and reduce crime. Experimental and economic studies suggest such programs could reap benefits. Yet, is self-control important for the health, wealth, and public safety of the population? Following a cohort of 1,000 children from birth to the age of 32 y, we show that childhood self-control predicts physical health, substance dependence, personal finances, and criminal offending outcomes, following a gradient of self-control. Effects of children's self-control could be disentangled from their intelligence and social class as well as from mistakes they made as adolescents. In another cohort of 500 sibling-pairs, the sibling with lower self-control had poorer outcomes, despite shared family background. Interventions addressing self-control might reduce a panoply of societal costs, save taxpayers money, and promote prosperity.

0 comments Cited 509 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

School readiness and later achievement.

Greg Duncan, Chantelle J Dowsett, Amy Claessens … (2007)

Using 6 longitudinal data sets, the authors estimate links between three key elements of school readiness--school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills--and later school reading and math achievement. In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, the authors ensured that most of their regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures. Across all 6 studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills. A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading and then attention skills. By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior. Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds. (c) 2007 APA.