The Impact of Educational Attainment and Grade Retention on the Development of Intelligence.

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Autor/in	Schalke-Mandoux, Daniela Sangme
Titel	The Impact of Educational Attainment and Grade Retention on the Development of Intelligence.
Quelle	Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin (2016), 240 S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (1); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (2) Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit Dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin, 2016.
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monographie
URN	urn:nbn:de:kobv:188-fudissthesis000000102722-7
Schlagwörter	Intelligenz (Psy); Dissertation; Entwicklung; Qualifikation; Qualifikation; Dissertation; Effekt; Entwicklung
Abstract	European countries are faced with a demographic change. People are living longer than ever before, while, at the same time, birth rates are below replacements levels. Thus, European countries will have to deal with an increasingly aging labor market as well as a growing amount of elderly people in need of care. Healthy cognitive aging is important for both of these challenges in Europe (Ball et al., 2002; European Commission, 2014). Thus, investing in healthy cognitive aging is not only important for individuals´ well-being, but also for economic stability and growth. Crucially, people vary greatly in the development and maintenance of their cognitive abilities over the lifespan. Therefore, the European Commission (2014) recently called for strategies focused on the reduction of inequalities in cognitive development as well as research beginning already in childhood to understand the complex dynamics of cognitive development. The present Ph.D. project directly corresponds to this call. We examined the development of intelligence from late childhood at age 12 into middle adulthood at age 52 as well as the impact of educational attainment and grade retention in primary school on the development of intelligence. In 1968, data was collected from half of all Luxembourgian students in grade level six, comprising a total of 2824 students (49.9%). This sample is representative of the population of sixth graders in Luxembourg in 1968. In 2008, 745 of these former students were followed up and questioned on their educational pathways and attainment. In addition, the same intelligence test battery employed in 1968 was re-assessed. Thus, the present study´s analyses are based on data covering 40 years of lifetime and provide a number of meaningful theoretical and practical implications. In more detail, we examined three research questions in 3 studies, respectively. Study 1 tackled two key aspects of the development of intelligence concerning (a) stability and change in the structure of intelligence with reference to the age differentiation-dedifferentiation hypothesis (how different cognitive abilities relate to each other across age) and (b) differential stabilities (the rank ordering of persons´ intelligence levels across time). To this end, we drew on two structural conceptions of intelligence: (a) the extended Gf-Gc model to study broad cognitive abilities and (b) the three-stratum model to decompose cognitive change into processes shared by all broad abilities (attributable to general cognitive ability g) and processes specific to a certain ability (independent of g). Data were obtained for 344 persons (56.4% female). The results showed that people differ more greatly over time with respect to all broad abilities except for fluid reasoning, whereas the rank ordering of persons on all broad abilities remains remarkably stable. These combined results yielded substantial gap-widening effects from age 12 to age 52, which were mainly accounted for by a substantial increase in g variance in combination with a high differential stability of g. Moreover, the increase in g variance reflects an increase in covariance among different broad abilities, indicating that the different constructs relate more closely to each other at age 52 compared to age 12 (i.e. age dedifferentiation). Two theoretical explanations of this change in the structure of intelligence are discussed (common cause hypothesis and investment theory). Study 2 examined the long-term consequences of quantity and quality of formal education on the development of both fluid and crystalized cognitive abilities. Quantity of formal education was assessed by years of schooling, while quality of formal education was assessed by school track (i.e. academic vs. non-academic track). In addition, the study´s design made testing the assumptions of Cattell´s investment theory (1971, 1987) that fluid abilities are invested in the acquisition of crystallized abilities by taking advantage of environmental learning opportunities possible. A vital feature of the current study is that we were able to test the influence of educational attainment on two aspects of crystallized abilities, a verbal measure (word knowledge) and a factual knowledge measure (knowledge of the world), while controlling for childhood cognitive ability. Data were collected from 315 (55.9% female) participants. At the time their cognitive abilities were re-assessed, the participants in the current study had left formal education over 30 years previously. Most interestingly, we found an interaction effect of quantity and quality of formal education: Length of formal education had a long-term significant impact on both fluid and crystallized (i.e. word knowledge) ability for the non-academic track students only. Possible explanations of why the impact of formal education on cognitive abilities may be more persistent for participants in the non-academic track compared to participants in the academic track are discussed. In addition, evidence was found that confirms the assumptions made by investment theory that fluid abilities are invested into the acquisition of crystallized abilities by taking advantage of environmental learning opportunities. However, contrary to investment theory, we also found some investment of crystallized abilities in the acquisition of fluid abilities over the lifespan. In addition, we found that formal education related differently to the two different measures of crystallized ability in the present study, namely word knowledge and knowledge of the world. This may underline findings by previous research that these two abilities are empirically distinguishable facets of crystallized intelligence (Schipolowski, Wilhelm, & Schroeders, 2014). Taken together, the results of Study 2 of the present dissertation show that formal education has an important long-term impact on cognitive abilities, even over 30 years after participants had left formal education. Study 3 tackled the long-term impact of grade retention in primary school on three key life outcomes in middle adulthood, namely educational attainment, income, and intelligence. To this end, we performed a multiple regression analysis for each key life outcome under study. Propensity score matching procedures were performed to control for 11 characteristics that are known to possibly influence grade retention and educational outcomes. In addition, we controlled for the influence of childhood intelligence, grade point average in primary school, and parental socioeconomic status, as well as educational attainment (for adult income and intelligence) in the regression analyses. From a base sample of 745 (53.3% female) participants, a different subsample was drawn for each life outcome under study. In the present study, we found that grade retention in primary school had a significant negative impact on all three key life outcomes, even over 40 years of the lifespan. On average, participants who were retained in primary school attended one year less of formal education than promoted participants, earned about EUR650 less per month at age 52, and scored about 7 IQ points lower in the intelligence test at age 52. Thus, contrary to the common belief that grade retention helps children with unsatisfactory academic achievement, in the present study grade retention in primary school has long lasting negative effects on a number of key life outcomes. Thus, alternatives should be considered and are discussed in the present dissertation. The results of the present dissertation have a number of theoretical and practical implications that are discussed in the general discussion. The theoretical implications comprise propositions of lifespan developmental psychology sensu Li and Baltes (2006), Cattell´s investment theory (1971, 1987), and the Matthew effect (or accumulating advantages). In addition, a number of practical implications are discussed, focusing on the pedagogical measure of grade retention as well as early interventions and aspects of the school system. (Orig.).
Erfasst von	Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Frankfurt am Main
Update	2017/1