Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper I evaluate the role of several mechanisms that may mediate the connection between children’s health during infancy and their educational achievement. Researchers have begun to pay more attention to the possibility that the relationship between health and socioeconomic status is bidirectional. While poor health has often been studied as a consequence of childhood and/or family socioeconomic conditions, it is also clear that illness and poor health during childhood have lasting socioeconomic effects. What is less clear is why poor health during childhood may influence educational outcomes in late childhood/young adulthood. Do children who are born with a health disadvantage exhibit lower academic achievement, for example, because they experience more health problems, exhibit slower cognitive development, or suffer from reduced expectations for their future, both from themselves and from their families? Understanding how unhealthy children may end up disadvantaged educationally is an important next step. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) Children and Young Adult files, I examine these questions. In the end, the paper seeks to understand the role of childhood health in creating and maintaining educational disparities among older children and young adults.