The impact of mothers’ learning on their children’s academic performance at
Key Stage 3: evidence from ALSPAC
(2009) Ricardo Sabates and Kathryn Duckworth
Wider Benefits of Learning Research Report No.32
You need Acrobat Reader installed in order to view this file.
This report investigates whether the inter-generational benefits of parental adult education exist over and above the achievement of educational qualifications during schooling, and whether returns to parental adult learning are greatest for children of parents with low levels of education. Using data from the UK Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, ALSPAC, results show that mothers’ participation in adult education is not associated with improvements in their children’s academic attainment in English and maths at age 14. This lack of relationship held for the overall sample, and for subgroups defined by the type of adult education (accredited, unaccredited or informal learning), the intensity of learning (duration and engagement) and by mothers’ prior educational qualifications.
Dr Ricardo Sabates is Senior Lecturer in International Education and Development at the University of Sussex, and a Research Associate at the Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning at the Institute of Education.
Dr Kathryn Duckworth is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Quantitative Social Science at the Institute of Education, and a Research Associate at the Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning.
Please contact the Institute of Education bookshop on +44 (0)20 7612 6050 / ioe@johnsmith.co.uk if you wish to purchase hard copies.
