The Blog

2021-

2021-03-24 c
BLACK AND WHITE III

The Contribution of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills to Inter-generational Social Mobility

Abstract
We investigated intergenerational educational and occupational mobility in a sample of 2,594 adult offspring and 2,530 of their parents. Participants completed assessments of general cognitive ability and five noncognitive factors related to social achievement; 88% were also genotyped, allowing computation of educational-attainment polygenic scores. Most offspring were socially mobile. Offspring who scored at least 1 standard deviation higher than their parents on both cognitive and noncognitive measures rarely moved down and frequently moved up. Polygenic scores were also associated with social mobility. Inheritance of a favorable subset of parent alleles was associated with moving up, and inheritance of an unfavorable subset was associated with moving down. Parents’ education did not moderate the association of offspring’s skill with mobility, suggesting that low-skilled offspring from advantaged homes were not protected from downward mobility. These data suggest that cognitive and noncognitive skills as well as genetic factors contribute to the reordering of social standing that takes place across generations. (read more)

See also: How economic inequality shapes mobility expectations and behaviour in disadvantaged youth

See also: Income inequality, equality of opportunity, and intergenerational mobility

See also: Educational mobility in the United States since the 1930s. In Duncan, G. J., Murnane, R. J. (Eds.), Whither opportunity?: Rising inequality, schools, and children’s life chances (pp. 165–185). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation

See also: Why people prefer unequal societies

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