The talk of Alexandra Starr will focus on the relationship of factors in the home environment, including household chaos and cognitive stimulation, with educational achievement and cognitive development in childhood. It is a well-established finding in education research that chaotic home environments and a lack of cognitive stimulation are negatively associated with children’s educational achievement and cognition. While this association is often deemed casual, little is known about the underlying mechanisms in terms of shared genetic and environmental factors that might act as a common cause. Alexandra disentangled potential causal effects of household chaos and cognitive stimulation on educational achievement and cognition from confounding factors shared at the family-level, using longitudinal data from twins aged between 3 and 16 years. Findings reveal substantial confounding which is important to acknowledge when we seek to understand causal influences on education and cognition and develop interventions that effectively reduce inequalities in children’s educational achievement and cognitive development.
LEARN! Research Seminar by Alexandra Starr 28 January 2025 16:00 - 17:00
About LEARN! Research Seminar by Alexandra Starr
Starting date
- 28 January 2025
Time
- 16:00 - 17:00
Language
- English
Dr. Alexandra Starr
Alexandra is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biological Psychology at the VU Amsterdam. Her research interests lie in understanding why children differ in their learning ability and cognitive development. She uses structural equation modelling and polygenic score analyses to investigate the genetic and environmental contributions that shape educational achievement and drive the intergenerational transmission of family background inequality. She is interested in research designs that intend to test causality. Leveraging family data, she aims to identify factors in the home learning environment (e.g., household chaos, parent-child interactions, cognitive stimulating activities) that might be causally related to children’s education. Alexandra holds a PhD in Psychology from Bielefeld University, and has previously worked as a postdoc at the University of York (Department of Education).
