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Psychology Faculty Publications Psychology
7-2009
Long-Term Effects of Parents' Education on Children's Educational Long-Term Effects of Parents' Education on Children's Educational
and Occupational Success Mediation by Family Interactions, Child and Occupational Success Mediation by Family Interactions, Child
Aggression, and Teenage Aspirations Aggression, and Teenage Aspirations
Eric F. Dubow
Bowling Green State University
, edubow@bgsu.edu
Paul Boxer
L. Rowell Husemann
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Dubow, Eric F.; Boxer, Paul; and Husemann, L. Rowell, "Long-Term Effects of Parents' Education on
Children's Educational and Occupational Success Mediation by Family Interactions, Child Aggression, and
Teenage Aspirations" (2009).
Psychology Faculty Publications
. 19.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/psych_pub/19
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Long-term Effects of Parents’ Education on
Children’s Educational and Occupational Success
Mediation by Family Interactions, Child Aggression, and
Teenage Aspirations
Eric F. Dubow University of Michigan and Bowling Green State University
Paul Boxer Rutgers University
L. Rowell Huesmann University of Michigan
We examine the prediction of individuals’ educational and occupational success
at age 48 from contextual and personal variables assessed during their middle
childhood and late adolescence. We focus particularly on the predictive role of
the parents’ educational level during middle childhood, controlling for other
indices of socioeconomic status and children’s IQ, and the mediating roles of
negative family interactions, childhood behavior, and late adolescent aspira-
tions. Data come from the Columbia County Longitudinal Study, which began in
1960 when all 856 third graders in a semirural county in New York State were
interviewed along with their parents; participants were reinterviewed at ages
19, 30, and 48 (Eron et al., 1971; Huesmann et al., 2002). Parents’ educa-
tional level when the child was 8 years old significantly predicted educational
and occupational success for the child 40 years later. Structural models showed
that parental educational level had no direct effects on child educational level or
occupational prestige at age 48 but had significant indirect effects that were
independent of the other predictor variables’ effects. These indirect effects were
224
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Eric F. Dubow, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, and Department of Psy-
chology, Bowling Green State University; Paul Boxer, Department of Psychology; L. Rowell Hues-
mann, Institute for Social Research.
This research has been supported by funding from the Columbia County Tuberculosis and
Health Association and the Hudson (NY) Lions Club (1960 wave); the National Institute of Mental
Health (1960, 1970, and 1981 waves); and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Devel-
opment (2000 wave).
Correspondence should be addressed to Eric F. Dubow, Institute for Social Research-5030,
University of Michigan, 426 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. E-mail: edubow@
bgnet.bgsu.edu.
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, July 2009, Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 224–249. Copyright © 2009 by Wayne
State University Press, Detroit, MI 48201.
mediated through age 19 educational aspirations and age 19 educational level.
These results provide strong support for the unique predictive role of parental
education on adult outcomes 40 years later and underscore the developmental
importance of mediators of parent education effects such as late adolescent
achievement and achievement-related aspirations.
Parental educational level is an important predictor of children’s educa-
tional and behavioral outcomes (Davis-Kean, 2005; Dearing, McCartney,
& Taylor, 2001; Duncan, Brooks-Gunn, & Klebanov, 1994; Haveman &
Wolfe, 1995; Nagin & Tremblay, 2001; Smith, Brooks-Gunn, & Klebanov,
1997). The majority of research on the ways in which parental education
shapes child outcomes has been conducted through cross-sectional correla-
tional analyses or short-term longitudinal designs in which parents and
children are tracked through the child’s adolescent years. Our main goals in
the current study were to examine long-term effects on children’s educa-
tional and occupational success of their parents’ educational level while
controlling for other indices of family socioeconomic status (SES) and the
children’s own intelligence and to examine possible mediators of the effects
of parents’ education on children’s educational and occupational outcomes.
Following theory and research on family process models (e.g., Conger et
al., 2002; McLoyd, 1989), we expected that indices of family SES, includ-
ing parent education, would predict the quality of family interactions and
child behavior. Next, based on social-cognitive-ecological models (e.g.,
Guerra & Huesmann, 2004; Huesmann, 1998; Huesmann, Eron, & Yarmel,
1987), we expected that parental education, the quality of family interac-
tions, and child behavior would shape, by late adolescence, educational
achievement and aspirations for future educational and occupational suc-
cess. Finally, following Eccles’s expectancy-value model (Eccles, 1993;
Frome & Eccles, 1998), we predicted that late adolescent aspirations for
future success would affect actual educational and occupational success in
adulthood. We use data from the Columbia County Longitudinal Study
(CCLS), a 40-year developmental study initiated in 1960 with data col-
lected most recently in 2000 (Eron, Walder, & Lefkowitz, 1971; Lefkowitz,
Eron, Walder, & Huesmann, 1977; Huesmann, Dubow, Eron, Boxer,
Slegers, & Miller, 2002; Huesmann, Eron, Lefkowitz, & Walder, 1984).
