Occupational success across the lifespan: on the differential importance of childhood intelligence, social background, and education across occupational development

dc.contributor.authorDeutschmann, Georg Karl
dc.contributor.authorBecker, Michael
dc.contributor.authorWu, Yi-Jhen
dc.date.accessioned2025-06-18T13:12:04Z
dc.date.available2025-06-18T13:12:04Z
dc.date.issued2025-03-06
dc.description.abstractWhat shapes (occupational) success in later life? This study examines the differential importance of intelligence in late childhood, socioeconomic background, and education across later occupations. The quantity and quality of educational success are thought to mediate the other dimensions. We analyzed data from N = 4387 participants in a German longitudinal large-scale study in multiple regression and mediation models to examine how childhood intelligence and socioeconomic background predict income and occupational status at different career stages. Both childhood intelligence and socioeconomic background predict status and income in adulthood, with childhood intelligence being the stronger predictor. However, education is an even stronger predictor and—once included in the model—mediates virtually all effects of childhood intelligence and socioeconomic background. This pattern remains stable across career stages, and education has unique effects on income and occupational status in later work life, even when controlling for work experience. Our results emphasize the pivotal role of education in transitioning to the labor market and further development at work, even at later career stages. Given the stronger link between childhood intelligence and educational success in Germany than in other countries, we find that Germany is one of the more intelligence-driven systems.en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2003/43762
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.17877/DE290R-25536
dc.language.isoen
dc.relation.ispartofseriesJournal of Intelligence; 13(3)
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectLate childhood intelligenceen
dc.subjectsocioeconomic backgrounden
dc.subjectquantity and quality of educationen
dc.subjecteducation as a mediatoren
dc.subjectsocioeconomic successen
dc.subjectlifespan perspectiveen
dc.subjectlongitudinal studyen
dc.subject.ddc370
dc.titleOccupational success across the lifespan: on the differential importance of childhood intelligence, social background, and education across occupational developmenten
dc.typeText
dc.type.publicationtypeArticle
dcterms.accessRightsopen access
eldorado.secondarypublicationtrue
eldorado.secondarypublication.primarycitationDeutschmann, G., Becker, M., & Wu, Y.-J. (2025). Occupational success across the lifespan: on the differential importance of childhood intelligence, social background, and education across occupational development. Journal of Intelligence, 13(3), Article 32. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence13030032
eldorado.secondarypublication.primaryidentifierhttps://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence13030032

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