Postgraduate research opportunities Family socioeconomic status and school absenteeism - The role of behavioural and psychosocial dispositions
ApplyKey facts
- Opens: Thursday 17 March 2022
- Deadline: Thursday 14 April 2022
- Number of places: 1
- Duration: +3 or a 1+3 programme
- Funding: Home fee, International fee, Stipend
Overview
This studentship, funded by the ESRC through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (SGSSS), aims to advance our understanding of socioeconomic inequalities in children’s school attendance using the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). It will examine whether psychosocial and behavioural dispositions explain the association between family SES and absenteeism and whether the associations vary across socio-demographic groups.Eligibility
Applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria:
Essential
For 1+3 funding (Masters and PhD):
- a good first social science degree (at least 2:1) with a substantial quantitative research methods component
- demonstrate an interest in, and knowledge of, secondary data analysis using major national/international social surveys
- demonstrate a good understanding of socioeconomic inequalities in children’s life-course outcomes or related areas
- have a good grounding in secondary data analysis and training and experience in SPSS, Stata, Mplus or R
- candidates who are not native English speakers will be required to provide evidence of their English skills (such as by IELTS or similar tests that are approved by UKVI, or a degree completed in an English-speaking country)
For +3 funding (PhD only):
- as above, and, additionally, a master’s degree in a social science field that has included quantitative social research methods components and a dissertation
Desirable
- experience of analysing longitudinal data (e.g., the Millennium Cohort Study)
- familiarity with advanced quantitative methods e.g., causal mediation analysis, latent variable analysis, structural equation modelling
We will use the Whole Person approach to assessing applications approved by SGSSS. We welcome resilient and well-prepared applicants with diverse backgrounds and life experience.
Project Details
This studentship, funded by the ESRC through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (SGSSS), aims to advance our understanding of socioeconomic inequalities in children’s school attendance by undertaking a secondary data analysis of longitudinal data from the world-renowned Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). It will be supervised jointly by Dr Edward Sosu and Dr Markus Klein at the University of Strathclyde.
Growing evidence suggests that children from lower SES backgrounds are more likely to be absent from school than their high-SES peers. This inequality in school attendance may have consequences for SES-achievement gaps. Therefore, it is vital to understand the mechanisms by which family SES influences school absenteeism, a key knowledge for breaking the link between SES and school absence. This project will examine whether psychosocial and behavioural dispositions explain the association between family SES and absenteeism in all UK nations. It will further investigate whether the associations between SES, dispositions, and absenteeism vary across socio-demographic groups (gender, ethnicity). Investigating mechanisms of effect is complex and requires conceptual clarification on the causal model and advanced methods of mediation to address these complexities. Consequently, the study will test competing approaches for understanding the link between SES, dispositions, and absenteeism with the view to shedding light on whether analytical strategies influence the interpretation of findings.
The study will provide policymakers and practitioners with the necessary information on targeted interventions to reduce absenteeism and address inequalities in school attendance. The study is timely within the current context of COVID-19 school closures - an enforced period of “absenteeism” for all children, with evidence of increased absenteeism and socioeconomic disparities in absences after schools reopened. Finally, the study hopes to make an important methodological contribution to addressing questions of causal mediation in the social sciences and particularly education.
Further information
The proposed study builds on the supervisor’s research on school absenteeism funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Nuffield Foundation. The student will benefit from engagement and contributing to knowledge exchange activities related to existing projects.
The programme will commence in October 2022.
Funding details
- an annual maintenance grant at the UKRI rate
- fees at the standard institutional home or international rate
- students can also draw on a pooled Research Training Support Grant, usually up to a maximum of £750 per year
- students will benefit from the methods training, summer schools and development opportunities offered by SGSSS
While there is no funding in place for opportunities marked "unfunded", there are lots of different options to help you fund postgraduate research. Visit funding your postgraduate research for links to government grants, research councils funding and more, that could be available.
Apply
Students must apply to SGSSS.
Number of places: 1
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