November 12, 2012
madsensu@uvu.edu
Slide Stack
The Nonfinancial Benefits of Higher
Education for Individuals and
Society
Susan R. Madsen
Orin R. Woodbury Professors of
Leadership and Ethics
Utah Valley University
Outline
1. Health and Well-being
a.
b.
c.
d.
Smoking
Exercise
Obesity
Low Birth Weight and Breast-Feeding
2. Civic and Community Engagement
a. Volunteerism
b. Voting
3.
4.
5.
6.
Parenting
Self-Development
Intellectual and Cognitive Development
Other Societal Benefits
1
Health & Wellbeing
• Live longer lives (on average)
• Have an overall healthier
lifestyle (exercise more,
healthier diet, lower alcohol
abuse, lower cholesterol
levels, higher fiber intake,
smoke less)
• Are less overweight or obese
Health & Wellbeing
• Have increased life satisfaction and overall happiness
• Are more resilient and less depressed (better mental
health)
• Acquire more resources to pay for health insurance
Smoking
• Smoking rates among college graduates have been
significantly lower than smoking rates among other
adults since information about the risks became
public.
• College graduates were at least as likely as others to
smoke before the medical consensus on the dangers
of smoking became clear.
• Smoking rate of college graduates had the largest
drop in all categories.
Source:
Education Pays 2010
Smoking Rates
Obesity & Exercise
• Within each age group, collegeeducated adults are less likely than
others to be obese.
• Children living in households with more
highly educated adults are less likely
than other children to be obese.
• At every age, individuals with higher
levels of education are more likely than
those with lower levels of education to
engage in leisure-time exercise.
Obesity and Education
Source: Goals for the Common Good
Obesity Rates
Obesity Among Children/Youth
Exercise Rates
Low Birth Weight and Breast-Feeding
• Mothers with higher levels of education are less
likely than others to have low-birth-weight babies
and are more likely than others to breast-feed their
babies.
• Overall, mothers with only a high school education
are 31% more likely than mothers with a bachelor’s
degree or higher (8.9% vs. 6.8%) to give birth to
babies weighing less than 5.5 pounds.
Source:
Education Pays 2010
2
Civic and Community Engagement
• Participate substantially
more in civic and
community activities
o Voting
o Donating blood
o Filling leadership roles
• Be a more conscientious
civic and community
volunteer
Volunteerism
• The percentage of people who donate their time to
organizations and the number of hours people spend
in volunteer activities are higher among individuals
with higher levels of education.
• College graduates are more likely to donate blood
(National Health Interview Survey).
• Higher levels of education provide students
opportunities to apply what they have learned in
non-profit organizations and other community
settings (service-learning, internships).
Volunteering Rates
Voting
• In every age group, adults with higher levels of
education were more likely to vote than those with
lower levels of education.
• Among individuals ages 25 to 44, there was a 32
percentage point gap between the voting rates of
four-year college graduates and high school
graduates.
• The voting rate gap for individuals ages 18 to 24 was
30 percentage points.
Voting Rates
Source: Goals for the Common Good
3
Parenting
•
•
•
•
Give birth to healthier babies
Spend more time reading to their children
Prepare children better academically for school
Have children who participate in extracurricular
activities
Parenting
• Provide healthier lifestyles
for their children
• Work higher paying, more
flexible jobs
• Have more collegeeducated children who
can better provide for self
and families
Parenting
• Children of parents with higher levels of educational
attainment are better prepared for school and, while
in school, are more likely than other children to
engage in educational activities with their parents.
• Children between the ages of 3 and 5 whose parents
had bachelor’s degrees were more than twice as
likely as children of high school graduates to
recognize all of the letters of the alphabet (39% vs.
18%).
Parents and Children
• Children whose parents had some college but no
degree were 50% more likely than children of high
school graduates to recognize all of the letters of the
alphabet (27% vs. 18%).
• Among parents whose highest degree was a
bachelor’s degree, 68% read to their children daily.
This compares to 57% of parents with an associate
degree, 47% of parents with some college but no
degree, 41% of high school graduates, and 26% of
parents who did not complete high school.
Parents and Children
Parents with higher levels of education more frequently
participate with their school-age children in a wide
variety of activities, ranging from going to a library to
participating in community/religious /ethnic activities,
to attending concerts or other live events.
Reading Proficiency
Source: Goals for the Common Good
Benefits to a Reading Citizenry
Source: Goals for the Common Good
4
Self-Development
• Improved selfunderstanding
• Greater independence
and feelings of control in
life
• Superior leadership skills
• Higher ethical and moral
standards and reasoning
Self-Development
•
•
•
•
•
Stronger social skills
Better self-concept/self-esteem
Openness to diversity and racial understanding
Greater ability to make reasoned, reflective judgments
Stimulating occupations and increased quality of life
5
Intellectual/Cognitive
• Better lifelong learning
skills
• More
intelligence/knowledge
(e.g., English, science,
math, social sciences,
reading)
• Stronger teamwork and
interpersonal skills
Intellectual/Cognitive
• Increased ability to integrate ideas and concepts
• Stronger written and verbal skills
• Higher critical and creative thinking, as well as
decision making skills
• Enhanced quantitative and analytical skills
6
Other Societal Benefits
• Societies that have higher levels of education are
safer; more educated individuals are less prone to
commit criminal behavior.
• For every year of increase in the average schooling
level within a community, there is a 30 percent
decrease in murder.
• Communities that have a well-educated citizenry
have fewer incidences of depression and suicide.
Incarceration Rates
Source: Goals for the Common Good
Poverty Rates
• The 4% poverty rate for bachelor’s degree recipients
was one-third of the 12% poverty rate for high
school graduates.
• The poverty rate for all associate degree recipients
was 7%, compared to 9% for individuals with some
college but no degree.
• The 12% poverty rate for bachelor’s degree
recipients living in families headed by unmarried
females was about one-third of the 35% poverty rate
for high school graduates living in similar families.
Households in Poverty
Public Assistance
• The percentage of high school graduates ages 25 and
older living in households qualified for and receiving
Medicaid was three times as high as the percentage
of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher
participating in this program.
• In 2008, 8% of high school graduates ages 25 and
older lived in households that relied on the Food
Stamp Program, compared to just over 1% of those
with at least a bachelor’s degree. The pattern was
similar for the National School Lunch Program.
Source:
Education Pays 2010
Public Assistance Programs
References
• American Human Development Project. (2009). Goals for the
common good: Exploring the impact of education. Retrieved from
http://www.measureofamerica.org/file/common_good_forecaster_
full_report.pdf
• Association of American Colleges and Universities. (2005). Liberal
education outcomes: A preliminary report on student achievement
in college. Retrieved from
http://www.aacu.org/advocacy/pdfs/LEAP_Report_FINAL.pdf
• Baum, S., Ma, J., & Payea, K. (2010). Education pays: The benefits of
higher education for individuals and society (Trends in Higher
Education Series, Report No. 7). Retrieved from
http://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/education-pays2010-full-report.pdf
• Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How college affects
students: A third decade of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.