The Effects of Mothers' Decisions to Enroll in Additional Education On Their Children's Cognitive Outcomes

While the strong link between maternal education and children’s outcomes is well-established (Sirin, 2005), how children are affected by their mothers’ decisions to enroll in additional education or training is less studied. Understanding the implications for children’s development is important as non-traditional educational pathways are becoming more common, with mothers increasingly returning to school after the birth of their children. For instance, in the U.S., 23% of college undergraduates in 2008 were parents (Goldrick-Rab & Sorenson, 2010).

Previous research demonstrates beneficial effects of mothers increasing their education for their children’s cognitive outcomes (Magnuson, 2007). However, mothers who decide to participate in, or complete, additional education likely differ from those who do not in important ways. In this research we use propensity score analysis to address this selection bias and explore the effects of different types of increases in maternal education on children’s cognitive outcomes.

Using a sample of families from the Head Start Impact Study we compare mothers who do not report any changes in education between when their child was aged 3 or 4 and in kindergarten (N = 919) to: a) mothers who report increases in educational attainment (e.g. gaining a high school diploma, N = 262); b) mothers who report attending or enrolling in educational courses in at least one year (N = 669); and c) mothers who report attending or enrolling in educational courses in at least two years (N = 272). We use nearest neighbor propensity score matching with replacement to identify comparable counterfactual groups of mothers who did not increase their education, and then conduct propensity score weighted  regressions to identify effects on children’s Woodcock Johnson-III Letter-Word Identification scores in first grade.

Propensity score matching improved the balance of the groups on a substantial number of covariates, including children’s prior achievement, demographic characteristics and parenting variables. Preliminary results suggest that only the children of mothers who reported enrolling in at least two years of additional education or training experience cognitive benefits (b = 6.86, se = 2.94, t =2.33, p < .02), highlighting the importance of understanding how different levels of increase in maternal education affect children. The policy implications for providing low income mothers with education and training programs will be discussed.