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Report
Care

The impact of attitudes and aspirations on educational attainment and participation

Do the attitudes, aspirations and behaviours of children and parents influence educational attainment and participation?

Written by:
Stephen Gorard et al.
Date published:

Parental involvement in their child's learning is the only area showing robust evidence of causation, and only as a cause of attainment (not participation).

This study reviews all existing evidence on a range of areas, from parental expectations to child substance abuse. The review:

  • presents a model of causation for social science;
  • provides information from almost 170,000 pieces of evidence;
  • summarises the effects of 13 different kinds of belief and behaviour.

The appendices for this report are available on the University of Birmingham's website.

A 'roundup' of the key messages from this programme of work is also available.

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