Enduring effects of education on cognitive skills, prestige of occupation, and affective behaviors of self-concept and locus of control

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1988
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Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Abstract

Measuring long-term effects of education has been an obvious concern for both educators and researchers. There has been a considerable body of research on effects of education on cognitive skills, prestige of occupation, self-concept, and locus of control. However, there are some limitations to previous studies, either because of short-term perspectives or because of lack of controls for earlier measures of intelligence, self-concept, or locus of control.

This study served to estimate models of the enduring effects of education on cognitive skills and its subsequent effect on prestige of occupation. In addition, the study estimated models of long-term effects of education on affective behaviors of self-concept and locus of control. Since this was a longitudinal study, it was able to examine enduring effects of education. It had the additional strength of controlling for earlier measures of intelligence, self-concept, and locus of control.

This study showed that the long-term enduring effect of education on occupational achievement was substantial. In addition, education increased cognitive skills. However, with a longer-term perspective including a prior measure of aptitude, the effect was much less than those reported in previous studies. As far as affective behaviors of self-concept and locus of control were concerned, the enduring effects of education were nearly nonexistent.

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