Education, Identity and Well-Being

Matt EasterbrookToon Kuppens Tony Manstead

SDAI - http://psych.cf.ac.uk/home2/issw/

SDAI

• Secondary Data Analysis Initiative project investigating education, identity, and well-being

• Investigation of link between education and diverse measures of well-being

• Role that identity plays in this link.

• Analysis with existing UK and international datasets

• Begun to unpack these findings with our own studies

• Future plans - SDAI 2

Education

• Institutional importance– Education level has become strong indicator of job status and salary

• De Graaf & Luijkx (1992); Pelleriaux (2001)

• Social importance– Increase in educational homogamy

• Kalmijn (1998); Smits, Ultee, & Lammers (1998)

• People’s educational background is easily discernible• Kraus & Keltner, 2009

• Education strongest predictor of a range of social attitudes and behaviours from diverse SES indicators

• Trautmann, van de Kuilen, & Zeckhauser (2013)

The ‘Education Effect’

Political Disengagement

Racism Xenophobia

Nationalism, Protectionism

Lack of trust in government Authoritarianism

Poorer Health Lower Subjective Well-Being

Societal Well-Being

Lower generalised Trust

Personal Well-Being

Lower levels of education is associated with:

Secondary Data Analysis

• Can we find evidence for the education effect in the UK, internationally, and over time?

– Citizenship Survey 2009-2011• Ns ≈ 10,000

– Understanding Society 2009-2011• Ns ≈ 48,334

– British Social Attitudes 1984-2011• Ns ≈ 3,000

– British Household Panel Survey 1991-2009• Ns ≈ 40,000

– International Social Survey Programme 2003• Ns ≈ 45,000

– Controls: • age, gender, income, marital status, employment status

GCSE A Levels Higher Education Degree

Citizenship Survey: N=6500 Understanding Society: N=48246

Poor

- Go

od

In general, how is your health?

7

International Social Survey Programme:Negative perception of immigrants scale

Above lowest Higher secondary Above higher secondary Degree

-0.7

-0.6

-0.5

-0.4

-0.3

-0.2

-0.1

0

Neg

ative

-Po

sitive

British Social Attitudes:In general, how interested would you say you are in politics?

1991 1996 2001 2006 20110.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

cseo levela levelhigher voc.degree postgrad

Uni

nter

este

d-

Inte

rest

ed

Summary

• Consistent evidence for the ‘education effect’ across a range of societal and personal well-being measures

• Evidence of the education effect in the UK, internationally, and longitudinally

• Stronger for political items than personal well-being or health.

Why?

• Scant empirical support for traditional explanations– Education allocates to environments – Education socialises people towards democratic and individualistic orientations

• Social identity as a new explanation– Education endowed with great meaning in society– Social status based strongly on education– Education used to understand and define self and others’

• Tajfel & Turner, 1978; Turner et al., 1987

– People are attached to anonymous and generalised others• 55% of respondents felt attached to anonymous, generalised others based on nothing but their

level of education. But mainly those with higher levels of education.• Stubager (2009)

Social Identity

• Positive social identities are associated with a range of positive outcomes– Self-esteem, well-being– Reduced intergroup conflict and aggression – Buffers against negative effects of stigma

• But it’s very hard for the low educated to form a positive identity– Defining feature is object of stigma and holds low status– Meritocratic beliefs encourage low status to be seen as legitimate

• Jetten , Schmitt, Branscombe, Garza, & Mewse, 2011.

– Low education shown to suffer from stereotype threat: – Self-affirmation reduced gap between first- and continuing-generation students

• Harackiewicz et al., 2013

No quals GCSE A level Higher Vocational Ed. Degree

CS 2011 CS 2010 US

Uni

mpo

rtan

t - Im

port

ant

How important is your level of education to your sense of who you are?

Genera

l Hea

lth

Trust

neighbours

Trust

gover

nment

Political

power

Importa

nce of p

olitical

power

Immigr

ation

2010 2011

Low

-Hi

ghEffect of identification

Citizenship Survey

Rejection-identification model

• Recognition of stigma against one’s group increases identification

• Identification buffers against the negative affects of stigma– Branscombe & Schmitt, 1999

+ +

-Recognised Low Status and

Stigma

Group identification

Well-being

Strength of identification effect by qualification

General Health Trust Neighbourhood Trust Institutions Influence Importance of influence Immigration

No qualifications GCSE A Level Higher Voc. Degree

Neg

ative

-Po

sitiv

e

SDAI Conclusions

• Education is associated with a range of personal and societal well-being measures

• Stronger associations for political items

• Education forms the basis for a social identity

• Educational social identities beneficial for well-being and societal attitudes

• Hard for low educated to construct positive social identities

• Educational social identities slightly more beneficial for those with lower levels of education

Experimental evidence

• ~ 350 paid online participants• Multidimensional measure of identification• Measured anti-Muslim bias

• Affective identification decreased anti-Muslim bias for the lower educated– Satisfaction with or esteem about education level

• Cognitive identification increased anti-Muslim bias for the lower educated– Salience of education to identity– Recognition of stigma or disadvantage attached to low status position?– Anger about relative deprivation?

• These effects only occur when education was made salient

• Identification items in secondary data analyses may be inadequate

SDAI 2

• Building on the salience manipulation

• Using objective indicators rather than inadequate identification questions

• Investigate whether contextual variables that indicate the salience and weight of education in the local area moderate the education effect– Income and unemployment inequality by educational qualification in different neighbourhoods

(LSOAs)– Size of different education groups – in areas with fewer people with no qualifications, their relative

low status is likely to be more salience given they will be increasingly be interacting and observing higher status people.

Questions or comments?

EasterbrookMJ@Cardiff.ac.ukMansteadA@Cardiff.ac.uk

T.Kuppens@rug.nl