Cognitive consequences of the timing of puberty

Abstract
In this paper, we use British cohort data to study the degree to which children at different stages of pubertal development at age 11 and 16 differ in their cognitive and behavioral outcomes at age 16 as well as in their completed educational attainment and adult earnings. Controlling for age 7 cognitive skills, region of birth, father’s socioeconomic status and parents’ education, we show that boys’ late pubertal development is associated with lower levels of cognitive skills at 16, lower final educational attainment, and lower earnings in adulthood. For girls we find a similar negative relationship between late puberty and cognitive skills, but only imprecise relationships between the timing of puberty and adult outcomes. We fail to find evidence of strong associations with either motivation or problem behavior in adolescence for either gender, suggesting a more direct link between pubertal and cognitive development.
Main Authors
Format
Articles Research article
Published
2018
Series
Subjects
Publication in research information system
Publisher
Elsevier
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201806183256Use this for linking
Review status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0927-5371
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2018.05.001
Language
English
Published in
Labour Economics
Citation
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0Open Access
Funder(s)
Research Council of Finland
Funding program(s)
Strategisen tutkimuksen ohjelmat STN, SA
Strategic research programmes, AoF
Research Council of Finland
Additional information about funding
This work was supported by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland [grant number: 293445]. The authors appreciate the useful help and insightful comments from Sharon Simonton, Jonas Vlachos, Roope Uusitalo, Petri Böckerman, Mika Kortelainen, participants in various workshops and conferences, as well as from the editor and the two anonymous referees.
Copyright© 2018 Elsevier B.V.

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