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Title: Early Childhood Behavioral Skills and the Gender Reversal in Educational Attainment in the United States: A New Perspective
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Owens, Jayanti |
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Early Childhood Behavioral Skills and the Gender Reversal in Educational Attainment in the United States: A New Perspective Presented: San Francisco CA, Population Association of America Meetings, May 2012 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Attention/Attention Deficit; College Education; College Enrollment; College Graduates; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B, ECLS-K); Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; High School Completion/Graduates; Role Models; Sociability/Socialization/Social Interaction Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. The gender reversal in high school completion, college enrollment, and college completion represents one of the most salient demographic shifts in the United States in recent decades. Prior research highlights women’s increased incentives for college via increased returns in the labor market. This study proposes and tests a new and complementary perspective on the gender reversal: the gender gap in early childhood behavioral skills. By age 5, boys lag behind girls in terms of attention, concentration, and social skills. Using two national datasets of children sampled approximately 15 years apart, I propose—and find support for—the hypothesis that the gender gap in behavior has grown over time, as many boys have lost their primary male role model due to changes in American families. Linking this growing behavioral gap to educational attainment, I find that the gap in behavioral skills explains a notable share of the reversal in educational attainment. |
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Bibliography Citation
Owens, Jayanti. "Early Childhood Behavioral Skills and the Gender Reversal in Educational Attainment in the United States: A New Perspective." Presented: San Francisco CA, Population Association of America Meetings, May 2012. |