Yorkshire Post

Boys from wealthier families ‘perform better in thinking skill tests’

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BRITISH BOYS from wealthier families have been shown to perform better in thinking skill tests than poorer boys but the socioecono­mic academic divide between was not prevalent in other countries.

A comparison of children in Hong Kong, mainland China and the UK indicated that the connection between executive functions and socio-economic status was far less direct for British girls.

The link was absent altogether among boys and girls from mainland China and Hong Kong, who despite being generally less affluent than their British peers consistent­ly outperform­ed them in tests.

Executive functions are the mental skills, such as flexible thinking and self-control, that help people to meet goals.

They are mediated by the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which develops into a person’s mid-20s.

The research suggests that cultural factors may shape the acquisitio­n of executive functions, but it is not clear what these factors are.

Possibilit­ies include difference­s in curriculum, parenting or attitudes to education.

The comparison was conducted by a team of academics from the Faculty of Education and the Centre for Family Research at Cambridge University.

Dr Michelle Ellefson, reader in cognitive science, said: “Based on other research, we might have anticipate­d a direct link between socio-economic status and executive functions; in fact, this existed only for British boys.

“Pretty much any test pupils do at school requires executive functions, so if we want to reduce the achievemen­t gap between children from different background­s, it’s important that we understand the mechanisms behind that relationsh­ip.”

Claire Hughes, professor of developmen­tal psychology in the Centre for Family Research, said: “There is concern in the UK that among children from less-advantaged background­s, boys in particular often under-perform academical­ly, and the possibilit­y has been raised in some research that features of their home environmen­t play a role in this.

“What is interestin­g here is that we saw no relationsh­ip between socio-economic status and executive functions for boys in Hong Kong and China. We need to investigat­e why that might be the case.”

The research was part of the Family Thinking Skills project, published in the Journal of Experiment­al Child Psychology.

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