Marks Gary Neil
Department of Sociology, Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia.
J Intell. 2023 Aug 21;11(8):169. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence11080169.
Modernization and meritocratic theories contend that with modernization, socioeconomic background (SES) becomes less important for educational and socioeconomic attainments, while cognitive ability becomes more important. However, the evidence is mixed. This study investigates if the effects of SES and cognitive ability on educational and labor market outcomes have changed in the US by comparing two longitudinal cohort studies: the 1960 Project Talent and the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. For all outcomes-grades-at-school, educational and occupational attainment, and income-cognitive ability clearly has stronger effects than a composite and broad measure of SES. The effects of cognitive ability for grades-at-school and income are notably stronger in the more recent cohort, whereas its effects on educational and occupational attainment are similar. SES effects, net of ability, for educational and occupational attainment are only moderate and for school grades and income are very small (β < 0.10). However, for each outcome SES effects are stronger in the more recent NLSY79 cohort. This is attributed to ability being a stronger influence on the educational and socioeconomic attainments of NLSY79 parents compared to Project Talent parents. These analyses suggest that in the US, cognitive ability has long been an important, and SES a much weaker, influence on educational and subsequent socioeconomic outcomes.
现代化理论和精英主义理论认为，随着现代化进程的推进，社会经济背景（SES）对教育成就和社会经济成就的重要性降低，而认知能力的重要性则增加。然而，证据并不一致。本研究通过比较两项纵向队列研究——1960年的“人才计划”和1979年的“全国青年纵向调查”，来探究在美国，SES和认知能力对教育和劳动力市场结果的影响是否发生了变化。对于所有结果——在校成绩、教育程度和职业成就以及收入——认知能力显然比综合且宽泛的SES衡量指标具有更强的影响。在最近的队列中，认知能力对在校成绩和收入的影响尤为显著，而其对教育程度和职业成就的影响则相似。扣除能力因素后，SES对教育程度和职业成就的影响仅为中等程度，对在校成绩和收入的影响则非常小（β<0.10）。然而，对于每个结果，SES在最近的NLSY79队列中的影响更强。这归因于与“人才计划”的父母相比，能力对NLSY79父母的教育和社会经济成就的影响更大。这些分析表明，在美国，认知能力长期以来一直是影响教育及后续社会经济结果的重要因素，而SES的影响则弱得多。
