Protocol - Child-Reported Parental Education Attainment
Description
This protocol includes two questions from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health (Add Health) that ask the respondent to report on the highest level of education achieved by his or her residential parents (i.e., while growing up). The question may be administered via interview or through self-report questionnaire.
Specific Instructions
This protocol may be administered by interview or through self-report questionnaire. The question is asked separately for reports of father education and for reports of mother education. Additionally, the measure can be asked for residential parents, as well as nonresidential biological parents (where applicable). Residential parents may include biological, step-, adoptive, or foster mothers and fathers. If the respondent indicates that he or she lived with a nonbiological parent during childhood, the question can be repeated for the relevant nonresidential biological parent(s). This measure is not recommended for use in respondents who grew up in unusual situations (e.g., raised primarily by other adult relatives or in group homes). If direct assessment of parental education is possible (i.e., the parents can be asked directly), the educational attainment protocol in the Demographics Working Group (WG) may be used instead. The Social Environments WG recommends that this protocol can be used on adolescents and adults aged older than 16 years old if the lead-in is modified to refer to the resident mother or father when the respondent was aged 16 years old.
Availability
Protocol
This question is about the woman who functions as a mother in the respondent’s household; she could be the biological mother, stepmother, foster mother, or adoptive mother or, perhaps, a grandmother or aunt. If there is no such woman, the question is skipped.
1. How far in school did she go?
1[ ]eighth grade or less
2[ ]more than eighth grade, but did not graduate from high school
3[ ]went to a business, trade, or vocational school instead of high school
4[ ]high school graduate
5[ ]completed a GED
6[ ]went to a business, trade, or vocational school after high school
7[ ]went to college, but did not graduate
8[ ]graduated from a college or university
9[ ]professional training beyond a four-year college or university
10[ ]she never went to school
11[ ]she went to school, but R doesn’t know what level
12[ ]R doesn’t know if she went to school
96[ ]refused
97[ ]legitimate skip
98[ ]don’t know
This question is about the man who functions as a father in the respondent’s household. If there is no such man, the question is skipped.
1. How far in school did he go?
1[ ]eighth grade or less
2[ ]more than eighth grade, but did not graduate from high school
3[ ]went to a business, trade, or vocational school instead of high school
4[ ]high school graduate
5[ ]completed a GED
6[ ]went to a business, trade, or vocational school after high school
7[ ]went to college, but did not graduate
8[ ]graduated from a college or university
9[ ]professional training beyond a four-year college or university
10[ ]he never went to school
11[ ]he went to school, but R doesn’t know what level
12[ ]R doesn’t know if he went to school
96[ ]refused
97[ ]legitimate skip
98[ ]don’t know
R = respondent
Personnel and Training Required
No specific training is needed if data are collected through a self-administered questionnaire. The interviewer must be trained to conduct personal interviews with individuals from the general population. The interviewer must be trained and found to be competent (i.e., tested by an expert) at the completion of personal interviews. The interviewer should be trained to prompt respondents further if a "don’t know" response is provided.
Equipment Needs
These questions can be administered in a computerized or noncomputerized format (i.e., paper-and-pencil instrument). Computer software is necessary to develop computer-assisted instruments. The interviewer will require a laptop computer or handheld computer to administer or to allow the respondent to self-administer a computer-assisted questionnaire.
Requirements
| Requirement Category | Required |
|---|---|
| Major equipment | No |
| Specialized training | No |
| Specialized requirements for biospecimen collection | No |
| Average time of greater than 15 minutes in an unaffected individual | No |
Mode of Administration
Self-administered or interviewer-administered questionnaire
Lifestage
Child, Adolescent
Participants
Adolescents, aged 11-16 years old
Selection Rationale
The National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health (AddHealth) protocol was selected because it was previously used in one of the earliest and largest twin studies of gene X environment interaction for adolescent cognitive ability (Rowe et al., 1999) and shows high levels of agreement (r = 0.81) across independent ratings from siblings in the same family.
Language
Chinese, English
Standards
| Standard | Name | ID | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) | Child report parent educ attain proto | 63013-7 | LOINC |
| caDSR Form | PhenX PX210201 - Childreported Parental Education Attain A0b6 | 6196348 | caDSR Form |
Derived Variables
None
Process and Review
The Expert Review Panel #2 (ERP 2) reviewed the measures in the Demographics, Environmental Exposures, and Social Environments domains.
