Social origins, cognitive ability, educational attainment and Social Class Position in Britain: A birth cohort and life-course perspective

The aim of this Summary Report is to show how social origins, when viewed in a comprehensive, multidimensional way, affect the educational and labour market attainments of individuals whose cognitive ability at a relatively early stage in their educational histories is at a similar level. The main findings of the report are: (1) Children of similar cognitive ability have very different chances of educational success, depending on their parents’ economic, socio-cultural and educational resources; (2) For children born in the early 1990s, parents’ economic resources are somewhat less important while parents’ socio-cultural and educational resources are more important in affecting their educational attainment than for children born in the late 1950s or the early 1970s; (3) About half of the difference in educational attainment between children from advantaged and disadvantaged parental backgrounds is due to a difference in their cognitive ability, while the other half is due to other factors. (4) Obtaining formal qualifications is only one channel for upward mobility for high- ability individuals of disadvantaged backgrounds; there are other channels that are more directly related to cognitive ability, such as job training programmes, promotions or becoming self-employed in higher-level occupations.