Early Childhood Behavior Problems and the Gender Gap in Educational Attainment in the United States.

ABSTRACT: Why do men in the United States today complete less schooling than women? One reason may be gender differences in early self-regulation and pro-social behaviors. Scholars have found that boys' early behavioral disadvantage predicts their lower average academic achievement during elementary school. In this study, I examine longer-term effects: do these early behavioral differences predict boys' lower rates of high school graduation, college enrollment and graduation, and fewer years of schooling completed in adulthood? If so, through what pathways are they linked? I leverage a nationally representative sample of children born in the 1980s to women in their early-to-mid-20s and followed into adulthood. I use decomposition and path analytic tools to show that boys' higher average levels of be

SUBMITTER: Owens J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6208359 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature