ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF VOCABULARY AND MATHEMATICS ABILITIES DURING EARLY ADULTHOOD

MARIA FACCHINA OWINGS, Purdue University

Abstract

This study was undertaken to examine how certain broadly-defined environmental influences affected the development of vocabulary and mathematics abilities of young adults, after they had completed their high school education. The research was motivated by the recognition that high school graduates are faced with different school, work, and family experiences, which offer (or fail to offer) opportunities to further develop basic vocabulary and mathematics abilities acquired during compulsory schooling. Data for the study were taken from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72). A subsample of 2,100 students from the NLS-72 sample was analyzed. For each student, available data included scores on standardized vocabulary and mathematics tests taken in 1972 and 1980, background and demographic characteristics, and measures of three environmental influences, namely, higher education attainments, work experiences, and family commitments, which occurred between 1972 and 1980. The relative influence of each of the three environmental factors on 1980 test performance was assessed by means of multiple regression analysis. This procedure permitted the relative effects of postsecondary educational attainments, occupational involvement, and family experiences to be evaluated, while controlling for initial test performance and social status differences among sample members. Separate analyses were performed for each dependent variable, namely, vocabulary and mathematics tests, and separate regression equations were estimated for black men, black women, white men, and white women. Results showed that, with initial ability and social status controlled, the most important environmental influence on 1980 test performance was the level of college education attained. Further, during the eight-year period following high school graduation, the average young adult, regardless of sex or race, improved his/her vocabulary knowledge and lost some mathematics ability. However, sex differences in mathematics test performance, which favored men, increased over the eight-year period, as did race differences in vocabulary test performance, which favored whites, even after controlling for college education.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Educational psychology

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