Guidance from ERP 2 includes:
• Revised descriptions of the measure
Back-compatible: no changes to Data Dictionary
Previous version in Toolkit archive (link)
Protocol Name from Source
National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health (Add Health), 1995
Source
This question is from National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health (Add Health), a project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth).
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (1998). National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Chapel Hill, NC: Author. Wave I Adolescent In-Home Interview. Question 1 from Sections 14 and 15.
General References
Miech, R. A., & Hauser, R. M. (2001). Socioeconomic status (SES) and health at midlife: A comparison of educational attainment with occupation-based indicators. Annals of Epidemiology, 11, 75-84.
Rowe, D. C., Jacobson, K. C., & Van den Oord, E. J. C. G. (1999). Genetic and environmental influences on vocabulary IQ: Parental education as moderator. Child Development, 70, 1151-1162.
Protocol ID
210201
Variables
Export Variables| Variable Name | Variable ID | Variable Description | dbGaP Mapping | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PX210201_Father_Education | ||||
| PX210201020000 | This question is about the man who functions more | Variable Mapping | ||
| PX210201_Mother_Education | ||||
| PX210201010000 | This question is about the woman who more | Variable Mapping | ||
Measure Name
Child-Reported Parental Education Attainment
Release Date
October 8, 2010
Definition
This measure is a questionnaire to identify a parent’s highest level of education obtained.
Purpose
Parental education is correlated with income and job attainment and can be used as a proxy for assessing socioeconomic status in the family of origin. Many studies show that socioeconomic status at different points in life is associated with diverse aspects of health and cognition.
Keywords
Social environments, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NICHD, education, deprivation, income, education level, National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health, Add Health
Measure Protocols
| Protocol ID | Protocol Name |
|---|---|
| 210201 | Child-Reported Parental Education Attainment |
Publications
Feraco, T. and Cona, G. (2024) Happy children! A network of psychological and environmental factors associated with the development of positive affect in 9-13 children PLoS One. 2024 September; 19(9): e0307560. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307560
Kosyluk, K., et al. (2024) Mental Distress, Label Avoidance, and Use of a Mental Health Chatbot: Results From a US Survey. JMIR Formative Research. 2024 April; 8(17). doi: 10.2196/45959
Olfson, M., et al. (2023) Prevalence and Correlates of Mental Disorders in Children Aged 9 and 10 Years: Results From the ABCD Study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 2023 August; 62(8): 908-919. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2023.04.005
Olfson, M., et al. (2023) Treatment of US Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. JAMA Network Open. 2023 April; 6(4). doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.10999
Loring, D. W., et al. (2022) Rationale and Design of the National Neuropsychology Network. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. 2022 January; 28(1): 11-Jan. doi: 10.1017/S1355617721000199
Young Hye, K., et al. (2021) Predicting multilingual effects on executive function and individual connectomes in children: An ABCD study. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2021 December; 118(49): 1-11. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2110811118
Schettini, E., et al. (2021) Internalizing-externalizing comorbidity and regional brain volumes in the ABCD study. Development and Psychopathology. 2021 December; 33(5): 1620-1633.
Barch, D. M., et al. (2021) Demographic and mental health assessments in the adolescent brain and cognitive development study: Updates and age-related trajectories. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 2021 December; 52: 101031. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.101031
Aguinaldo, L. D., et al. (2021) Preliminary analysis of low-level alcohol use and suicidality with children in the adolescent brain and cognitive development (ABCD) baseline cohort. Psychiatry Research. 2021 May; 299: 5. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2021.113825
Walsh J.J., et al. (2020) Associations between duration and type of electronic screen use and cognition in US children. Computers in Human Behavior. 2020 February; 108: 9. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2020.106312
Knudsen, K. S., et al. (2019) Is psychopathology elevated in Big-C visual artists and scientists? Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 2019 May; 96: 20-28. doi: 10.1037/abn0000416
Danos, D., et al. (2018) Increased Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Associated With Neighborhood Concentrated Disadvantage. Front Oncol. 2018 September; 2018(8): 375. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2018.00375
Barch, D. M., et al. (2018) Demographic, physical and mental health assessments in the adolescent brain and cognitive development study: Rationale and description. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2018 August; 32: 55-66. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2017.10.010