TITLE The Linkage between Social Structure, Competence and

This longitudinal study investigated the influence of social class and family socialization on the development of cognitive competence, educational performance, and academic attainment; the interdependencies between the development of cognitive competence and educational performance; and the impact of social class, family socialization, cognitive competence, and educational performance on academic attainment. Participating were urban Icelandic children and adolescents, from ages 7 through 21 years. Social class was defined by the nature of parents ' work, education, and income satisfaction. Restrictive and supportive socialization conditions were classified as factors derived from social network affiliation, time with child, control strategies, and child rearing styles. Cognitive competence was measured at 7, 9, 12, and 15 years by aggregated scores on a battery of Piagetian tasks. Academic performance was measured by grade point average, and educational attainment was represented by the educational level achieve