The relative importance of adolescent skills and behaviors for adult earnings: A cross-national study

Kathryn Duckworth (), Greg Duncan (), Katja Kokko (), Anna-Liisa Lyyra (), Mollyr Molly Metzger () and Sharon Simonton ()
Additional contact information
Kathryn Duckworth: Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL, UK.
Katja Kokko: Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 University of Jyvaskyla.
Anna-Liisa Lyyra: Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 University of Jyvaskyla.
Mollyr Molly Metzger: Northwestern University, 626 Library Place, Evanston, IL 60208.
Sharon Simonton: University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research, 426 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, MI.

No 12-03, DoQSS Working Papers from Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London

Abstract: Seeking convergent findings in five data sets from four countries, we assess the relative importance of adolescent skills and behaviors for completed schooling and labor market success in adulthood. We provide a framework for classifying "noncognitive" skills and use data designed by developmental psychologists to provide reliable measures of a variety of achievement and behavioral skills assessed between ages 13 and 16. Results show that adolescent achievement, particularly math achievement, is a stronger predictor of completed schooling than measures of noncognitive skills. Achievement skills also out-predict noncognitive skills with regard to adult earnings, although the differences are not as striking.

Keywords: adolescent skills; adolescent behaviors; adult earnings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 J45 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-06-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-edu, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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