Education and Midlife Cognitive Functioning: Evidence from the High School and Beyond cohort

INTRODUCTION Educational attainment is associated with midlife cognitive functioning. However, degree attainment is the culmination of complex and unequal processes involving students’ backgrounds, the opportunities that schools provide them, and their performance within those schools─all of which may also shape midlife cognition. What do educational gradients in midlife cognition look like using a richer conceptualization and measures of “education?” METHODS We use data from High School and Beyond (HS&B:80)─a large, nationally representative sample of Americans followed from high school through age ∼60─to assess the role of education in stratifying midlife cognition. RESULTS High schools’ academic and socioeconomic environments predict midlife cognition primarily through their associations with their students’ academic performance. Student academic performance strongly predicts midlife cognition, partially through its association with degree attainment. DISCUSSION Inequalities in educational opportunities and in students’ performance in schools shape midlife cognition─even among students with the same attained degrees. Highlights Degree attainment predicts midlife cognitive functioning, but a large portion of that association is accounted for by students’ high school academic performance as measured by test scores, grades, and course completion. High school contexts and learning opportunities predict midlife cognition mainly because they play a role in shaping students’ academic performance. Understanding the potential benefits of education for later-life cognitive functioning requires attention to broader schooling processes and to students’ academic performance beyond degree attainment.