Gender and Skills Development in Young Lives Survey Data
Client: Echidna Giving (pro bono)
Duration: 2021-2022
Geography: Ethiopia, India and Vietnam
Solutions: Research
While there is a robust evidence base on the relationships between gender and skills development in many high-income countries, less is known about the strength of the relationships between these factors in lower- and middle-income countries. There is a strong policy motivation to develop the evidence base to provide policymakers and donors with information on how and where to focus early investments and how schools can support the development of knowledge and skills in both boys and girls.
Through this pro bono work for Echidna Giving, we aimed to contribute to that evidence base by using Young Lives school survey data from India and Vietnam to investigate the relationships between psychosocial attributes, cognitive abilities, and transferable skills. This research followed from earlier work by Oxford MeasurEd researchers on the “Gendered Young Lives” project funded by Echidna Giving.
Using psychometric (Item Response Theory) and regression analysis, we tested the hypothesis that psychosocial and transferable skills are nested within and supported by cognitive skills and investigating gender differences in the relationships between different skills.
Key Activities:
Secondary analysis of Young Lives school data
Related publications
Research into how schools in Ethiopia and India supported learners during the Covid-19 related school closures in 2020:
Research into how school effectiveness differentially benefits boys and girls in Ethiopia, India and Vietnam:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102511
