Chapter 6. Conclusion This dissertation comprises four empirical chapters on basic skills (literacy and numeracy) in education. These chapters contribute to a better understanding of the importance and development of basic skills. This is needed because of the alarmingly high percentages of illiterate and innumerate 15-years olds in OECD countries and the importance of basic skills in predicting outcomes later in life. This conclusion chapter provides answers to the research questions, proposes directions for future research, and discusses potential policy implications. Discussion of the findings Part 1: Why are basic skills important? The first part of the dissertation focuses on the importance of basic skills. Chapter 2uses data of the 1970 British Cohort Study to examine the longitudinal association between early basic skills and adult life satisfaction. It deals with two research questions. The first research question is: Do early basic skills predict adult life satisfaction, and how does this association evolve across the adult life span? I find that ten-years-olds’ math skills significantly relate to life satisfaction in adulthood. An increase of one SD in early math skills associates with an increase of 0.09 SD in life satisfaction at age 46. This relationship is rather stable between ages 29-46. The relationship between ten-years-olds’ reading skills and adult life satisfaction at age 46 is around 0.03 SD. However, this relationship has decreased over the life course, as it was stronger earlier on. At age 46, around two thirds of the relationship between early math skills and mid-age life satisfaction is mediated by an individual’s income and daily functioning. Daily functioning seems the strongest of both mediators, and mediation seems stronger for math 138
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