Code for Exploring the Relationship Between Fathers’ Childcare Involvement and Children’s Educational Attainment, Using the Millennium Cohort Study, Early Years Foundation Stage Profile and National Pupil Database, 2000-2008

Norman, Helen (2024). Code for Exploring the Relationship Between Fathers’ Childcare Involvement and Children’s Educational Attainment, Using the Millennium Cohort Study, Early Years Foundation Stage Profile and National Pupil Database, 2000-2008. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-856733

Fathers spend more time on childcare than ever before (e.g. Fatherhood Institute 2017) but the implications of this on children are unclear. Fathers' childcare involvement should have a positive effect on children's cognitive and educational outcomes (Lamb 2010) but there is little direct evidence to support this. Our study proposes to conduct the first longitudinal analysis in England that explores the relationship between fathers' childcare involvement and their children's attainment at primary school.

Primary education is a pivotal stage of child development because it is the point at which children first make the transition from the home environment to school. Achievements at this early stage can shape educational pathways and thus future employment prospects and opportunities. Previous research with mothers or 'parents' more generally suggests that early parental involvement is critical for child development (e.g. Hsin and Felfe 2014) but we do not know whether fathers impact their children's education differently to mothers, or whether paternal care is particularly important for boys, girls or at certain stages in the child's life regardless of gender. There is an urgent need to explore the potential effect of paternal childcare involvement given the Department for Education (2018) now report that over a quarter of children in England are not primary 'school-ready' because they fall below the expected level for communication and literacy, whilst UNICEF (2018) ranks the UK in the bottom third of 41 of the world's richest countries for inequalities in primary school education. We propose that paternal pre- or school age care could help to support progression in particular academic subjects, close gender gaps in attainment and even moderate the detrimental effects of poverty.

Using household data from the Millennium Cohort Survey (MCS) linked with official educational records of children from the National Pupil Database (NPD) in England, we will explore whether, how and at what stage fathers' childcare involvement affects children's attainment at primary school. The MCS collects data at four relevant life stages: pre-school (9 months and 3 years), school entry (age 5), in the middle (age 7) and at the end (age 11) of school. Our analysis will track longer, more comprehensive primary school educational trajectories than has been previously possible (e.g. Cano et al. 2019), focussing on how pre-school and school-age paternal childcare involvement affects children's attainment in core (e.g. Maths, English, Science) and non-core (e.g. Art, ICT) subjects at the three key stages of primary school (ages 5, 7 and 11).

The research questions are:

1. Does paternal involvement increase primary school attainment for children? And specifically:
(a) How important is fathers' pre-school involvement?
(b) Does the sex of the child moderate the effect of paternal involvement on educational attainment?
(c) Does father involvement moderate the known negative effects of poverty?

2. Which kinds of paternal-childcare activities have the strongest effect on a child's primary school attainment, and at what stage of the child's life is this most important?

The project will make an original contribution to the literature, and contribute to scholarly and policy debates, by being the first UK-based study identifying the ways in which fathers may narrow attainment gaps and/or moderate the known effects of gender and socio-economic status. The findings will be relevant to a range of stakeholders including policymakers, practitioners, teachers and families. Our impact strategy has been developed with the Head of Communications at the Fatherhood Institute (project Co-I) who will draw on existing contacts within the school, early years and health sectors to involve them in a method of coproduction that steers the analysis and turns the results into relevant and impactful resources that are tailored to their specific needs.

Data description (abstract)

The Paternal Involvement and its Effects on Children's Education (PIECE) project explored whether and how fathers' childcare involvement had an association with children's educational attainment at the start of primary school (when children were about age 5), part-way through primary school (when children were about age 7) and at the end of primary school (at age 11). Structural Equation Models were run to explore the relationships between fathers and mothers' involvement, children's cognitive behaviour (measured by the strengths and difficulties questionnaire) and children's attainment in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (at age 5) and Key Stage Assessments (at age 7 and 11). (Please note that Age 7 and 11 data is secure from the National Pupil Database so datasets for that modelling have not been deposited here). Findings show how fathers' and mothers' involvement have different effects on a child's education and cognitive behaviour, which suggests that both parents bring something important and different to the child's educational development as they progress through primary school.

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