Ford Katherine J, Leist Anja K
University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
Gerontol Geriatr Med. 2021 Mar 22;7:23337214211004366. doi: 10.1177/23337214211004366. eCollection 2021 Jan-Dec.
Gender differences in late middle-age cognitive performance may be explained by differences in educational or occupational attainment rates, or gender-patterned returns of similar education and occupation to cognitive reserve. We tested these competing hypotheses in the historically highly gender unequal context of South Korea. Data came from the 2006 wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging. We included adults aged 45-65 years. Using quantile regression decompositions, we decomposed cognitive performance differences across quantiles into differences due to rates of educational and occupational attainment and differences due to divergent returns to those characteristics. Gender-based cognitive performance differences across deciles were driven by differences in rates of educational and occupational attainment, while the returns to these characteristics were similar for both genders. Findings suggest that educational and occupational characteristics contribute to cognitive performance similarly in men and women, but discordant rates of these characteristics contribute to performance gaps.
中年后期认知表现的性别差异可能由教育程度或职业成就率的差异，或类似教育和职业对认知储备的性别模式回报来解释。我们在韩国这个历史上性别高度不平等的背景下检验了这些相互竞争的假设。数据来自2006年韩国老年纵向研究。我们纳入了45至65岁的成年人。使用分位数回归分解，我们将不同分位数的认知表现差异分解为由于教育和职业成就率导致的差异，以及由于这些特征的不同回报导致的差异。十分位数间基于性别的认知表现差异是由教育和职业成就率的差异驱动的，而这些特征对两性的回报相似。研究结果表明，教育和职业特征对男性和女性的认知表现贡献相似，但这些特征的不一致率导致了表现差距。
