The Relationship Between Maternal Education and Children's Academic Outcomes: A Theoretical Framework
| Author | Jessica F. Harding,Pamela A. Morris,Diane Hughes |
| Date | 01 February 2015 |
| Published date | 01 February 2015 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12156 |
J F. H, P A. M, D H New York University
The Relationship Between Maternal Education
and Children’s Academic Outcomes:
A Theoretical Framework
The importance of maternal education for chil-
dren’s academic outcomes is widely recognized,
and yet the multiple potential mechanisms that
explain this relationship are underexplored.
The authors integrate theories of human, cul-
tural, and social capital with 2 developmental
psychology theories—bioecological theory
and developmental niche theory—to draw
attention to how maternal education may inu-
ence children’s academic outcomes through a
range of parenting mechanisms, some of which
have been largely neglected in research. This
framework provides a more complete picture
of how maternal education shapes proximal
and distal inuences on children’s academic
outcomes and the ways in which these mech-
anisms interact and reinforce one another
across time and context. The implications of this
framework for future family research are then
discussed.
Family socioeconomic status (SES)—generally
measured by parents’ education, income, or
employment status or a combination thereof—is
recognized across disciplines as contributing to
Department of Applied Psychology, New York University,
246 Greene St., 619E, New York,NY 10003
(jess.harding@nyu.edu).
Key Words: ecological, education, intergenerational trans-
mission, parental investment/involvement, parenting, social
capital.
educational disparities (Coleman et al., 1966;
Duncan & Murnane, 2011). Although they are
highly interrelated, specic components of SES
may inuence child outcomes through particu-
lar mechanisms (Duncan & Magnuson, 2003,
2012). There are relatively rich literatures on the
processes by which income and employment
affect children, but there is a comparative lack
of understanding of the complex processes by
which parents’ education inuences children’s
outcomes to drive such disparities. Parental
education may be a particularly important
factor in contributing to children’s academic
outcomes, with research suggesting it has the
strongest relationships with children’s cog-
nitive development (Reardon, 2011). In the
United States, there is more than a 0.5-standard
deviation difference in test scores between
children whose parents have a college degree
and children whose parents have a high school
degree (Duncan et al., 2012). These differences
have implications for children’s longer term
educational outcomes: High school graduates
whose parents have at least a bachelor’s degree
are nearly twice as likely to enroll in college
than high school graduates whose parents have
less than a high school degree (Choy, 2001).
Moreover, young adults whose parents have not
attended college often enroll in less selectivecol-
leges than they are qualied for, and even when
they do attend selective colleges, they graduate
at lower rates (Bowen, Chingos, & McPherson,
60 Journal of Marriage and Family 77 (February 2015): 60–76
DOI:10.1111/jomf.12156
Maternal Education and Children’s Academics 61
2009; Engle, 2007). Overall, research sug-
gests that the intergenerational transmission
of educational attainment is strong in many
developed nations, including the United States
(Duncan et al., 2012).
In this article we develop a theoretical
framework to better understand the range of
parenting practices by which maternal educa-
tion inuences children’s academic outcomes.
In light of the well-documented importance of
parental education and the fact that mothers
are still commonly the primary caregivers for
children, scholars need to explicate the “black
box” of the effects of maternal education.
When mechanisms of maternal education are
explored, typically only a single mediator (e.g.,
language use in the home) is examined. In
addition, research has focused on mechanisms
that occur within dyadic interactions between
mothers and their children. In our view, a more
complete understanding of the mechanisms
through which maternal education inuences
children’s academic outcomes requires a frame-
work that explores how mothers operate at
multiple levels of the bioecological environment
to promote their children’s educational devel-
opment. For example, contextual factors, such
as the educational attainment of mothers’ social
networks or the relationship between mothers
and schools or neighborhoods, are potentially
important mechanisms. In fact, the repeti-
tion of mechanisms across different settings
likely contributes to making maternal education
such a potent force in children’s academic
development.
We begin this article with a brief review of
empirical evidence that suggests that maternal
education has unique causal inuences on chil-
dren’s academic outcomes. Next, we introduce
developmental niche theory and discuss how
integrating this with theories of human, cultural,
and social capital and bioecological theory pro-
vides a useful and parsimonious lens through
which to explore the effects of maternal educa-
tion on children’s academic outcomes. Each type
of capital, its relationship to maternal education,
and the distinct set of inuences on children’s
academic outcomes related to this form of capi-
tal are then described in detail in order to show
the multitude of ways that maternal education
may have effects. We next describe other forms
of capital that may enable many mechanisms
to take place. Then we discuss different ways
that mechanisms may interrelate to improve chil-
dren’s outcomes. Finally, how this framework
can be used to develop future family research is
discussed. It is important to note that the goal
is not to summarize these theories but to inte-
grate and apply them to deepen understanding of
the inuence of maternal education on children’s
academic development.
T I M E
C’ A O
Higher levels of maternal education are posi-
tively associated with many different academic
outcomes for children throughout development.
Prior to children’s school entry, higher mater-
nal education has been associated with more
advanced spontaneous language production
(Dollaghan et al., 1999) and standardized cog-
nitive achievement tests (Magnuson, Sexton,
Davis-Kean, & Huston, 2009). Throughout ele-
mentary, middle, and high school, meta-analytic
ndings demonstrate strong and consistent
associations between maternal education and
children’s academic achievement, including
students’ grade-point averages and SAT scores
(Sirin, 2005). Later in development, adolescents
with mothers with higher levels of education are
more likely to complete high school and enroll in
college (Choi, Raley, Muller, & Riegle-Crumb,
2008). Although this research suggests there
is a positive association between higher levels
of maternal education and children’s academic
outcomes across childhood and adolescence, it
does not necessarily imply that maternal educa-
tion is the cause of children’s outcomes. This is
because maternal education is associated with a
number of different characteristics—including
income, family background, and genetics—that
are also associated with child outcomes.
A number of methods have been used to
address this issue of causality (see Holmlund,
Lindahl, & Plug, 2011, for a review). Studies of
the children of identical twin siblings who have
different levels of education have attempted to
separate genetic from environmental inuences.
Although these studies typically show larger
effects for paternal than maternal education
when they control for assortative mating (e.g.,
Haegeland, Kirkeboen, Raaum, & Salvanes,
2010), analyses of more recent cohorts, in which
mothers have more access to education, found
that mothers’ schooling had a signicant positive
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