Early Cognitive and Social Skills Affect Exam Results

Poor test results by the age of sixteen are associated with a mix of underdeveloped social and cognitive abilities during childhood; individuals who experience these problems throughout their youth are more than four times as likely to not pass at least 5 GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). Based on a comprehensive set of nationally representative data, the findings imply that 17% of 16-year-olds' GCSE exam failures may be caused by cognitive and behavioral problems in childhood (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Impact of child socioemotional and cognitive development on exam results in adolescence: findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

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Early Skills and Academic Success

Years spent in school are important for developing skills and capacity as well as for exam scores. Employment, economic well-being, social support, and health behaviors are all influenced by this development, which in turn has an impact on health.

Exam results at age 16 also enhance early adult financial, vocational, and social-emotional outcomes regardless of subsequent educational achievement, highlighting the significance of skill development in the classroom.

While the development of cognitive skills, such as thinking, learning, memory, and reasoning, and socioemotional behaviours, such as social skills and self-control, during childhood have independently been associated with educational outcomes, the potential impact of their co-development isn’t clear.

Childhood cognitive and behavioural problems were categorised into 4 previously identified patterns:

• No problems (76.5%)
• Late emergence of socioemotional problems, from the age of 7 (10%)
• Early emergence of cognitive and socioemotional problems between the ages of 3 and 7 (just over 8.5%)
• Persistent cognitive and socioemotional problems, from the ages of 3 to 14 (5%)

Cognitive development was measured using standard cognition tests and socioemotional behaviour was described by parents in questionnaires when their children were aged 3, 5, 7, 11 and 14.

Income and Parental Education Influences Exam Success

The researchers then looked at which of these children achieved a standard pass (grade 4) in 5 or more GCSE subjects at the age of 16, adjusting for potentially influential factors, such as the child’s gender, mother’s ethnicity and educational attainment, and household income.

The odds of achieving a standard pass in at least 5 GCSEs were higher in girls than in boys and rose in tandem with the mother’s educational attainment and household income level. But childhood behaviours were strongly linked to exam results.

Compared with the ’no problem’ group, the odds of not achieving a standard GCSE pass were 2.5 times higher for the ’late socioemotional problems’ group and 4 times higher for the ‘early cognitive and socioemotional problems’ group.

Those with persistent cognitive and socioemotional problems throughout their childhood were nearly 4.5 times more likely not to achieve a standard pass in at least 5 GCSE subjects.

Extrapolating these findings to the population as a whole, the researchers estimated that around 17% of poor exam results in adolescence might be attributable to cognitive and socioemotional behavioural problems in childhood.

This is an observational study, and as such, no firm conclusions can be drawn about causality. Further research is needed to better understand the associations found, and emphasise the researchers.

But the findings prompt them to suggest that: “Rather than focus on getting the highest ability children out of poverty through harnessing that ability to reach the highest levels of educational attainment, such as university degrees, our results support reducing adverse development in all children regardless of level of ability.”

They add: “Another policy implication is the need to move away from siloed child health and education policy to cross-sector policy development, recognising the interdependent and interconnected nature of these two major determinants of children’s futures.”

The inequalities in educational outcomes for children in England are “stark and increasing” they point out, highlighting that the difference in average English and Maths GCSE passes among 16-year-olds, between children who are eligible for free school meals and those who aren’t, is the highest it’s been in over a decade.

Reference:

1. Impact of child socioemotional and cognitive development on exam results in adolescence: findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study- (https://adc.bmj.com/content/early/2025/01/17/archdischild-2024-327963)

Source-Eurekalert