Understanding the Social Mobility Chances of Children from Working- Class Backgrounds in Britain: How Important are Cognitive Ability and Locus of Control?

Abstract

Research in social stratification has shown that children from working-class backgrounds tend to obtain substantially lower levels of educational attainment and lower labour 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 per cent of the total parental class effect on educational attainment and only about 20 per cent 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 labour 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.

Left behind? Over-time change in the social mobility of children from unskilled working-class backgrounds in Germany

“…As illustrated by the well-known ‘Origin, Education, Destination (OED) triangle’, the total effect of individuals’ social origin on their social destination can be decomposed into two parts: one that is mediated by children’s educational attainment and one not mediated by education – the so-called ‘direct’ effect of social origin (see, e.g. Bernardi and Ballarino, 2016; Goldthorpe, 2007: 159; Betthäuser et al, 2019). Past research suggests that in Germany a substantial proportion of the total effect of parents’ social class background on their offspring’s labour market position is mediated via individuals’ educational attainment (Müller and Pollak, 2004: 107).…”

“…Bernardi and Ballarino, 2016; Pfeffer and Hällsten, 2012), as well as individuals’ cognitive and non-cognitive development (see, e.g. Betthaeuser et al, 2019; Bourne et al, 2018).…”

Integrated STEM through Project Based Learning and Guided Inquiry on Scientific Literacy Abilities in Terms of Self-Efficacy Levels

“…Research on self-efficacy to increase scientific literacy has not been done much, but based on several research results (Betthäuser et al, 1970;Haciomeroglu, 2019;Quan & Elby, 2016), states that there is a connection between understanding science, and the interaction of science understanding. Student's self-efficacy can be seen from, which aspects of students' views of the nature of science linking to daily life supported by each student's self-efficacy.…”