Greater parental education is the strongest predictor of maths attainment and faster future growth for children moving into secondary school even after adjusting for their intelligence (IQ).
The study also showed that:
- Boys achieve significantly higher grades in maths at age 11 but this gap did not grow through secondary school. Academics believe the gap at 11 could be explained by girls’ increasing maths anxiety and decreasing enjoyment of the subject at this age.
- Statistically significant but very weak evidence that pupils with higher emotional symptoms in early childhood had lower maths attainment when they were older.
- The study’s authors recommend that strategies focusing on improving parental education could be a very effective method of increasing attainment in children.
- The study examined working memory and internalizing symptoms as predictors of children's maths attainment trajectories across the transition to secondary education through analysis of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) involving almost 9,000 children born between 1 April 1991 and 31 December 1992.
- The study focuses on the transition from primary to secondary education because of the reported declines in academic achievement and maths specifically during the move from primary to secondary schools - it is reported that more than a third of children do not show any progress in maths during the transition year.
- The authors believe higher-educated parents support the transition to secondary education in different ways that lessen the negative impact of the transition on maths attainment including their own positive attitudes towards education, involvement with school activities or helping with homework in a supportive environment.
- The authors had hypothesised that emotional temperament in early childhood could be a very early indicator of poor maths attainment later on in adolescence but later concluded that it was not possible to predict later problems with under attainment in maths using emotional difficulties early on in childhood.
- Additional research is needed to further uncover the relationship of memory during a task (working memory) and internalizing symptoms such as anxiety on attainment, using more time-appropriate measures.
Discussion
This study aimed to identify predictors of maths attainment trajectories across the primary to secondary education transition, specifically investigating:
(i) if working memory capacity and internalizing symptoms impact maths attainment pre-transition;
(ii) whether working memory capacity and internalizing symptoms influence the trajectory of maths attainment following the primary–secondary education transition;
(iii) whether the effects of internalizing symptoms on maths attainment pre- and post-transition are moderated by working memory capacity, and
(iv) if an emotional temperament in childhood is predictive of low maths attainment.
The findings provide further evidence that low SES and low parental education are two of the biggest risk factors for low attainment in maths prior to the school transition, and continue to affect the rate children progress in secondary education.
The findings partially support the hypothesis with greater working memory and fewer internalising symptoms significantly predicting greater attainment at the time of the transition, suggesting that individuals presenting with greater emotional issues and low working memory capacity in early adolescence are more at risk of poor performance compared with their peers around the transition.
Increased maths growth was significantly predicted by higher IQ, higher SES and greater parental education, suggesting that children with greater intelligence and higher socioeconomic status progress at a quicker rate across the transition to secondary education compared with their peers.
The interaction between working memory capacity and internalising symptoms did not significantly predict pre-transition maths attainment, or the trajectory of maths attainment over time, suggesting overall that working memory capacity does not moderate the effects of internalising symptoms on maths attainment as hypothesised.
It was hypothesised that an emotional temperament would predict maths attainment, given that childhood temperament and internalising symptoms are linked. However, this idea was not supported, suggesting that we cannot predict later problems with underattainment in maths using emotional difficulties this early on in childhood.
Although not the main aim of this study, the findings imply that strategies focusing on improving parental education (or related factors) for example might be more successful in increasing attainment. Although one possible solution could be to provide better provisions for parents to attain higher educational qualifications, this is not necessarily practical (or desirable) for every family.
Existing research investigating factors linked to parental education has found that greater parental education is associated with greater school involvement, greater enrolment in educational activities (e.g. music lessons) and higher educational aspirations for their child.