We looked at the effects of parental characteristics on the cognition of children in the US and Great Britain," said Toby Parcel, a professor of sociology at NC State and corresponding author of a paper on the study. "Basically, we wanted to see whether the welfare state in Great Britain gave its children an advantage, phys.org wrote.
"Our earlier work looked at children's home environments and behavioral problems across the two countries, and we found that parents were equally important in both places," Parcel said. "In this study, we looked at three things: pre-reading skills and scores of reading and mathematics achievement."
For this study, the researchers analyzed two sets of data: A representative sample of 3,439 children aged between five and 13 in the US; and a representative sample of 1,309 children in Great Britain across the same age range.
"We were able to do this study because the two data sets are comparable — same age range, same timeframe and same measures of key variables," Parcel said.
Overall, the researchers found that parental characteristics were equally important in both countries in supporting stronger child cognition. However, there were some exceptions.
For example, the researchers found that children of single-mother families were at a disadvantage for verbal facility in the US, but not in Great Britain. Similarly, they found that a larger family size was associated with lower math scores in the US, but not in Great Britain.
"This may indicate that parents have fewer resources per child in larger families, and that the government in Great Britain has instituted policies that help compensate for that — whereas those policies are lacking in the US," Parcel said. "Those policies could possibly include the child allowances and National Health Service, which may help parents use their own resources to better support child cognition."
The researchers also identified many ways in which the US and Great Britain are similar. In both countries, low birth weight, health limitations and larger family size were associated with lower verbal facility. Child health limitations were also linked to lower math scores in both countries, and health limitations, male gender and larger family size were all associated with lower reading achievement in both countries. The mother's cognitive ability and stronger home environments were associated with higher verbal facility, math scores and reading achievement in both countries.
"Parents are equally important in both societies, and policies can't replace good parents," Parcel said. "But there do appear to be areas where policies can support families and help children succeed."