2026-09-23T18:10:15Zhttps://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/requestoai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/3011902025-12-19T21:35:08Zcom_1810_205873com_1810_256063col_1810_219498
Modelling the Relationship between Parental Behaviour and Childhood Skill Development: Empirical Evidence from the UK and Canada
10.17863/CAM.48268
Brown, Ashton Mary Pittendreigh
Vignoles, Anna
000000029268212X
This longitudinal, quantitative methods research defines a theoretical framework
to model the developmental trajectories of cognitive and non-cognitive skills in primary
school children and capture the role that parenting plays in the joint evolution of these
skills. This framework draws on theoretical models and empirical findings from the fields
of economics, psychology and education. Specifically, this thesis adapts the economic
framework of Cunha and Heckman (2007, 2008) to separately measure the effect of
financial resources and of inputs to development in the form of parenting behaviours; to
allow for literature from psychology and education to aid in the identification of multiple
types of such parental inputs; and to examine the differing impacts from each of these
types of investment. Distinguishing between financial investments in children and other
parental inputs to development is critical for the creation of public policies which address
existing socio-economic disparities in child development.
Applying this proposed framework to nationally representative, longitudinal survey
data from the UK and Canada, yields empirical estimates of skill formation in two contexts.
These studies demonstrate how the model can be adapted to examine various aspects
of parenting or to accommodate different types of longitudinal measures. Additionally,
each empirical application provides precise estimates of how cognitive and non-cognitive
skills evolve from birth to adolescence; and specific measurements of how the time that
parents spend with their children impacts skill development.
In both the UK and Canadian data, three parenting constructs are identified.
Each of these inputs has a significant effect on the development of both cognitive and
non-cognitive skills, with differing periods of sensitivity to each type of parental input.
Unlike past research which finds that as children age parental input becomes ineffective
in promoting cognitive development, the results presented in this thesis find that some
types of parental input are most effective for cognitive development in early childhood
while other types have measurable effects on cognitive ability in older children.
University of Cambridge
2020-05-16
Thesis
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
en
My tuition and maintenance were jointly funded by the Cambridge Trusts, the Canada-UK Foundation and Fitzwilliam College. There are no contractual arrangements for my thesis or research.
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parenting
skill development
cognitive skills
non-cognitive skills
developmental trajectories
quantitative
longitudinal data
millennium cohort study
National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth