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Childhood behavioral problems are associated with the intergenerational transmission of low education: a 16-year population-based study

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Abstract

The intergenerational transmission of low educational attainment is well-documented, but little is known about how behavioral problems in childhood explain this association. Drawing upon a population-based cohort study (n = 3020) linked to administrative records, we investigated the extent to which inattentive, internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behaviors at child ages 6–8 years accounted for associations between parental education and child’s risk of failing to graduate from high school. We adjusted for economic, demographic, cognitive, and perinatal factors, as well as parental mental health. Using logistic regressions and the Karlson-Holm-Breen decomposition method, we found that childhood behaviors together explained 19.5% of the association between mother’s education and child’s high school graduation status at age 22/23, and 13.7% of the association between father’s education and this same outcome. Inattentive behaviors were most strongly associated with failure to graduate from high school, while the role of other behaviors was modest or negligible. Inattentive behaviors may represent a mediational pathway between parental education and child education. Early interventions targeting inattentive behaviors could potentially enhance the prospects of intergenerational educational mobility.

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Data can be accessed at the Research Data Centres in 33 universities across Canada. Researchers must meet the criteria for access to confidential data.

Notes

  1. In accordance with Statistics Canada’s policy for using data linked to income records, displayed counts were rounded to base 10.

  2. Official statistics show that low rates of high school graduation continue to be a problem in Québec. According to a 2018 report from the Institut du Québec, only 64% of students in the province’s public education system (71% of girls and 57% of boys) completed high school in a timely manner. These rates remained relatively stable throughout the 2010s [64].

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Acknowledgements

The analyses presented in this paper were conducted at the Québec Interuniversity Centre for Social Statistics which is part of the Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN). The services and activities provided by the QICSS are made possible by the financial or in-kind support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Statistics Canada, the Fonds de recherche du Québec and Quebec universities. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the CRDCN, the QICSS or their partners. Findings from this paper were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America (2022). We thank attendees and panelists for helpful comments and suggestions.

Funding

Adam Vanzella-Yang is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Francis Vergunst was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec Santé (FRQS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

    Adam Vanzella-Yang, Francis Vergunst, Pascale Domond & Sylvana Côté

  2. Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center, University of Montreal, 3175 Côte Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, QC, H3T 1C5, Canada

    Adam Vanzella-Yang, Francis Vergunst, Pascale Domond, Frank Vitaro, Richard E. Tremblay & Sylvana Côté

  3. Special Needs Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Francis Vergunst

  4. School of Psychoeducation, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

    Frank Vitaro

  5. Department of Pediatrics and Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

    Richard E. Tremblay

  6. School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sport Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Richard E. Tremblay

  7. Department of Psychoeducation, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada

    Vincent Bégin

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  1. Adam Vanzella-Yang
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  7. Sylvana Côté
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Contributions

AV-Y: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis; writing (original draft), funding acquisition. FV: methodology, formal analysis, writing (review and editing). PD: methodology, formal analysis, writing (review and editing). FV: investigation, writing (review and editing). RET: investigation, writing (review and editing). VB: data curation; writing (review and editing). SC: supervision, writing (review and editing).

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Correspondence to Adam Vanzella-Yang.

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Vanzella-Yang, A., Vergunst, F., Domond, P. et al. Childhood behavioral problems are associated with the intergenerational transmission of low education: a 16-year population-based study. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 33, 595–603 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-023-02193-w

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