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BEDREHELSE-Bedre helse og livskvalitet

HEALTH-GAP. Health, maturity, and the gender gap in education

Alternative title: HEALTH-GAP. Helse, modning og kjønnsforskjeller i utdanningsprestasjoner

Awarded: NOK 14.8 mill.

Project Number:

273659

Application Type:

Project Period:

2018 - 2023

Location:

Partner countries:

Educational attainment has increased over many years. However, since around 1980 an increasing gender gap in educational attainment has developed in favour of women. In 29 of 34 OECD countries, more than 50% and up to 70% of all students graduating from secondary education in 2015 were women. In Norway, girls are outperforming boys in lower secondary school and throughout the educational system. The background of the project was that the causes of the gender differences in education - and the consequences thereof - are unknown. Questions related to gender differences in school have gained increased public attention during the last year, in particular because of the Stoltenberg Commission and its report (Official Norwegian Report 2019:3). We have continued to inform the public debate in the mass media. We have argued that a scheme of progression-based admission in upper secondary school should be tested. In 2023, based on the findings in the project, we have argued that a flexible school start should be systematically tried out. By studying Norwegian children participating in the MoBa study, we found that girls are ahead of boys in terms of reading, math, and social behaviour even before they start school (Brandlistuen et al., 2020). We have also found that low education among parents is possibly a cause of problems that are more common in boys than in girls, namely children's symptoms of ADHD and weaker school performance (Torvik et al., 2020). We have studied the relationship between pubertal development and grades at the age of 16 in data from the British study TEDS (Torvik et al., 2021). We found that early puberty, measured as the timing of the growth spurt, was associated with better school results for both boys and girls. Approximately one-fourth of the gender difference in school results could be related to differences in growth spurt, but part of this relationship can be explained by differences before puberty and shared genetic risk factors. We have investigated other potential causes of gender differences in school, but found none as clear as maturity and puberty. In an article (Nordmo et al., 2022), we examine whether 176 health variables explain school performance. We find that a number of health conditions are associated with reduced school performance, and that ADHD is the diagnosis that most significantly contributes to reduced school results. However, ADHD cannot explain the gender differences in school. Although fewer girls are affected, those girls who have an ADHD diagnosis are hit harder than boys. In another article (Sunde et al., 2022), we specifically focus on the school trajectory among children with ADHD. We find that ADHD is associated with lower grades in all subjects, but that the difference between students with and without ADHD in some cases is about as large as the gender differences. That is, girls with ADHD perform about as well in Norwegian as boys without ADHD. We have also used genetic data to investigate how the school environment interacts with genetics. In two articles (Cheesman et al., 2022a, 2022b), we find that schools to varying degrees manage to counteract genetic predisposition for doing poorly in school or having ADHD. We have studied two outcomes in adulthood: partnering and premature death. Among boys, low grades are associated with a lower likelihood of finding a partner, and this association increases with age (Wörn et al.). In early adulthood, women with low grades have a slightly higher chance of finding a partner, but among 30-year-old women, those with high grades most often have a partner. The risk of premature death is strongly associated with primary school points and with gender (Reme et al., 2023). Boys and children with low grades have a higher risk of dying early. If one adjusts for their own primary school points, the income and education of parents no longer have any significance. The main cause of death among boys with low grades is death by overdose. Lastly, we have studied the consequences of the school psychology offices conducting maturity tests before school start in the 1950s to the 1970s (Flatø et al., 2023). Children who were judged to be immature for their age were advised to delay school start by one year. This testing meant that more boys and children born late in the year postponed school start. By the end of the 1970s and the 1980s, the practice became stricter. Today, almost all children start school the year they turn six, and only 1% have delayed school start. Our study shows the effects of this. As adults, there was higher income among children who were born in the fall, if they were covered by a school psychological office. On the other hand, men achieved shorter education after the practice was tightened. The effects were greatest among children from families with low income. It is uncertain exactly what effects a reintroduction of maturity testing and flexible school start would have in today's society.

Prosjektbeskrivelsen nevner tre målgrupper: akademia, myndigheter og befolkningen. Prosjektet har hatt virkninger for disse gruppene. Overfor akademia kommer virkningene fra prosjektet gjennom vitenskapelige publikasjoner og presentasjoner av disse. Vi har satt fokus på modenhet, både før skolealder og i puberteten. Vi har funnet måter å måle pubertet på som gjør det meningsfullt å studere kjønnsforskjeller. Videre har vi gjennom våre vitenskapelige publikasjoner har vi vist at kjønnsforskjeller i skolen er verdt å studere som et tema i seg selv, og ikke bare forhold som skal kontrolleres for. Vi har også kartlagt en reform – innføringen av skolepsykologiske kontorer – som hittil ikke har blitt brukt i forskning. Prosjektet kan også ha virkninger gjennom myndighetene. Vi har presentert resultatene av prosjektet for både ansatte i Kunnskapsdepartementet og Helsedepartementet. Gjennom et åpent avslutningsseminar nådde vi brukere i ulike etater, kommuner og interesseorganisasjoner. Dette har gjort at prosjektets tema har blitt satt på dagsorden. To av prosjektmedlemmene er også medlemmer i det regjeringsoppnevnte mannsutvalget. Befolkningen for øvrig kan også oppleve virkninger av prosjektet, i hovedsak gjennom vår deltakelse i den offentlige debatten. Vi har skrevet kronikker, deltatt i debatter i aviser, på radio og TV og formidlet forskning. Dette har ført til at stor offentlig oppmerksomhet rundt kjønnsforskjeller i skolen og diskusjon om dette. Det siste året har vårt forslag om systematisk utprøving av fleksibel skolestart fått mest oppmerksomhet. Langsiktige effekter av prosjektet kan ikke fastslås med sikkerhet. Det er likevel sannsynlig at den økte kunnskapen og bevisstheten om kjønnsforskjeller i skolen kan bidra til innføring av tiltak som bedrer gjennomføring av utdanning og dermed reduserer utenforskap. Vi har gjennom prosjektet undersøkt sosiale forskjeller parallelt med kjønnsforskjeller. Vi har argumentert for at skolen i større grad bør tillate individuell variasjon i gjennomføring og tidspunkt for oppstart. Langsiktige effekter kan komme av at denne kunnskapen er meddelt akademia, myndigheter og befolkningen.

The background for the project is the recent change in educational attainment for men and women. Women have caught up and surpassed men in educational performance in most high income societies. Girls are outperforming boys in secondary schools at the time of puberty development. Girls are on the average almost two years earlier in physical maturing. We want to understand the relationship between the timing of physical maturity and cognitive functioning, and hypothesize that grades in secondary schools are to a large extent determining future educational attainment. There is a large literature that links higher education to better health. However, it is not known to which extent the present gender gap in education leads to worse health outcomes for men compared to women. To respond to these challenges, we will use existing data in three cohorts, the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, YOUNG-HUNT and Fit Futures in Tromsø, to measure the timing of maturity and link that timing, within and between genders, to cognitive functioning, educational attainment and health. In addition, we will make extensive use of registries. The project will be placed in the newly funded Centre of Excellence at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, in close collaboration with national and international research institutions.

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Funding scheme:

BEDREHELSE-Bedre helse og livskvalitet