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Origins of Social Immobility and Inequality: Parenting and Early Child Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

John Ermisch
John Ermisch*
Affiliation:
Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex
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Abstract

There is growing evidence that differences in children's intellectual, emotional and behavioural development by parents' socio-economic status emerge at early ages and that these differences cast a long shadow over subsequent achievements. This article demonstrates with the Millennium Cohort Study that differences by parents‘ income group in cognitive and behavioural development emerge by the child's third birthday. It shows that an important part of these differences can be accounted for by ‘what parents do’ in terms of educational activities and parenting style.

Keywords

child developmentsocial mobilityparental investmentJ13J24
Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 205 , July 2008 , pp. 62 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

∗

I am grateful for financial support from the UK Economic and Social Research Council and from the Russell Sage Foundation, through its Visiting Scholar programme. I have benefited from discussions with Markus Jäntti, comments from Heather Joshi, Hilary Metcalf, an anonymous referee and participants in seminars at the Russell Sage Foundation and Columbia University.

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