The
Structure of Achievement and Behavior Across Middle Childhood
Lori Kowaleski-Jones and
Greg J. Duncan
Abstract
This research uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of
Youth (NLSY) to describe and model developmental trajectories across
middle childhood. Our sample consists of approximately 1,000 children
of NLSY women who were age 6-7 in either 1986 or 1988. Assessments
of PIAT math and reading scores and the mother-reported Behavior
Problem Index in 1986, 1988, 1990 and 1992 provide data for middle-child
trajectories of children age 6-7 in 1986. Assessments in 1988, 1990,
1992 and 1994 provide data for children age 6-7 in 1988.
We use the raw-score form of these data to estimate LISREL-based
models of the autoregressive structure of these data. As with other
samples, average math and reading achievement trajectories are parabolic
for NLSY children, with scores increasing at a decreasing rate over
this period. Average behavior-problem scores are basically flat.
Behind these average shapes is extreme diversity in level, and in
some cases, slopes of, individual trajectories, and a pronounced
tendency for above average changes between two assessments to be
followed by opposed-signed changes in the subsequent period.
Estimates from our structural models showed great heterogeneity
in the average level of achievement and behavior for all three outcomes
and heterogeneous slopes for reading scores as well. Boys but not
girls were found to have heterogeneous slopes for math and behavior
problems, while girls but not boys showed a significantly higher
degree of persistence if shocked off of their long run trajectories.
Lori Kowaleski-Jones, Postdoctoral
Fellow, Institute for Policy Research Greg J. Duncan, School of Education and Social
Policy, Northwestern University
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