![]() The gap is not only about quantity, but quality: Better educated parents also use a wider vocabulary, and they dole out affirmations (not just complimenting kids, but repeating and building on what they say) more generously than less educated parents. Learning lots of words early in life is tied to better academic outcomes down the road, so parents' early conversations with kids have long-lasting implications. Take the famous thirty-million word gap, for example: some scholars estimate that children of parents on welfare hear 30 million fewer words by the age of four than the children of professional parents. ![]() In the realm of parenting, a college degree (or the knowledge and skills it stands for) seems to make people interact with their kids differently. Essentially, it refers to individuals' knowledge, skills, and abilities, which they develop primarily through education and "capitalize" on in the workforce. The concept of human capital is easiest to understand. Morris, and Diane Hughes in the Journal of Marriage and Family proposes studying the ways in which mothers' education affects children's outcomes through a three-part framework: mothers' human capital, cultural capital, and social capital. Furthermore, since intelligence is linked to educational attainment and is partially heritable, children of college-educated parents may have inborn, genetic advantages over other children.īut the effects of parents' education do not boil down to these factors alone according to a variety of studies, their education-particularly a mother's education-also has a causal impact on children's outcomes through many separate mechanisms. And more educated parents are more likely to marry before having kids and to stay married long-term, so their kids reap the benefits of family stability. Having better-educated parents means a higher household income, which for kids translates into attending better schools, among many other benefits. This observation, well-supported by years of research, will come as a surprise to no one. Children's educational outcomes-their cognitive skills, grades, and educational attainment-are closely linked to their parents' level of education.
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