Family Contextual Influences during Middle Childhood
In terms of SES factors, the positive link between SES and children’s
achievement is well established (Sirin, 2005; White, 1982). McLoyd’s
(1989, 1998) seminal literature reviews also have documented well the
relation of poverty and low SES to a range of negative child outcomes,
Parents’ Education and Adult Outcomes 225
including low IQ, educational attainment and achievement, and social-
emotional problems. Parental education is an important index of SES, and
as noted it predicts children’s educational and behavioral outcomes. How-
ever, McLoyd has pointed out the value of distinguishing among various
indices of family SES, including parental education, persistent versus tran-
sitory poverty, income, and parental occupational status, because studies
have found that income level and poverty might be stronger predictors of
children’s cognitive outcomes compared to other SES indices (e.g., Dun-
can et al., 1994; Stipek, 1998). Thus, in the present study we control for
other indices of SES when considering the effects of parental education.
In fact, research suggests that parental education is indeed an important
and significant unique predictor of child achievement. For example, in an
analysis of data from several large-scale developmental studies, Duncan and
Brooks-Gunn (1997) concluded that maternal education was linked signifi-
cantly to children’s intellectual outcomes even after controlling for a variety
of other SES indicators such as household income. Davis-Kean (2005)
found direct effects of parental education, but not income, on European
American children’s standardized achievement scores; both parental educa-
tion and income exerted indirect effects on parents’ achievement-fostering
behaviors, and subsequently children’s achievement, through their effects on
parents’ educational expectations.
Thus far we have focused on the literature on family SES correlates of
children’s academic and behavioral adjustment. However, along with those
contemporaneous links between SES and children’s outcomes, longitudinal
research dating back to groundbreaking status attainment models (e.g, Blau
& Duncan, 1967; Duncan, Featherman, & Duncan, 1972) indicates clearly
that family of origin SES accounts meaningfully for educational and occu-
pational attainment during late adolescence and into adulthood (e.g., Caspi,
Wright, Moffitt, & Silva, 1998; Johnson et al., 1983; Sobolewski & Amato,
2005; for a review, see Whitson & Keller, 2004). For example, Caspi et al.
(1998) reported that lower parental occupational status of children ages 3–5
and 7–9 predicted a higher risk of the child having periods of unemploy-
ment when making the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Johnson
et al. (1983) found that mothers’ and fathers’ educational level and fathers’
occupational status were related positively to their children’s adulthood
occupational status. Few studies, however, are prospective in nature and
span such a long period of time (i.e., a 40-year period from childhood to
middle adulthood). Also, few studies include a wide range of contextual
and personal predictor variables from childhood and potential mediators of
the effects of those variables from adolescence.
226 Merrill-Palmer Quarterly
Potential Mediators of the Effects of Family Contextual Influences
during Childhood on Adolescent and Adult Outcomes
Family process models (e.g., Conger et al., 2002; McLoyd, 1989; Mistry,
Vanderwater, Huston, & McLoyd, 2002) have proposed that the effects of
socioeconomic stress (e.g., financial strain, unstable employment) on child
outcomes are mediated through parenting stress and family interaction pat-
terns (e.g., parental depressed mood; lower levels of warmth, nurturance,
and monitoring of children). That is, family structural variables such as
parental education and income affect the level of actual interactions within
the family and concomitantly the child’s behavior. It is well established
within broader social learning models (e.g., Huesmann, 1998) that parents
exert substantial influence on their children’s behavior. For example, chil-
dren exposed to more rejecting and aggressive parenting contexts as well as
interparental conflict display greater aggression (Cummings & Davies,
1994; Eron et al., 1971; Huesmann et al., 1984; Lefkowitz et al., 1977), and
the effects between negative parenting and child aggression are bidirectional
(Patterson, 1982). Presumably, children learn aggressive problem-solving
styles as a result of repeated exposure to such models, and in turn parents use
more power assertive techniques to manage their children’s behavior.
Researchers also have shown that behavioral problems such as early
aggression impair children’s academic and intellectual development over
time (e.g., Hinshaw, 1992; Huesmann, Eron, & Yarmel, 1987). Stipek
(1998) has argued that behavioral problems affect young children’s oppor-
tunities to learn because these youths often are punished for their behavior
and might develop conflictual relationships with teachers, thus leading to
negative attitudes about school and lowered academic success. Thus, it is
possible that low SES (including low parental educational levels) could
affect negative family interaction patterns, which can influence child
behavior problems (measured in our study by aggression) and in turn affect
lowered academic and achievement-oriented attitudes over time.
Parent education and family interaction patterns during childhood also
might be linked more directly to the child’s developing academic success and
achievement-oriented attitudes. In the general social learning and social-
cognitive framework (Bandura, 1986), behavior is shaped in part through
observational and direct learning experiences. Those experiences lead to the
formation of internalized cognitive scripts, values, and beliefs that guide and
maintain behavior over time (Anderson & Huesmann, 2003; Huesmann,
1998). According to Eccles (e.g., Eccles, 1993; Eccles, Vida, & Barber, 2004;
Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998), this cognitive process accounts for the
emergence and persistence of achievement-related behaviors and ultimately
Parents’ Education and Adult Outcomes 227
