Measuring social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment in the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)

Betthäuser, Bastian Andreas; Bourne, Mollie; Bukodi, Erzsébet

doi:10.31235/osf.io/z6wrf

Cited by 3 publications

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“…Individuals’ social class position is measured using a five‐category, collapsed version of the seven‐category British National Statistics Socio‐Economic Classification (NS‐SEC). This measure of social class has been derived using the “full method” based on the SOC2000 codes of individuals’ occupations along with their employment status (see Betthäuser, Bourne, & Bukodi, ; Morris, ; Rose & Pevalin, ). Based on this classification, we generate four binary variables, as shown in Table , that allow us to contrast different social class categories in a stepwise approach.…”

Section: Data and Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the mobility chances of children from working‐class backgrounds in Britain: How important are cognitive ability and locus of control?

Betthäuser

Bourne

Bukodi

2020

British Journal of Sociology

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Research in social stratification has shown that children from working‐class backgrounds tend to obtain substantially lower levels of educational attainment and lower labor market positions than children from higher social class backgrounds. However, we still know relatively little about the micro‐level processes that account for this empirical regularity. Our study examines the roles of two individual‐level characteristics—cognitive ability and locus of control—in mediating the effect of individuals’ parental class background on their educational attainment and social class position in Britain. We find that cognitive ability mediates only about 35% of the total parental class effect on educational attainment and only about 20% of the total parental class effect on respondents’ social class position, net of their educational attainment. These findings contradict existing claims that differences in the life chances of children from different social class backgrounds are largely due to differences in cognitive ability. Moreover, we find that although individuals’ locus of control plays some role in mediating the parental class effect, its role is substantially smaller than the mediating role of cognitive ability. We measure individuals’ social class positions at different points in their careers—at labor market entry and at occupational maturity—and find that the mediating roles of cognitive ability and locus of control are remarkably stable across individuals’ working lives.

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Section: Data and Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the mobility chances of children from working‐class backgrounds in Britain: How important are cognitive ability and locus of control?

Betthäuser

Bourne

Bukodi

2020

British Journal of Sociology

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“…Centre for Longitudinal Studies, 2015Studies, , 2016Studies, , 2018Boyd et al, 2013;Fraser et al, 2013). For detailed information on each of the datasets used please see Bourne and Betthaeuser (2016); Betthaeuser and Bourne (2016a, 2016b, 2016c; and Bourne (2016). Further information on the ASLPAC dataset, the ALSPAC data dictionary and detailed acknowledgements can be found in the Appendix.…”

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confidence: 99%

Comparative Data Note: Harmonising the measurement of social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment across the National Child Development Study (NCDS), the British Cohort Study (BCS70), the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), and the Avon Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)

Betthäuser¹,

Bourne²,

Bukodi³

2020

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The data note presents and discusses descriptive statistics comparing key variables on individuals’ social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment that have been constructed based on the information contained in four different data sets: National Child Development Study (NCDS), 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) and Avon Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The main sets of variables presented are (1) measures of respondents’ cognitive ability in childhood, (2) parental education, class, status and income, and (3) respondents’ highest qualification and measures indicating whether respondents have crossed different educational qualification thresholds.

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“… 1 1 For further information on the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study and an in‐depth description of the variables and measures we use in our analyses, please see Betthäuser et al. (2020b). …”

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The case for studying the intergenerational transmission of social (dis)advantage: A reply to Gary Marks

Betthäuser

Bukodi

Bourne

2021

British Journal of Sociology

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Our article "Understanding the mobility chances of children from working-class backgrounds in Britain: How important are cognitive ability and locus of control?" examines the role of cognitive ability and peoples' sense of control over their lives in mediating the effects of individuals' social background on their educational attainment and on their labor market position (Betthäuser et al., 2020a). The article takes as its starting point the persistent view in both academic and policy circles that most of the differences in the educational attainment and labor market success between individuals from different socio-economic backgrounds are due to differences in cognitive ability between them (see e.g., Marks, 2014;Murray, 2012). Using data from the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study, 1 we find that cognitive ability mediates a non-negligible yet limited amount of the effect of individuals' social background on their educational attainment (about 35%) and their labor market position (about 20%). This means that about 65% of the effect of individuals' social background on their educational attainment, and about 80% of the effect on their labor market position, is channeled by factors other than cognitive ability. Contradicting the claims by Murray (2012), Marks (2014), and others, this finding highlights that the intergenerational reproduction of social (dis)advantage that prevails in even the most developed societies is deeply unmeritocratic and unfair.Consequently, we see an urgent need for researchers to identify and for policy makers to address the channels through which individuals' parental class background shapes their life chances, above and beyond its effects on individuals' cognitive ability.In his commentary on our article, Gary Marks (2020, p. 3) concludes that the findings of our article "are technically correct but unimportant." He argues that examining the role of cognitive ability in mediating the association between individuals' social background and their educational and labor market outcomes is not a relevant exercise, since there are "only moderate associations of class origins with educational and occupational outcomes" (p.2). Instead, he suggests that research should focus on the importance of individuals' genetic predisposition and cognitive ability in affecting individuals' educational attainment and labor market outcomes (p. 2). In short, MarksThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Measuring social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment in the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)

Cited by 3 publications

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Understanding the mobility chances of children from working‐class backgrounds in Britain: How important are cognitive ability and locus of control?

Understanding the mobility chances of children from working‐class backgrounds in Britain: How important are cognitive ability and locus of control?

The case for studying the intergenerational transmission of social (dis)advantage: A reply to Gary Marks

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