Parental educational level and children's IQ scores : the relationship between educational level and children's cognitive functioning.
Date
2014-02-24
Authors
Byrne, Melani
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The Relationship between Parental Educational Level and Children’s Cognitive Functioning
This study investigated the relationship between a child’s measured intelligence and the
educational level of that child’s mother and/or father. Correlations between parental
educational level and children’s cognitive functioning as measured by a conventional South
African intelligence scale, were examined. The instrument used to measure the children’s
cognitive functioning in this study was the Senior South African Individual Scale-Revised
(SSAIS-R). The children’s scaled scores were obtained from existing results on the SSAISR.
Parental educational levels were obtained from existing intake questionnaires, which
parents completed before their children were assessed on the SSAIS-R at the Centre for
Psychological Services and Career Development (PsyCaD). Correlational analysis was used
to investigate the relationship between the two variables of interest. The sample consisted of
23 cases. All of the children were aged between 8 and 10, spoke either English or Afrikaans
as a first language, and belonged to the White, Indian or Coloured population groups. The
results indicated that maternal level of education was positively and moderately correlated
with children’s cognitive functioning. Paternal educational level and children’s cognitive
functioning were found to have no correlation or to be inversely correlated. The correlation
results between paternal level of education and children’s cognitive functioning should be
interpreted with caution since the sample size was very small. Thus, the results are not
statistically significant.
Description
Keywords
Parental educational level, Children's cognitive functioning, Intelligence measures, SSAIS-R