Social Determinants and Consequences of Children’s Non-Cognitive Skills: An Exploratory Analysis

Amy Hsin, Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY)
Yu Xie, University of Michigan

We assess the relative role of cognitive and non-cognitive skills in mediating the relationship between family SES and children’s academic achievement. We decompose the total effect of family background on children’s achievement into: (1) the direct effect of family background, (2) the indirect effect via cognitive skills, and (3) the indirect effect via non-cognitive skills. We analyze the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (i.e. approx. 8,000 children followed from pre-school to 8th grade) with structural equation modeling. The results confirm previous findings that non-cognitive skills are as important as cognitive skills in predicting children’s achievement. Surprisingly, unlike cognitive skills, family SES does not influence non-cognitive skills. The results suggest that non-cognitive skills, a critical determinant of children’s future attainment, are affected by factors uncorrelated with the commonly understood dimension of vertical social hierarchy. In contrast to cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills may be a more uniquely individual determinant of status attainment.